9 replies to this topic

[MarkShu]

Greetings, folks!

I just got my new toy in the mail today - a PCI express SATA2 host adapter which fits the mini-card slot on my Intel 510MO motherboard. This gives my Atom WHS four full-speed SATA2 ports, with the two new ports being port-expander compatible.

The MPX-3132 SATA2 host adapter mini-card is from Global American, which sells quite a variety of industrial embedded controller systems, motherboards, and accessories. I found them to be very friendly to the "hobbiest". Their part number is 1507890 and I was quoted $55.90 US for single unit quantities.

The card arrived extremely well protected.



Box in a box ...



Contents: What you get for your $56 is the MPX-3132 controller board, a driver disk, and a pair of short data cables with a matching mini-connector on one end. The card uses the SiI 3132 host controller chip, so it is the direct equivalent of the generic 1x PCIe 2-port SATA2 RAID cards available from virtually every peripheral card manufacturer.



Installation: Stupid/simple - plug it in and it works.



Since I'm not using RAID, I didn't even need the driver disk. While a device driver is required, the standard Windows new hardware update routine downloads the SiI3132 RAID driver from online and that's that. Couldn't be easier.

Thoughts and Murmurs: Once the hardware was up & running, I took a look at the BIOS and driver versions to see what (if anything) needed flashing or updating. The BIOS is two versions back - v7.5.07 instead of v7.7.03 - so anyone using this in a Windows7 system should flash the BIOS to the latest version along with updating the driver. You can also flash the BIOS if you want to use the non-RAID "Base" BIOS & drivers instead of the ones supplied with the card. Fortunately, the card uses a reference-board-compatible flash memory chip, so SI's flashing tools should work just fine.

If you add a SiI 3124-based PCI SATA2 card in the regular expansion slot, the 510MO ends up with eight SATA2 ports, four of which run at full speed and four which run at the reduced PCI interface speed. Eight 2TB drives gives you 16TB of bulk storage on a little mini-ITX Atom board. Not bad at all. If you really need more drives, a pair of Addonics port expanders will turn the two ports on the mini-card into ten (hope you have a big PSU).

Of course, we can get really silly using this setup. The PCI slot on the Intel 510MO is compatible with one and two-slot riser cards. Adding the MPX-3122, a two-slot riser, and two 3124-based PCI host adapters gives you a total of ten port-expander-compatible SATA2 ports on a mini-ITX board. At five ports per expander and counting the motherboard's two built-in ports, you suddenly have 52 (!!!) SATA2 ports to play with. Add a 2TB drive to each port and your mini-ITX Atom system ends up with over a hundred terabytes of bulk storage.

The mind boggles.

... and on that absurd note, I'm signing off.
Mark W Shurtleff, Lynnwood WA

[pcdoc]

Nice write up and cool looking controller card. Never seen on for this standard nor have seen a cable like this. Thanks for sharing.

[mrossco]

Yea, thanks for sharing! Any thoughts on the cables? Never seen connectors like this before. Is it a standard, or should one consider picking up a few extra in case one goes bad and the manufacturer stops making them?

[no-control]

Great 1st post I had not see one of these before. Thanks so much and welcome to Hardware funhouse!

[JazJon]

Do you know if I can use the MPX-3132 in my Shuttle Cube PC's Mini-PCI-e slot for a Port Multiplier eSATA external 5 bay enclosure? I just sent the following message to the company that makes it. (but wanted to ask you as well)

______________________

Hello,

My goal is to find a Mini PCIe eSata card that will allow me to hookup my eSata 5-bay enclosure via Multi-Port.
http://www.sansdigit...lus/tr5mbp.html

Will your MPX-3132 support Multi-Port? The description sounds like it will, but the cable it comes with is for a single drive. (if it supports multi, where do I get the standard eSATA cable and or adapter?)

I’d like to know if your MPX-3132 is most likely compatible with my Shuttle SX79R5 with Mini PCIe slot. Here are the specs:
http://global.shuttl...?productId=1607
The eSATA port that comes with my Shuttle PC is not Multi-Port capable unfortunately. I’m hoping I can just add your card and then I’ll have multiport compatibility!

Thanks!
~Jon
_______________________________

I'm preparing for the death of WHS since Microsoft announced they are not doing Home Server in Server 2012. I'll just have my HTPC double duty for storage and DVR
http://www.mymovies....g=posts&t=30636

Edited by JazJon, 05 July 2012 - 08:15 PM.

[JazJon]

Update:

Currently my external 5-bay eSata box is hooked up to my EX495 WHS 2011 box via eSata port that supports mSata enclosures. I use the SansDigital tr5mbp with 2TB drives.
http://www.sansdigit...lus/tr5mbp.html
It's one giant Drive Pool via StableBit DrivePool add-in.

If I'm forced to ditch the soon to be dead windows home server in the future and switch to only ONE computer running 24/7 on Windows 8 I'd use DriveSpaces on my Shuttle Cube HTPC Media Center SX79R5 box
http://global.shuttl...?productId=1607

Currently I'm out of PCI slots since it only comes with 2, and the eSata port it does have, doesn't support PortMultiplier.

I just confirmed that I can install a mini PCIe mSata/eSata card part number MPX-3132 into my Shuttle SX79R5 cube HTPC's mini PCIe port to give me Multi-Port eSata/mSata capability.



Response from commell.com.tw support:



"Thanks for your inquiry.

Yes, the MPX-3132 supports Port-Multiplier.

The standard MPX-3132 comes with DF14 10pin to SATA, please see the picture on User's Manual page 3,
http://www.commell.c..._Manual_V10.pdf

If you require the eSATA port / function, you will need to change the standard cable to OALESATA-H10. I attached the cable mapping for your reference."



(I put it on google docs) https://docs.google....RzV4Wkxob2hYNnM

This would give me an all-in-one solution for Media Center, and storage. For backups, I'd just schedule the built in backup/image Windows 8 has. For easy shares, I'd use Home Group.

Done and Done. I'm not changing anything until RTM Windows 8 and all the various Media Center add-on's I like are known to work well. Currently MyChannelLogos doesn't work in Windows 8 for example. The dev said Microsoft locked some things down they were not locked down in Win 7. :-/

If I need a system to remote desktop into awhile away from home, I'll just have a VM of Win 7 or Win 8 running on the same box. (in case my Laptop is not online) I like LogmeIn.

[JazJon]

Also FYI:


For the HighPoint RR622 card (in non-RAID firmware/driver mode), I confirmed I'm NOT able to get SMART data via any 3rd party app including FlexRaid. Bummer :-/

I'm going to try a new MPX3132 eSata controller next/soon (it's on order from over seas)

I got this response from the manufacturer. (sounds promising)

Q)
Do you happen to know if I can expect to receive S.M.A.R.T. data from the drives connected to my new MPX-3132? I'm going to install S.M.A.R.T. monitoring software that keeps an eye on things a bit closer than the built in Motherboard & Windows stuff.

A)
When the MPX-3132 is at RAID mode, it doesn't support S.M.A.R.T.
When the MPX-3132 is not at RAID mode, it support S.M.A.R.T.

[JazJon]

I also just saw that Commell (maker of the MPX3132) also makes a similar mini pci express sata controller called the MPX-9115. It seems it's faster with SATA III, but uses a different controller
http://www.commell.c...rd/MPX-9125.HTM

It says it uses the Marvell 88SE9125 Chipset controller. Do you know anything about that?

I see the 9115 is SATA III but I doubt I'll see speed differences between SATA II and SATA III since my PCI Express Card slot says it only goes to 3Gbs anyway. The real choice is which one has SMART data, boots fast'ish, and which one is proven to be stable long term.

Does the MPX3132 boot fast or have a long delay first at post?

Edited by JazJon, 28 July 2012 - 06:19 AM.

[JazJon]

I just installed my MPX3132 today. The Windows Flash said no card was detected even though it showed up in my device manager. I used the DOS version of the SiL3132 bios update and it worked fine. (made a usb boot disc) I'm up and running with the BASE firmware and BASE driver, and DriveBender is working great with my 5-bay eSata enclosure as before. I can also confirm SMART monitoring now works too! (perfect)

[ikon]

Glad you got it all working.