need advice on SAM460EX purchase

Does anyone tried or had experience with
PCI-E express 1X to PCI riser 32bits card adapter ?

E.g.:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-E-express ... 4aa64fb443#ht_1850wt_1037

Hi,

Yes I have one here but it doesn't work. Our SATA device may need an update to see the card behind the PCI-PCIe bridge.

How is the sound support on the 460ex? Complete, partial or non-existent?

sound is "beta" (on os4depot)
but it's working 9 times on 10 here.

@ Slayer

are you showing off again

@thread

many thanks to everyone for their replies. i have decided not to purchase one, though, at least not at the current time. the problems i have seem to be:

1. the on-board SATA is still operating in PIO mode
2. to get reasonable SATA performance, i'll need a third-party card
3. the on-board audio driver is still in beta
4. to have fully supported audio, i'll need a third-party card
5. the on-board video is, frankly, slow
6. to get cracking 2D performance, i'll need a third-party card
7. even with the best radeon HD card, i will no longer be able to play 3D games
8. there are no supported SATA chipsets which are PCIe hosted
9. PCIe 1x audio cards with supported chipsets aren't exactly compelling

and all of this might be OK normally, but the board is nearly $1000 USD, and the performance boost over my current SAM is very nice, but with all of the issues above, it just isn't worth the money -- at least for me.

and this is the biggest problem i have. it seemed the best option given the current hardware landscape: the older amigaone boards have any number of issues that make me hestitate purchasing one second-hand; the pegasos boards are excellent, but very old, and will require all the cards listed plus a card for USB2 devices; and the X1000, which despite it's price offers everything i want (except for 3D gaming), it's effectively not available and there is no way of knowing if it ever will be again.

i'm bummed. i do love my SAM, i just wish it was faster.

-- eliyahu

as I wrote before, there is a PCIe SATA card that should work. Some Sam460 owner should test it ;)

nexus

@nexus

Quote:
based on elwood's comment above it suggest acube already have tested it, unfortunately not with the result we would have hoped for.

-- eliyahu

@eliyahu

That was a different card, wasn't it?

nexus

P.S. And Sinan also wrote he has a 2 port PCIe SATA card (in his Sam?) which works.

Yes I have a Digitus brand Sil3512 2 port PCI card that works on my Sam460.. Also I have tried Sil3114 (4 port) and Sil3112 2 port cards. But Sil3512 is the best performing one.

Quote:

I plan to use it for soundcard (I wonder if AHI drivers for SBlive or ESI Juli needs update) ?

Quote:

The SATA device shouldn't need any code for PCI-PCIe bridges (at least, not for transparent bridges). UBoot is supposed to setup the bridge and detect the cards behind. Once that is done, the driver should have no problems using it.

Hans

Quote:

That's a pity, but if it doesn't suit your needs, then your decision is the right one. For me personally, I use my Sam460ex mostly for software development. So, I don't mind using the beta audio and having no 3D. I know that both are coming.

Having said that, I think that you're putting too much emphasis on "third-party card(s)." Plugging extra cards into a desktop computer is as normal as spreading jam on bread. The Sam460ex always was designed to use a plug-in graphics card; that's what the 16x PCIe connector is for. If the on-board graphics didn't exist, then you wouldn't have even thought twice about having to get one (which can be done when you order the machine).

Likewise, the SATA card would be a good idea, even if all drivers were done. Plus, they're cheap.

It looks like wanting an audio card too may have been a tipping point against buying. Given that the flex-ATX form-factor offers only three slots and they're all different, finding the right combination for SATA+Audio+Graphics could be a challenge.

Out of curiosity, what would it take to get you to buy? Finished audio drivers? DMA support for the on-board Sata2 port? Both? I'm not going to include 3D drivers here, as those are expected for AmigaOS 4.2.

Hans

Quote:I've ordered two (the other one is for my X1000 - hey, I want to be able to put more than 4 drives, including optical and eSata, in it . I've got 5 hard drives in my main A1 today.).

So I guess we'll see ...

Stay tuned.

Best regards,

Niels

Quote:

Awww darn it!

@Hans

Quote:
that makes sense; whereas i use the system for my daily, non-work computing needs. and since listening to audio streaming is a big part of that while playing quake2, et al, waiting to an undetermined date doesn't work for me. if i knew that the openGL stack was coming along nicely and ross had been able to finish the SM502 audio driver recently and OS4.2 was shipping in the next month or so, then it would be a different story.

Quote:

i don't mind adding third-party cards; my SAM440ep-flex already has all three slots occupied with a video card, a wireless card, and an ESI juli@ sound card. the wireless card occasionally gets swapper out for a catweasel when i'm moving data from old C64 or amiga floppies to images on my SAM's internal storage.

if anything i need more slots.

the issue here with the SAM460EX is that i have to purchase an additional SATA card and an additional audio card whether i wanted to or not, and given the already high price of the board compared with the incremental performance improvement over my current SAM, it's seems a bit unfortunate.

Quote:
you're quite right. the audio card was the tipping point. i'd quite like to use my existing ESI juli@, but i'll need the sole PCI slot for a SATA card, so i'd need to replace that with something PCIe-hosted instead.

Quote:
more money.

in all seriousness i think i've just come to the conclusion that given the expansion situation, it's just not the system for me for all of my needs. once we get DMA support for the SATA2 controller then i'd probably purchase one and use it as a media center for my children. my current SAM does that rather well: all of their 1940s disney cartoons, nature films, etc. are on there and they love using the machine. they actually 'get' how to use it as opposed to my wife's windows box or my solaris systems.

of course having 'one-click' access to their videos from amidock might have something to do with it.

the lower-power consumption of the systems is actually a big thing for me living in connecticut, which has the highest electricity rates in the USA. i've already got so many machines running at any given moment, the last thing i need is an increase in my bills if the kids forget to turn the machine off before they go to sleep. and the no-noise factor means we can keep it in my bedroom without the missus unhappy about the fan noise. and then there's AOS and all of its advantages and ....

i love my current SAM. what i want is a system that has the same (or greater) expansion capabilities with full driver support down the line and significantly greater performance. and i'm willing to pay a pretty penny for it as well. the SAM460EX just doesn't offer those things at the moment: what is does offer is exceptional graphics performance, and that's why i considered it in the first place.

we'll have to see things play out this year. heck, i'll probably get one anyway. it's hard to keep me away from kit like this.

-- eliyahu

@eliyahu Quote:
I am doubting the Sam460 is an "incremental improvement" over the Sam440. Going by the specs, the Sam460 should have roughly twice the CPU power of the Sam440... although I've never seen any benchmarks to confirm that.

Also, I don't think the Sam460 is that much more expensive than a Sam440: According to ACube's site, they sell the "Sam460ex Lite" mobo for 610 Euros+VAT+P&P or a 1GB non-Lite one for 733 Euros+etc. Where-as they sell a 0.5GB Sam440 Flex for 493 Euros+etc. i.e. The Sam460 is 117 or 240 Euros (+VAT) more expensive. The only question mark in this calculation is how much you could sell your Sam440 Flex for (compared to how much you bought it for), and whether it'd be better to sell your whole system or just the motherboard.

P.S. It sounds like you could get a Sam460 system to suit your needs: Just get a PCI-Express x1 SATA card (not super cheap but not that expensive either IMHO), leaving the PCI slot free for a sound card. I only wonder why ACube/AmigaKit/etc don't sell such systems in the first place.

Quote:

...because there are no drivers for such cards. Sil3512, 3114 are pci chips.
Sil3132 is a PCIe chip but we have no driver for it...

http://www.siliconimage.com/products/category.aspx?cid=24&fid=3

Quote:



Hi Niels

did they work?

if im right it should work with the right chipset and all.

let us know im thinking of getting one also.

regards
Klapdeur

@mr2
But people have already reported compatible PCI-E card(s) on this thread (albiet not cheap).