Nebula digitv, Sata controller on ABIT NF7-S V2.0 Problems

Vegeta · 23 Mar 2006 at 10:43

Hi I just bought the Nebula card not knowing about the problems it has with the SATA controller on this motherboard, a ABIT NF7S v2.0 as it hogs the PCI Bus.
Rather than upgrade my pc a year or two earlier than I wanted when I dont have the money, will buying a SATA controller card fix this problem?
I know I should really post at the digitv-forums and I have, but I just wanted your opinions aswell.
I've tried the PCI Latency tricks and they dont work, so its either
1, New mobo
2, Dont use sata hard drives
3, Add a sata card (the one i'm wanting to do).

Which sata card would you recommend? I want the cheap as hell one that performs the same as the one on the Abit motherboard.

Admiral Huddy · 23 Mar 2006 at 11:39

what's wrong with the SATA controller on the NF7-S.. I had one of these.. no problems here.

:confused:

Vegeta · 23 Mar 2006 at 11:41

It uses the Silicon 3112 driver seperate from the southbridge that hogs the pci - you wont notice any performance hit unless you use something that uses the PCI slot intensively like the Nebula digitv card, its a common problem that wont happen anymore as the newer hard drives have the sata in the southbridge, but on the old ones they added extra chips using the pci bus (if it doesnt make sense its prob coz I just learnt about this a few mins ago lol).

Six6siX · 23 Mar 2006 at 13:45

Maybe a really dumb question, but wouldn't having a PCI sata card do exactly the same thing? :confused:

Vegeta · 23 Mar 2006 at 13:57

I dont know, would it? lol

Six6siX · 23 Mar 2006 at 14:01

Well, if you're saying that the onboard solution uses (and hogs) the PCI bus, and as a solution you want to put a PCI card in which uses...well, the PCI bus....I dont think it'll make any difference tbh.

Note, thats just how I see it and I may be missing something about how the board works lol.

(I have run this board using the onboard sata controller and a pci tv card for a few years now and had no problems

)

Vegeta · 23 Mar 2006 at 15:14

I've had the compro card aswell and it works fine - but this nebula doesnt as it uses more info (or so im guessing).
I think the Silicon driver itself is where the error is - thats why by changing to a newer pci card I think it might get rid of the problem - but I might be wrong.
I would just use my compro but this has sooo much more potential - if I had it working right it would be an amazing piece of kit.

And your board is new, it has the sata in the southbridge so it doesnt hog the PCI Bus anyways.