Recommended controllers for Unraid

[Darkguy]

Currently running a Dell PERC H310 and a Dell H200 (both PCIe 2.0 x8) in IT Mode on my current setup. Both allow for 8 drives, each I have a total of 7 (SATA drives) connected to each right now, which is the maximum possible in the case I use.

I'm thinking about switching over to a case with 24 bays (plus 2x 2.5" internal drives), so I would either have to get another HBA (the board I'm looking at has 3x PCIe 4.0 x16 slots, so it would fit) or use an SAS expander. The question I'm asking myself is what is the best option for me here:

 

1.) H310  AND H200  AND another HBA; connect 8 drives each?

2.) H310 AND H200 AND an SAS expander; connect 16 drives to one HBA and 8 to the other?

3.) H310 OR H200 AND an SAS expander; connect all 24 drives to one HBA and ditch the other one? (or do I just aimlessly sacrifice bandwith here, if I have a second HBA on hand anyway)

 

What SAS expander should I be looking into, especially if I were to run all 24 drives off a single Dell H200/H310?

 

Drives currently are a mix of old and new 2.5" and 3.5" (all SATA3), ranging from 500 GB to 8 TB

 

CPU would be a Ryzen APU, so integrated iGPU and no need for a video card to use up a slot.

[JorgeB]

16 hours ago, Darkguy said:

What SAS expander should I be looking into, especially if I were to run all 24 drives off a single Dell H200/H310?

Any expander with the port you need, both the HP SAS2 and SAS3 expanders would work, Intel SAS2 or SAS3 expanders, the 24port SAS2 Intel expander mentioned on the 1st post would work with a single link from the HBA connected to 20 drives and the other 4 could be on the other HBA port, but not ideal for performance.

[3560freak]

I am not in the market to change boards/case/CPU etc right now so I have been looking at these m.2 to SATA expansion cards (specifically ones using the ASM1166 chipset) to add storage to my array. I am currently on mITX (so only one PCIe slot) and cannot afford to give up my NVIDIA card to cover PLEX transcoding (my ASUS P11C-I with it's C242 chipset doesn't allow for iGPU passthrough).

 

Question 1: Can anyone tell me if there is any downside to having my two parity drives (currently run dual parity) on the expansion card vs the motherboard's onboard controller?

 

Question 2: Seeing reports about flimsy PCBs on these expanders, potentially being the point of failure. Would it make more sense to get an m.2 to PCIe riser card and use my existing ECS06? Cost is small enough with either option, just wanted the one that is the most reliable of the two.

 

Thanks for any suggestions/tips.

[JorgeB]

9 hours ago, 3560freak said:

Question 1:

Should be the same.

 

Can't really comment on #2, it would also depend on the actual controller you get, no name brands can be a bit of a gamble. 

[3560freak]

Thanks for the reply. My only other question was to confirm that the ASM1166 chipset is desired over the JMicron JMB585, due to compatibility with UnRAID, correct? My inclination is to go with a Silverstone ECS07, because they seem like the most reliable company selling these M.2 adapters, but if the chipset that they use does not play well with UnRAID then that is a moot point.

Edited January 27 by 3560freak
punctuation

[JorgeB]

4 hours ago, 3560freak said:

My only other question was to confirm that the ASM1166 chipset is desired over the JMicron JMB585

Both work fine, Asmedia has an extra port if needed.

[3560freak]

I am the reason that they say measure twice, cut once (SMH). I ordered the M.2 to SATA adapter only to realize that my MB has a half length M.2 slot (2242). The case/drives block my from using this longer/standard card. I will need to go with the M.2 to PCIe riser solution. I am going to make the assumption that I can trim down the PCB since the cabling/components are all in the base of the card (hopefully this is accurate, see image). Thanks again for all of your help, JorgeB.

Edited January 28 by 3560freak
add image

[luzankia]

You can trim down this kind of pcb by snapping off the part that you don't need. I had to do that on a m.2 2 USB adapter.

[Meridius]

Hi all new here. 

 

I have my own built server using a Asus (P9Z77-V Pro) motherboard which has 8 sata ports and are now all used up and would like to know the best way to go to add a extra 4 or 8 ports. I am just wanting each drive to run on its own not as a raid or anything like that just as extra drives as i use external drives as backups.

 

https://www.asus.com/supportonly/p8z77v_pro/helpdesk_knowledge/

 

I was looking at these two

8 port

StarTech.com 8 Port SATA PCIe Card - PCI Express 6Gbps SATA Expansion Adapter Card with 4 Host Controllers - SATA PCIe Controller Card - PCI-e x4 Gen 2 to SATA III - SATA HDD/SSD (8P6G-PCIE-SATA-CARD) : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories 

Pericom - PI7C9X2G608GP
ASMedia - ASM1061

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09FY9FBTN/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_1?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

 

or

4 port

StarTech.com SATA PCIe Card - 4 Port PCIe SATA Expansion Card - 6Gbps - Low/Full Profile - Stacked SATA Connectors - ASM1164 Non-Raid - PCI Express to SATA Converter (4P6G-PCIE-SATA-CARD) : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09KCH846V/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_7?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

 

6 port

StarTech.com SATA PCIe Card - 6 Port PCIe SATA Expansion Card - 6Gbps - Low/Full Profile - Stacked SATA Connectors - ASM1166 Non-Raid - PCI Express to SATA Converter (6P6G-PCIE-SATA-CARD) : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09JXXY1K6/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

 

I would like something that just works and have no problems. would you recommend these cards or something else as i have read about the LSI version but herd these can get very hot inside a pc as there mainly build for server racks.

 

oh, these must work well when pc is in sleep as i don't turn of the pc it just goes into standby

 

thanks for any help

 

 

 

 

Edited January 29 by Meridius

[JorgeB]

1 hour ago, Meridius said:

would you recommend these cards

The chips used are all good with Unraid, and StarTech is a known brand so they *should* be good quality.

[CuriousMind]

So I am learning to never undertake a server upgrade unless I really want my blood pressure to spike. 

 

My old case was a Dell Optiplex 7050, which was a great starting off point, as well as cheap, but if you know the model you will also know that it only has room for a total of 3 spinners (two of which can only be 2.5") and one M2 slot. This worked fine for me as it was a free gift and therefor a cheap way to wade into the unRAID waters. The issue is that being restricted to 2.5" drives really limited my storage volumes, and after nearly reaching the 8 TB storage I needed to upgrade. I am, however, pulling out my hair attempting to get it to work. 

 

I purcahsed a MSI MAG B660M Bazooka DDR4 Motherboard for a Fractal Node 804 case which I thought should be enough given the 4 SATA ports and two M.2 slots (One NVMe and one SATA). It took me a few times (and a board replacement) with one of my hard drives not showing up to realize that using the SATA M.2 slot disables SATA port 8 on the board. Okay, annoying, but I can work with that. So after reading this thread I got a PCIe SATA expansion card to allow for enough ports to make the setup work. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08DFSC5R4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1) 

The issue I am running into is that this card is not recognized by the board, nor unRAID, no matter which PCIe slot I install it into. I would love to do a firmware update, as recommended earlier in this thread, but I cannot for the life of me find a firmware update for ASM1166. Any seemingly related firmware update comes from unverified sources, which makes me jittery. After some digging, as well as begging for answers, most everyone that has used this same card never had any issues with their unRAID setup, and it was simply plug and play right out of the box. I am already going to try a replacement to see if I just got a lemon, but I am hoping there might be some pearls of wisdom that can be offered to hopefully help.

 

Sidenote, but I also am a little confused by some of the contradictions in this thread. The initial post seems to recommend both PCIe SATA expansion cards, and HBA LSI SAS/SATA cards. However reading all of the posts there are people saying that the PCIe cards are trash and will tank your performance, and then that is followed by multiple posts singing their praises and how they are perfect. To be fair I see this same seeming contradiction elsewhere, but it still is a little frustrating. 

 

Rant over, and thank you for any help you can provide.

[JorgeB]

50 minutes ago, CuriousMind said:

I got a PCIe SATA expansion card

ASM1166 is a 6 port controller, the one you linked has 8 pots, suggesting it has a port multiplier and so not recommended.

 

LSI is a safer bet since they are made by LSI (or Avago/Broadcom now), unless you get a fake one, these Asmedia and JMB controllers are different, the chips themselves are good but a no brand controller based on one might be good or not, when possible suggest buying from known brands, like Startech or Syba for example.

[CuriousMind]

7 hours ago, JorgeB said:

ASM1166 is a 6 port controller, the one you linked has 8 pots, suggesting it has a port multiplier and so not recommended.

 

LSI is a safer bet since they are made by LSI (or Avago/Broadcom now), unless you get a fake one, these Asmedia and JMB controllers are different, the chips themselves are good but a no brand controller based on one might be good or not, when possible suggest buying from known brands, like Startech or Syba for example.

Appreciate the response. LSI cards seem to be pricey unless you get a used one, and potentially may run a little hot, especially for a smaller case. Not sure how true that is. Unfortunately this redo has already gone way over budget 

[PhilBarker]

Yep, stick to 6 port for ASM1166 - I only use it because my only free PCI slot is a 1x slot so I can't really run a proper card.

 

I'm planning in the future to ditch my A320 board for an X570 with 8 SATA ports when I can spare the money.
That will mean I can use on-board sata for all my current disks, but expanding in the future I can go LSI instead of relying on the cheap ASM boards.

[PhilBarker]

Also cost shouldn't be too much of an issue - you can get something like this if you have an x8 or x16 pci slot free

 

LSI 9223 9200 9240-8i HBA FW:P20 9211-8i IT Mode ZFS FreeNAS unRAID 2* SFF SATA

 

For £33 which isn't much more than the cheap ASM cards on amazon

[jammin]

On 2/2/2023 at 8:52 AM, PhilBarker said:

Also cost shouldn't be too much of an issue - you can get something like this if you have an x8 or x16 pci slot free

 

LSI 9223 9200 9240-8i HBA FW:P20 9211-8i IT Mode ZFS FreeNAS unRAID 2* SFF SATA

 

For £33 which isn't much more than the cheap ASM cards on amazon

 

That's almost certainly a fake.

 

Brand new but no original packaging, photos are the same as other fakes I have seen.

 

Trouble is, where do you get a real one these days? And do the fakes work well enough that it doesn't matter? I have heard they tend to run very hot.

[PhilBarker]

28 minutes ago, jammin said:

 

That's almost certainly a fake.

 

Brand new but no original packaging, photos are the same as other fakes I have seen.

 

Trouble is, where do you get a real one these days? And do the fakes work well enough that it doesn't matter? I have heard they tend to run very hot.

They're not fakes - they're old 2nd hand units from stripped down servers in China
In the case of "unopened new" they are likely spares kept on-site for server support that were never used.

Check the other listings - genuine Dell ones, tons to choose from.
They don't exactly hold a massive value because they were fitted to so many rack servers that are now decommissioned and stripped for parts. Like buying xeon CPU's for peanuts these days.

Edited February 3 by PhilBarker

[CuriousMind]

Should i be planning to bolt on a fan to one of these? Obviously these were in high airflow server racks, and my case can't compete with that. Placement will be a pain as the obvious spot would have it breathing right on one of the drives

[dopeytree]

40mm noctua fan via zip ties works great

[CuriousMind]

OMG.......

 

Okay, deep breaths. I had already ordered it before posting, so I tried a 6 port PCI-E SATA 1166 expansion card, booted unRAID, and nothing. Drives not detected. Okay, keeping calm.

 

I instead ordered a StarTech Non-RAID card (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FY9FBTN?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details), installed in my case, booted unRAID, and.....nothing. Drives not detected. I have to assume that I am missing some vital step that other people who list these items as "plug and play" with their builds are otherwise doing. My luck cannot just be this bad.

 

Also currently dealing with my new cache drive having somehow not having any of my docker settings, despite following a very straightforward tutorial I have used before, but that is another blood pressure spike outside of this thread.

Edited February 4 by CuriousMind
grammar

[PhilBarker]

I'm afraid to say I literally ordered cheap ASM1166 6 port card from amazon. It arrived. I plugged it in - all hard drives detected and worked fine.

[CuriousMind]

55 minutes ago, PhilBarker said:

I'm afraid to say I literally ordered cheap ASM1166 6 port card from amazon. It arrived. I plugged it in - all hard drives detected and worked fine.

Anyway i can talk you into listing the one you got?  

 

Any thoughts on if it is just my board? msi mag b660m bazooka ddr

[ChatNoir]

 

4 hours ago, CuriousMind said:

Okay, deep breaths. I had already ordered it before posting, so I tried a 6 port PCI-E SATA 1166 expansion card, booted unRAID, and nothing. Drives not detected. Okay, keeping calm.

 

I instead ordered a StarTech Non-RAID card (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FY9FBTN?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details), installed in my case, booted unRAID, and.....nothing. Drives not detected. I have to assume that I am missing some vital step that other people who list these items as "plug and play" with their builds are otherwise doing. My luck cannot just be this bad.

 

It might not be controllers issues, if the cards are not detected there would be no drives in Unraid. Your diagnostics with one or the other could provide more details on that.

[CuriousMind]

46 minutes ago, ChatNoir said:

 

 

It might not be controllers issues, if the cards are not detected there would be no drives in Unraid. Your diagnostics with one or the other could provide more details on that.

 

Diagnostics attached. In case it helps, the Parity drive as well as one of the storage drives are connected now to the StarTech card that was just installed. From the unRAID dashboard they show as missing

tower-diagnostics-20230204-1248.zip

[PhilBarker]

This is the exact one I got. I think I’ve linked it before somewhere but maybe not here. 
 

http://MZHOU PCIe SATA Card 6 Ports 1X PCIe SATA Expansion Card - 6 Gbps SATA 3.0 PCI Express Card - SATA Controller Expansion Card with 6 SATA Cables and Low Profile Bracket (Chipset ASM1166) https://amzn.eu/d/epDumJc

 

It’s gone up in price since I got it though 😔