Need PCI SSD controller compatible with Pentium Pro chipsets and Windows NT 4 \ VOGONS

Need PCI SSD controller compatible with Pentium Pro chipsets and Windows NT 4

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First post, by spacesaver

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Putting together a quad Pentium Pro here Compaq Proliant 5000 from parts?. The Proliant 5000 has no builtin IDE controller, but has 8bit & 16bit SCSI. The 8bit is too slow, while I don't want to spend $100s (or > $1k ?) on a ARS-2160/ARS-2320 16bit SCSI to SATA adapter. So, I'll be using PCI storage adapters.

I've already tried the SIL 3114 and it detects the disk in DOS, but reading and writing is very slow or hangs. I saw many complaints about this card,
Re: Windows 98 SIL3114

The only board that it didnt work on is a Dell Pentium Pro board without onboard IDE."

Re: Sil3114 raid controller

I see other people say the Promise S150 TX2 PLUS is a lot more compatible. Is that the only safe choice? I was thinking about the Promise S300 TX2, but it seems that only supports Windows 2000, not NT4.
I saw this claim that SIL 3114 is PCI 2.2, so won't work with older PCI controllers. Re: Quick questions about SATA via PCI in old DOS PCs. But it seems not true because the Promise SATA150-TX2 datasheet also says a PCI 2.2 controller is required, but dionb was able to use it with i430TX (PCI 2.1).

Also for the Promise S150, do you have to create an array, even if you use only 1 disk?

Reply 1 of 7, by Trashbytes

Posted on Yesterday, 07:20

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You can use a Promise IDE ATA66 or ATA133 controller card with a IDE2 SATA adapter ..it'll be far more compatible with the older systems than trying to shoehorn a sata card in there. The IDe controller should work just fine with DOS, Win 3.11 and 95/98 including NT4.

No point in worrying about transfer speeds since you will be bottlenecked by the bus speed and likely wont see the full speed these cards are "capable" of hitting.

Something like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/335601281157? or this https://www.ebay.com/itm/335878571900? would work fine throw an adapter on the SSD and you have a working setup.

**Im not affiliated with the listed sellers, they are for information purposes only**

Reply 2 of 7, by Joseph_Joestar

Posted on Yesterday, 07:38

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There's also BlueSCSI as a potential option.

I haven't used this myself, but I've seen it in many retro Macintosh restoration videos on YouTube. I'm guessing it can work on PCs as well.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Core 2 Duo E8600 / Foxconn P35AX-S / X800 / Audigy2 ZS
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 3 of 7, by Dorunkāku

Posted on Yesterday, 07:45

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I used a cheap Silicon Image 0680 based PCI IDE controller on a Dell PowerEdge 2100 Pentium Pro board without IDE. With a IDE to SATA adapter with a SATA drive on one port and a CDROM on the other.

Reply 4 of 7, by maxtherabbit

Posted on Yesterday, 13:07

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SATA150 TX2plus is what you want, I wouldn't trust any of that silicon image crap

Reply 5 of 7, by douglar

Posted on Yesterday, 19:03

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maxtherabbit wrote on Yesterday, 13:07:

SATA150 TX2plus is what you want, I wouldn't trust any of that silicon image crap

I use one of these with a Gateway PII-300 on a 440BX motherboard with a Kingston 128GB SSD and it works quite nicely.

Mine was Matrox branded, but it's the same thing--

https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/prom … k-s150-tx2-plus

Reply 6 of 7, by spacesaver

Posted on Yesterday, 20:11

spacesaver Offline

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Appreciate the tips. I'd prefer not going from PCI <-> IDE <-> SATA, because I don't like the clutter and the added complexity. But the cost of a PCI <-> IDE adapter plus the cost of a good SATA <-> IDE adapter (Marvell ones like from StarTech are good) is around $40 compared to $150 for the S150 TX2. Since I don't care about IDE, does anyone know if the S150 TX4 is just as compatible as TX2?

I use one of these with a Gateway PII-300 on a 440BX

But 440BX is newer than the 450GX on the PL5000. The SIL3114 that doesn't work with 450GX does on my 440BX motherboard.

Wow, TX2 is really popular and compatible. This guy says it works on a 486 chipset Re: Is Intel SE440BX2 Motherboard PCI 2.2 compliant?. A 486 probably has a PCI 2.0 controller just like the 450GX.

Reply 7 of 7, by douglar

Posted on Today, 00:27

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Here's the benchmark that I get--

https://crystalmarkdb.com/retro/scores/626

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