1 hour ago, scottishreno said:

but i would like 2 more ports

See the first post, both the Asmedia 1062 and the JMB582 2 port controllers are good options. You can find them on Amazon, Ebay, etc.

Just got a Syba SD-PEX40164 6 Port SATA III PCIe x4 (x2 Bandwidth) controller. It has 4 x Asmedia 1064 controllers; these are 4 port PCIe 3.0 x1 controllers. It's a shame that they didn't use the full x4 connector so that each Asmedia would have full bandwidth.

It could still be a suitable option for a low power/heat when compared to an LSI HBA, if performance is enough (I'm seeing 1.8GB/s max when using multiple controllers, limited by the x2 electrical link, around 900MB/s when using the 4 ports from one of the controllers alone, which is normal for a PCIe 3.0 x1 link)

I will test it better for a few days before adding it to the recommended list. Cables can be a little messy, though; I would prefer they had used miniSAS ports.

do you have any controller recommendation for Oracle 6.4 TB NVMe SSDs ? i got two of them for free :) but no im not sure which controller fits best an doesn't cost to much. I already googled a bit, but the most cards cost more than 500€

SFF-8639 compatible connector (U.2)

This is the SSD

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E87231_01/html/E87242/gokdw.html#scrolltoc

I'm afraid I don't have any experience with U.2 NVMe devices, but if the board supports PCIe bifurcation, something like this should work: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133818788204

1 minute ago, JorgeB said:

I'm afraid I don't have any experience with U.2 NVMe devices, but if the board supports PCIe bifurcation, something like this should work: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133818788204

i already have a adapter card with bifurcation, but i think the performance is not optimal, i think it will perform better with a real controller card, but thanks for the hint

my write speeds on the SSDs are ridiculous slow ~58MB/s

Edited October 29, 2025Oct 29 by neo404

I doubt the controller is the problem for the current write speeds.

30 minutes ago, JorgeB said:

I doubt the controller is the problem for the current write speeds.

its and "normal" asrock x570 phantom gaming mainboard with an adapter from aliexpress..... that is why i asked for a little help to find a better controller :)

I just bough one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Internal-Non-Raid-Controller-Desktop-Bracket/dp/B07ST9CPND?th=1

JMB585 so I thought it weould be compatible, tried it in two different PCIe slots, no sign it's being recognised (can't see it in system info). Any ideas? Diagnostics attached.

unraidpvr-diagnostics-20251121-1703.zip

15 minutes ago, Rick Gillyon said:

JMB585 so I thought it weould be compatible

They are, but they are not being detected by Linux, not a software issue; either the controller is bad or your board doesn't like it. Try a different PC if you have one.

Thanks. My UNRAID machine is an old one and only has PCIe 3.0, this is PCIe 3.1, would that make it fail or are they backwards-compatible?

1 minute ago, Rick Gillyon said:

would that make it fail or are they backwards-compatible?

They are backward compatible and should work even with PCIe 2.0

56 minutes ago, JorgeB said:

They are, but they are not being detected by Linux, not a software issue; either the controller is bad or your board doesn't like it. Try a different PC if you have one.

Tried it in my main PC, still not detected under Win11. Just NFG I suppose. I'll try again!

Being totally noob regarding DIY nas. Im looking at unraid for my build and leaving asustor nas behind me. Im going for 8-bay build. Going to use ASUS ROG Strix B760-I Gaming WiFi. Got it on a sale and just hope it's gonna work fine for a nas. For controllercard I did some quick reading and thinking maybe ASMedia ASM1166 PCIe Card 6 Ports, 6 Gbps 3.0 PCIe Card Non-Raid or maybe MZHOU PCIE SATA-kort 6 portar 4X PCIe SATA. I dont have much knowledge about this..

I have the Mzhou ASM1166 running in my machine now, no issues.

3 hours ago, parkalash said:

ASMedia ASM1166 PCIe Card 6 Ports

Those are typically fine, it's one of the chips mentioned in the first post

Hello,

I am new to the Unraid world and looking for some help with drive connections on a new server build. I am coming from Synology, so looking for something that "just works and well". Motherboard is ASUS Prime B760M-A. I have 8x14tb hd, 2x2tb SSD, and 2x1tb Nvme. Motherboard supports 4 sata plan to use 2 of them for the ssds. Has 2 nvme Pcie 4.0x4 using both for 2x2tb nvme. I was looking at an HBA 2308 for the other 8. After watching a video on hba I switched to the HBA 2008 as it was lower power with lower heat and the same speed with sata hard drives. After looking here, I am now questioning if I should be looking at the Asmedia. My main use is Plex, an audiobook service, a music service, and file system for 5 to 10 users at a time. Priority is longevity, consistency, followed by heat and power. Any help is greatly appreciated.

LSI has better bandwidth than Asmedia, but it also uses more power (heat), so it will depend mostly on the priorities. Also note that with Asmedia controllers, the chip itself is good, but the controller's build quality can depend on the brand.

@JorgeB
https://www.amazon.ca/MZHOU-Profile-Bracket-Support-Devices/dp/B09K3NFK5H/ref=sr_1_32?crid=39ILKOLEL4715&refinements=p_85%3A5690392011&rnid=5690384011&rps=1&sprefix=asmedia%2B%2Caps%2C164&sr=8-32&th=1

Does this card / brand have any recommendations? Amazon reviews are somewhat typical as its totally fine or it insulted my mother and killed my dog. Specs wise does this fit the bill for unraid?

It seems to be one 6 ports SATA controller that is then using four port multipliers.

At best, you will have important bandwidth limitations when using several drives at once (for a Pool or the Array Parity check).

ASM1166 is only recommended for 6 SATA drives.

5 hours ago, mctavish01 said:

Does this card / brand have any recommendations?

Port multipliers, so not recommended at all:

And the 'not recommended' opinion is for the model, not especially for the brand I think.

I am in the market for a new HBA and was looking at 16i version.

How are the 9305 chips handling SATA SSDs ? I seem to remember that older HBA controllers had issues. Is this generation OK ?

They support TRIM but only on SSDs with Deterministic Read Zeros After TRIM (DRZAT) or Data Set Management (DRAT). You can check that with hdparm:

root@Tower1:~# hdparm -I /dev/sdad | grep -i "TRIM"

* Data Set Management TRIM supported (limit 8 blocks)

* Deterministic read ZEROs after TRIM

OK perfect, thanks for the details. 🙂

So, my WD Red 500GB drive are compatible then.

I have seen the recommended controllers, but I was hoping someone could help me decide on what would work best for me. I have x5 6tb SAS drives that plug into a backplane that has SATA ports out for each drive. And my Mobo only has a PCIe x4 slot and an M. 2 slot open. I need something that can work with those constraints, and I have not seen anything that I have been confident will work. Any suggestions?