I think late model Dell (post the bad chipset problem, circa 2001-2?) and IBM and Sun servers are fine because they all use simple SCSI adapters from LSI or Adaptec.
Well I know that isn't true at least not with ANY of the Dells my customers have purchased in the last 18 months. They are still really, really slow.
Also - there are very big issues with some SATA controllers and Linux we've seen, particularly the Silicon Image, Highpoint other non-Intel controllers. Not sure about Nvidia, but the only ones I trust now are 3Ware and the others mentioned in earlier posts.
I have great success with Silicon Image as long as I am running them with Linux software RAID. The LSI controllers are also really nice.
J
- Luke
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