Recommended controllers for Unraid

[Sildenafil]

Hello, I am inquiring to migrate from xpenology to unraid. Currently my motherboard is an asrock j5005 with 4 sata ports and 1 PCIe 2.0 x1. I would like to add 6 more sata ports to have 8hdd and 2 sata ssd.

what do you think of this?

https://www.amazon.com/MZHOU-Profile-Bracket-Support-Devices/dp/B09DYVX5VJ/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=MZHOU%2BPCIe%2BSATA%2BCard&qid=1654493546&sr=8-3&th=1

 

I don't need top performance, I could connect the ssd directly to the motherboard, the rest of the hdds are for data storage, the maximum speed I am interested in is playing 4k content with plex

Edited June 6, 2022 by Sildenafil
adding

[ChatNoir]

On 6/6/2022 at 7:33 AM, Sildenafil said:

what do you think of this?

This is exactly what is recommended against. It uses a JMB575 port multiplier that is known for bad performance. Since you would be using that on a single 2.0 lane, I would guess that is would be even worse.

 

On the very same page you linked, I saw options for only ASM1166 or ASM1061 on a x1. You should go with that.

https://www.amazon.com/MZHOU-Profile-Bracket-Support-Devices/dp/B097RBLM9G/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=MZHOU%2BPCIe%2BSATA%2BCard&qid=1654493546&sr=8-3&th=1

 

edit : I did not try that card myself, my answer is purely based on what is indicated on the Amazon page.

[Sildenafil]

1 hour ago, ChatNoir said:

This is exactly what is recommended against. It uses a JMB575 port multiplier that is known for bad performance. Since you would be using that on a single 2.0 lane, I would guess that is would be even worse.

 

On the very same page you linked, I saw options for only ASM1166 or ASM1061 on a x1. You should go with that.

 

https://www.amazon.com/MZHOU-Profile-Bracket-Support-Devices/dp/B097RBLM9G/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=MZHOU%2BPCIe%2BSATA%2BCard&qid=1654493546&sr=8-3&th=1

 

I found this on Aliexpress, what do you think? it looks like it uses 1061 / 106x

 

https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005003599895970.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.61bc4657VJdaI4&algo_pvid=4ca06c41-d413-4782-95fc-00728c71615f&algo_exp_id=4ca06c41-d413-4782-95fc-00728c71615f-1&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000026445042059"}&pdp_npi=2%40dis!EUR!!30.53!!!!!%402100bdd716545027618837308e3dbb!12000026445042059!sea

Edited June 6, 2022 by ChatNoir
reflect the correction of the original post

[ChatNoir]

23 minutes ago, Sildenafil said:

I found this on Aliexpress, what do you think? it looks like it uses 1061 / 106x

With 10 SATA ports, it must be using a port multipler since ASM1166 can only manage 6 ports.

 

I was mistaking above, ASM1061 is NOT a good option for 6 ports either, it's a 2 SATA ports controller. I'll correct my initial post (and your quote as not to induce confusion).

 

If you want 6 ports, select a controller that can handle 6 ports. There is not way to magically handle more without port multipler on SATA cards.

[Sildenafil]

10 minutes ago, ChatNoir said:

With 10 SATA ports, it must be using a port multipler since ASM1166 can only manage 6 ports.

 

I was mistaking above, ASM1061 is NOT a good option for 6 ports either, it's a 2 SATA ports controller. I'll correct my initial post (and your quote as not to induce confusion).

 

If you want 6 ports, select a controller that can handle 6 ports. There is not way to magically handle more without port multipler on SATA cards.

ok, thx.

 

i think i will buy this one which is cheaper

https://it.aliexpress.com/item/4001269633905.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.2c4644d77UiQvY&algo_pvid=e6b8b850-d99d-4195-8705-f13f0ba8babc&algo_exp_id=e6b8b850-d99d-4195-8705-f13f0ba8babc-0&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000022790770836"}&pdp_npi=2%40dis!EUR!!33.38!!!!!%402100bdd516545057507772709e0e3a!12000022790770836!sea

[ChatNoir]

2 minutes ago, Sildenafil said:

i think i will buy this one which is cheaper

it's a x4 card, it seems that your motherboard can only accept x1 as the connector seems closed. You can modify the PCIE connector, but there is some risk and there are x1 options not that much more expensive :

https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005003338978087.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.5b13d708c8ae9w&algo_pvid=34546497-4560-40a2-892e-d192f25b3265&algo_exp_id=34546497-4560-40a2-892e-d192f25b3265-1&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000025302273431"}&pdp_npi=2%40dis!EUR!!31.52!!!!!%402132a24e16545061172396671e19bd!12000025302273431!sea

https://it.aliexpress.com/item/1005003428156306.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.5b13d708c8ae9w&algo_pvid=34546497-4560-40a2-892e-d192f25b3265&algo_exp_id=34546497-4560-40a2-892e-d192f25b3265-0&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"12000025738715316"}&pdp_npi=2%40dis!EUR!!31.04!!!!!%402132a24e16545061172396671e19bd!12000025738715316!sea

[Sildenafil]

 

yes, there were both versions in the link. Anyway many thanks for your help

[Meannekes]

i bought that exact model and it fu**ed up 2 of my drives. 

First i wasnt able to stop the array and then the whole Server was inaccesable.

After some investigation on that Card, i saw that the cooler was touching some resistors because the thermalpad was too small and the Black paint was already scrached up..

[JorgeB]

That's the problem with these cheap SATA cards, sometimes you get a good one, other times not.

[Meannekes]

yeah, now i bought a new mainboard with more Ports, that will do the job for a long time. (and 2 new drives..)

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by Meannekes

[minority]

Hi!

 

In trying to lower the power consumption of my unRaid server I decided to replace my 2 x 9207-8i cards with:

 

2 x ASM1166 PCIe x4

1 x ASM1064 PCIe x1

The 9207’s have been working flawlessly, though a bit power hungry vs the ASMs.

 

On first boot I had issue with the ASM1064. Decided to buy a new one. Same error. Changed PCIe slot with the neighboring Intel NIC. Great.
 

However. That worked for less than 24 hours… now the disk errors are in… but for 5 disks. 

I’m not sure if the errors were triggered during spinning up and down? Anyone else have similar experiences? I don’t have time to check tonight, will try and investigate tomorrow but I don’t really know where to start.

 

[trurl]

14 minutes ago, minority said:

where to start

Start a new thread in General Support and post your diagnostics.

[HDT]

On 6/13/2022 at 1:28 PM, minority said:

The 9207’s have been working flawlessly, though a bit power hungry vs the ASMs.

 

 

 

How much power were the 9207's using in comparison to the ASM's?

[HDT]

On 6/13/2022 at 7:30 AM, Meannekes said:

i bought that exact model and it fu**ed up 2 of my drives. 

First i wasnt able to stop the array and then the whole Server was inaccesable.

After some investigation on that Card, i saw that the cooler was touching some resistors because the thermalpad was too small and the Black paint was already scrached up..

 

Those generic cards are hit or miss.  The one I got from Amazon caused a CRC error on one of my drives.

 

Get the LSI one or a clone.

 

Info: 

 

I sprung for the LSI brand one and probably wasted money because NEC or IBM are probably just as good.  I'll just skip drinking beer for a month to make up the difference.

[minority]

On 6/13/2022 at 9:42 PM, trurl said:

Start a new thread in General Support and post your diagnostics.

 

Right, it was more of a question as to if anyone else had any problems. I figured out the errors started occurring after running powertop --auto-tune. I had the system running for maybe 12 hours, when I manually ran the command. It seems this gets them into a low power state, and they don't properly come back up (23 disks, 5 were giving read errors)? After rebooting everything is good, no powertop --auto-tune command, running for 3 days 15 hours and counting.

 

I will post a thread when I dare to try again, maybe someone can explain why they act the way they do. After a hike in electricity prices, I've been trying to lower the idle consumption of my server. Inspired by mgutt here and here (powertop --auto-tune). 

 

On 6/16/2022 at 7:23 AM, HDT said:

 

How much power were the 9207's using in comparison to the ASM's?

 

So, with the 2 x 9207's, the whole system idles at 61-62w. No difference if try to optimize power consumption with powertop, like they wouldn't go into a lower power state. With 2 x 1166, 1 x 1064 I am at 42w (23 disks, 8 onboard sata). If I run powertop --auto-tune, the system idles at 31w. I did some tests with the 9207's I had when I was building the new system, to see how much power they consume, and it was far more power than I liked, and I couldn't get them to use less. I believe only CPU+mobo+RAM (bare system, nothing connected) 8w idle. Adding two 9207's, still no disks, total system idle at 24w.

[JorgeB]

LSI 9207 consumes around 9w by my measurements, a little over the 6w a 9211 uses due to being clocked higher.

[Eliy1970]

First time I buy an expansion card, I would be happy for your help and recommendation, is this an recommended LSI card?
 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004234703089.html

 

Thanks

[JorgeB]

2 minutes ago, Eliy1970 said:

is this an recommended LSI card?

Yes, assuming it's not a fake.

[Eliy1970]

@JorgeBThank you for your kind help, can you recommend me a "safe" card that is known to work properly with Unraid in IT configuration without getting "surprises" when shipping arrives? (Preferably for Aliexpress or Amazon or eBay)

Thanks again

 

Edited June 20, 2022 by Eliy1970

[JorgeB]

17 hours ago, Eliy1970 said:

can you recommend me a "safe"

That's no always easy with LSI HBAs, I do prefer buying used server pulls instead of new ones from China, less likely to get a fake.

[ChatNoir]

If you are in the US, the eBay seller The Art of Servers is well liked in the community and offers a good value.

[Eliy1970]

 

I found 2 cards with the same data (from 2 different sellers) as I wrote earlier the data looks exactly the same (maybe I'm wrong .....) the prices are different, With the seller "theartofserver" the price reaches US $ 137.42 (after taxes and shipping) while with the seller "jiawen2018" the price is US $ 53.88

I would love to hear if there are any differences between the 2 cards and testimonials

 

Thank you for your help

Edited June 20, 2022 by Eliy1970

[JonathanM]

43 minutes ago, Eliy1970 said:

I would love to hear if there are any differences between the 2 cards

One appears to be a genuine used server pull shipped from CONUS, the other appears to be a counterfeit shipped from China, with a listing designed to deceive.

 

My opinion only, YMMV.

[Eliy1970]

I agree with you ... it's better to pay more for something that is real than to pay less and finally find out it's a fake

Thank you

Edited June 21, 2022 by Eliy1970

[Eliy1970]

I would love a recommendation / link for suitable cables for Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA w / LSI 9211-8i P20 from the seller "theartofserver" (I did not see in his store a link for cables)

 

Thanks for the help