Recommended controllers for Unraid

[CuriousMind]

15 minutes ago, PhilBarker said:

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 😔

That links back to this page? 

[PhilBarker]

Let me try that again

 

Mzhou SATA Card

[JorgeB]

16 hours ago, CuriousMind said:

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

You might need to update the controller firmware, see here.

[Meridius]

i am looking at the StarTech cards and a couple haev said these are a good branded card but what i noticed is these cards don't have a heatsink where's the cheaper unknown brand does, why is this? how can the StarTech card not need a heatsink like others  

 

also why does the 6-port need x4 pci but the 10 port only needs x2 pci ? i would have thought it would be the other way round or is this a chipset thing?

 

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B09K4WKHKK?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&pldnSite=1&th=1

 

even the 10 ports has no heatsink to 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09KDLKYRN/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_4?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&th=1

 

thanks

 

Edited February 5 by Meridius

[Meridius]

21 hours ago, CuriousMind said:

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.

 

did you get this working as i was looking at this card to ?

[CuriousMind]

37 minutes ago, Meridius said:

 

did you get this working as i was looking at this card to ?

Not yet. I just couldn't deal with more of this yesterday, so I took the day off. I'm going to see if I can't update the firmware to see if that works. I'll update if somehow things start working 

[CuriousMind]

10 hours ago, JorgeB said:

You might need to update the controller firmware, see here.

 

That post appears to be talking about a Silverstone card, but I am trying to find a firmware update for the StarTech 8 Port SATA PCIe Card that I bought. What is it with manufacturers making finding firmware updates for their products require moving Heaven and Earth?

[PhilBarker]

2 hours ago, CuriousMind said:

 

That post appears to be talking about a Silverstone card, but I am trying to find a firmware update for the StarTech 8 Port SATA PCIe Card that I bought. What is it with manufacturers making finding firmware updates for their products require moving Heaven and Earth?

 

As has been said it's highly unlikely the 8 port card will work as it uses a port multiplier.

The very first post in this thread recommends the ASM1166 6 port card. I've linked the one I have and it works fine.
Most 6 port ASM1166 cards work fine.

And also previously discussed is that the silverrstone firmware applies fine to generic cards, I've upgraded mine, I've even written a blog post about it https://docs.phil-barker.com/posts/upgrading-ASM1166-firmware-for-unraid/

I'm afraid if you ignore all the advice on which card to buy, and buy an 8 port instead of a 6 port, and don't read the previous posts - you're going to continue having bad times  

Edited February 5 by PhilBarker

[CuriousMind]

21 minutes ago, PhilBarker said:

 

As has been said it's highly unlikely the 8 port card will work as it uses a port multiplier.

The very first post in this thread recommends the ASM1166 6 port card. I've linked the one I have and it works fine.
Most 6 port ASM1166 cards work fine.

And also previously discussed is that the startech firmware applies fine to generic cards, I've upgraded mine, I've even written a blog post about it https://docs.phil-barker.com/posts/upgrading-ASM1166-firmware-for-unraid/

I'm afraid if you ignore all the advice on which card to buy, and buy an 8 port instead of a 6 port, and don't read the previous posts - you're going to continue having bad times  

 

I appreciate the advice, though I am no longer attempting to use the 8 port SATA card I originally linked, as mentioned in my follow-up. I did actually end up trying the 6 port version of the ASM1166 card with the same results from both PCI-E ports on the board. I know at least one of the ports work as I had been trying to set up the new system with my old GPU and that worked fine. 

 

What I am attempting to use now is a StarTech PCI-E card utilizing 2 mini-SAS ports with mini-SAS to SATA cables to hook up to 2-3 of my current drives. This new card seems different enough that I was concerned that the firmware would not be compatible. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FY9FBTN?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1) It was my understanding that the cards using the mini-SAS connectors were a better option than the addon SATA cards, but this is my first working with these cards, so if this is the same thing I am more than willing to try the firmware. I just don't want to brick the card and be unable to get a refund if it doesn't work. 

[CuriousMind]

1 hour ago, PhilBarker said:

 

As has been said it's highly unlikely the 8 port card will work as it uses a port multiplier.

The very first post in this thread recommends the ASM1166 6 port card. I've linked the one I have and it works fine.
Most 6 port ASM1166 cards work fine.

And also previously discussed is that the startech firmware applies fine to generic cards, I've upgraded mine, I've even written a blog post about it https://docs.phil-barker.com/posts/upgrading-ASM1166-firmware-for-unraid/

I'm afraid if you ignore all the advice on which card to buy, and buy an 8 port instead of a 6 port, and don't read the previous posts - you're going to continue having bad times  

 

Okay, so I have unpacked the previously mentioned *6* port SATA PCI-E expansion card, plugged it into my main PC, ran the Silverstone firmware update utility mentioned in your blog post, and was unable to update the firmware for the simple reason that the utility did not detect any compatible hardware. I tried it in another PCI-E slot with the same effect. 

 

To be clear, I read (and have read) every post on every page of this, and many other threads, searching for answers. I have spent the last month working on this off and on, and have taken so much advice on the "right" way to do this, or the right things to buy for this to work. I am frustrated because everything I have used *should* have worked with little to no extra effort, at least according to every other post and guide. 

 

So should I just be buying a Silverstone card then?

Edited February 5 by CuriousMind
Missing info

[PhilBarker]

I am so confused.

 

So you're no longer using an ASM1166 card - you're using a SAS card. In that case the firmware is irrelevant and if the SAS card isn't detected you have a different issue.

[CuriousMind]

50 minutes ago, PhilBarker said:

I am so confused.

 

So you're no longer using an ASM1166 card - you're using a SAS card. In that case the firmware is irrelevant and if the SAS card isn't detected you have a different issue.

 

Sorry, I think you may have missed one of my posts. The original item I ordered was an 8 port SATA card, which did not work. When I was told that was a bad idea, I ordered a 6 port ASCM1166 card, which did not work. After more reading a lot of people were recommending a SAS card, so I bought a StarTech card, which also did not work. I figured the firmware you were talking about would not apply to the SAS card, however I did try the update utility on the 6 port ASCM 1166 card, and that was not detected by the utility.

[luzankia]

I had to try 3 different computers before I could update my sata card.
Is the card visible in the Windows's peripherals manager? Maybe you have a faulty card?

Envoyé de mon S88Plus en utilisant Tapatalk

[Meridius]

why do some have heatsinks while others don't with the same chipset?

[CuriousMind]

On 2/5/2023 at 5:28 AM, Meridius said:

 

did you get this working as i was looking at this card to ?

Not sure if you are still looking, but I ended up getting the LSI 6Gbps SAS HBA 9200-8I IT Mode. This was the only one that worked for me out of the box. 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133481123885

[JonathanM]

12 hours ago, Meridius said:

why do some have heatsinks while others don't with the same chipset?

Cost. Some board manufacturers cheap out assuming people won't drive the card hard enough to matter.

Unraid is especially demanding of disk controllers, so it pays to get something heavier duty if possible.

[roliv]

Hello, for the record, I am using this kind of controller, which seems pretty generic. It has a ASMedia 1064 chip.

https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B08NXTF7BM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have been using it in some salvaged gear for like 3 years without issues, then I upgraded my hardware and hit this issue:

I used another computer to upgrade the firmware (by following the guide, thanks PhilBarker! https://docs.phil-barker.com/posts/upgrading-ASM1166-firmware-for-unraid/ ).

And now it works with my new hardware.

I've read that some chips may prevent the CPU going to deep C-states, I hadn't time to experiment with this yet.

[GUNT0815]

Hi, in c't (famous german IT journal) the 10Gtek B09Y577WJS (6 port) is tested to be good, fast and affordable (45 EUR). PCIe-SATA chip is the ASMedia ASM1166.

 

Any experience with this sata-adapter and UNRaid?

[JorgeB]

36 minutes ago, GUNT0815 said:

Any experience with this sata-adapter and UNRaid?

The ASM1166 is a recommended chip, as long as the rest of the controller is good quality it won't be a problem.

[Sectoid]

Hello folks, I've been lurking in this thread for a couple months and now I finally bought an ASM1166. The first thing I did after plugging it in was to check for the firmware update. However, the existing firmware version was "220419-0000-00". This seemed above the version from the update, so I kept it as is, but I'm not sure. Does anyone know how to determine if this is indeed a newer version or not?

 

Another thing that happened was that, while I searched google to try and find something about these versions, I left the firmware update application open there, though not updating or anything. At some point, my PC just froze. It doesn't do that, it runs rock solid. So I'm somewhat confident that the adapter caused it because I also couldn't find anything relevant in windows events.

 

Anyway I didn't test it with the unraid setup yet, so any help with the decision about doing the firmware update or not is welcome!

[essjayeire]

What is the current go-to HBA card for unraid? I've been running a H200 for years now and thinking I might upgrade to something PCIe 3 as have a Z490 motherboard. I have 7 hdds and the cache ssd all on the current card. 9207-8i?

[JorgeB]

Would recommend the 9300-8i if possible, LSI SAS2 models sometimes have issues with some recent Seagate drives.

[wildchild22]

I am wondering if this is a good choice to add more drives to my unraid server.

LSI D3307-A12 +82885T 12G RAID JBOD LSISAS3008 PCI 3.0 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/175115797350

 

It seems reasonable priced but I do not want to have to buy twice.

 

[JorgeB]

5 minutes ago, wildchild22 said:

I am wondering if this is a good choice

It is if flashed to IT mode, according to the listing it's in RAID mode, it's usually easy to flash to IT mode, but best to goggle that model with IT mode to see if it's possible.

[wildchild22]

32 minutes ago, JorgeB said:

It is if flashed to IT mode, according to the listing it's in RAID mode, it's usually easy to flash to IT mode, but best to goggle that model with IT mode to see if it's possible.

I assume only the LSI D3307-A12 can be flashed to IT mode.

Or do I need to flash the expander to IT mode as well? I cannot find IT mode firmware for the expander. I only see one firmware file to use.