USB 2 or eSATA PCI card

[Michael Hipp]

Jason Joines wrote:
> Michael Hipp wrote:
>> Jason Joines wrote:
>>> From: Michael Hipp <Michael at Hipp.com>
>>>>>         
>>>> I've had great success with StarTech.com USB2 PCI cards. I've used them in 
>>>> several servers. Plug them and they work.
>>>>       
>>>     Thanks for the tip.  Do you happen to know the difference between
>>> their "4 Port USB 2.0 PCI Card" and their "Value 4 Port USB 2.0 PCI
>>> Card"?  I looked at the specs and couldn't tell but the value card is
>>> less than half the price.
>>>     
>> I have no idea. I'm pretty sure I've always used the "value" card judging from 
>> the price, but I don't remember that moniker on it. I strive to be a 
>> cheapskate whenever circumstances allow.
>>
>> If you'd like I can look at a couple of mine to see which model they are. I 
>> have one in a server at my office and one on the shelf IIRC. But it will be 
>> tomorrow as I'm onsite at a client today.
>>
> 
>     Just heard back from their sales folks.  The "Value" card uses an
> ALI chipset and the more expensive one uses a VIA chipset.  That doesn't
> mean anything to me so I'll probably go with the cheaper one too.  If
> you get a chance it would be nice to know which one you are using
> successfully though.

I found 3 StarTech cards here. Two of them are using a NEC chip. The 
other is VIA. I didn't find any ALI. The VIA one is a StarTech PCI220USB 
which is not the one labeled as "value". I stuck it in a machine over on 
the bench, booted a Kubuntu disk, plugged in a thumbdrive and it came up 
and worked with zero effort. I have NEC chipset cards in running servers 
so I know they work.

I'd have to say the ALI is an unknown to me. However, this seems to 
indicate that ALI chipsets are no problem:
   http://www.linux-usb.org/usb2.html  (search the page for ALI)

I did a Google search on 'ALI USB chip linux'.

Michael