Recommended controllers for Unraid


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Can you recommend one that has a several ports on it that I can purchase on Amazon.   Like I said, I really was interested in the LSI 9300 and came super close to ordering it but when I started reading how hot it got and you need to mount a fan, etc, I decided against it because of the chance of ruining the motherboard or other heat related issues.  I have good cooling in the system where the CPU is 32 and the drives temps are 34 to 43 but I just don't want to chance it.  If you or anyone can recommend a controller that will give me 8 or more connections (I have 12 total drives including 10 SATA and 2 SSD).  

 

 

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I have a question about the ASMedia chipset ASM1061 for PCIe 2.0 x1 to dual SATA at 500 MB/s each, which is perfect for SATA SSDs at (almost) full speed:

https://www.asmedia.com.tw/product/77BYq58SX3HyepH7/58dYQ8bxZ4UR9wG5

It has been mentioned a couple of times in this thread, and several controllers using the ASM1061 seem to be on the recommended list, but at least one user also wrote that at least this one older PCIe-2.0-based chipset doesn't play quite so well with regard to power efficiency, ASPM, C-states etc. compared to the newer PCIe-3.0-based ASMedia chipsets, i.e. the ASM1164, ASM1166 & ASM1064, which according to the specs support L0s/L1/L23/L3 power saving states and L1 substate deep power saving mode on the PCIe side, plus Partial/Slumber and Device Sleep power management on the SATA side.

So does anyone know for sure if the ASM1061, which doesn't even support SATA Partial/Slumber power management states like its bigger brother ASM1062, should be avoided if one were to build a NAS/server that is to be as power efficient as possible?

I'm asking because I stumbled on a yet-to-be-released ATX board, the ASRock Rack W680 WS:

https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=W680%20WS#Specifications

It has a total of 14 SATA ports, whereas 6 of those beyond the usual 8 are provided using 3 ASM1061 chipsets. (Maybe a bit too big of a board for my taste, but that's when I remembered about the ASM1061.)

tia

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Hi guys, i've been trying to find a way to expand the amount of drives I have and got recommended HBA cards, but now I stumbled upon this thread and got my hopes up that I won't have to deal with flashing into IT mode and all that. Is this correct or do these cards that are recommended still require flashing into IT mode, etc? I found this Asmedia ASM1064 on amazon, is this the correct one that's recommended or is this a different one? Also here's my build.

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1 hour ago, ArchbaldCortez said:

Can someone please confirm if this card will give me problems with Unraid?

Should be OK, but it's Marvell, I would prefer an Asmedia or JMB based controller, prices should be similar.

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On 3/29/2024 at 5:03 AM, GeorgeJetson20 said:

 I really was interested in the LSI 9300 and came super close to ordering it but when I started reading how hot it got.

Since heat has to do with how much power something uses, I did some math. The 9300-8i uses 13w, so 1,6w per port (rounded). They made a more efficient version of it, the 9305-16i, which uses 1,01w pet port.

The 9400-8i uses 1,25w per port, which seems a lot more, but the 9400-16i only uses 0,75w.

The 9500-8i also uses 0,75w, but the 9500-16i uses 0,56w. The 9600-16i uses more again, 1,06w but that's a sas4 (22.5G) card (also drops support for anything below 6Gb/s so old sata 1 & 2 drives won't work. Sata 3 drives will though)

In my experience, you'll need some airflow, but if your drives aren't active 24/7, and in server cases with a fan-wall, you don't really need any extra fans or such, not even with a 9300-8i. (I'm currently using a 9500-16i and a 9600-24i but I also have a 9300-8i I use with a SAS expander and a 9400-16i)

So, you'll probably want a 9400 or a 9500 card. There is an issue with the 9500 and 9600 though, they use 'new' sff-8654 (slimsas 8i) connectors, and cables for that to sff-8643 work fine (if you have HDD cables, they also have PCIe cables which won't work), but as far as I can tell, all cables to sff-8087 are wired for PCIe even if they specify they are for HDDs (at least the ones I tried).

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I bought a LSI SAS 9300-16i from aliexpress and I have to say that I have no problem so far. I have 16 drives connected to it. However, I had to mount a fan on the heatsink. I miss the temperature monitoring of that controller. I'll have to look somewhere to see how to do that.

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Hey guys!

 

I've got a couple of upgrades to do to my basic server. I am planning on adding a 10gbe card and a 6 port sata ASM1166 card. Problem I have is, I'm running a mini-ITX so I only have 1x PCIe slot and 1x M.2 slot available. I assume it is better to have the 10gbe card in the PCIe slot because I hear they can run hot (my thought is bigger card, less likely to overheat?), so my only option for the 6 port sata ASM1166 card is in to put it in the M.2 slot.

 

looking at the OP's 6 port suggestion for ASM1166, I only see a suggestion for a PCIe card but I know there is a M.2 card with the same ASM1166 controller (example: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005669800665.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.0.0.7023cgYecgYe2G&mp=1)

 

Questions:

 

1. Will the M.2 card linked above give the same results as the PCIe version?

 

2. Is it better to swap my orientation and get a 10gbe card for the M.2 slot, then put the 6 ports sata card in the PCIe slot?

 

Hopefully this makes sense. I am still a newbie haha

 

This is my mobo for reference: https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/B660M-ITXac/index.asp

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I built my UnRaid server in 2011 in a small Lian Li case, 7 total hdd. My MB is ASUS M4A785T-M with 6 internal SATA ports. I bought at the same time a 2-port sata card, so this gave me 5-data drives, 1-Parity, and 1 Cache, with one spare sata port on the card. The card is installed in a PCIe x 1 slot. I assume this is a single lane slot?

My question, I would like to add one more HDD. Will the PCIe x 1 slot handle a 2nd or 3rd drive and not slow things down? I can't remember the brand of card from 2011? When I do a Parity all the drives are running at about 130MB/s. I don't mind buying a new/different 2-port or 4-port card, or what ever I need? What do you think?

Thanks,

Tom

Edited by Tom899
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40 minutes ago, Killaa Chris said:

you wouldn’t happen to have a topic like this for Network Cards would you? 

Nope, but there are a few NIC related threads in the hardware forum that should show up in a search, you can ask there for a recommended model, mention what you are looking for, e.g. gigabit or 10GbE, UTP or fiber.

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22 minutes ago, Tom899 said:

Will the PCIe x 1 slot handle a 2nd or 3rd drive and not slow things down? I can't remember the brand of card from 2011? When I do a Parity all the drives are running at about 130MB/s. I don't mind buying a new/different 2-port or 4-port card, or what ever I need? What do you think?

A second drive should not slow down the parity check, assuming the controller is working at PCIe 2.0, for a better idea you can post the diags.

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2 hours ago, JorgeB said:

A second drive should not slow down the parity check, assuming the controller is working at PCIe 2.0, for a better idea you can post the diags.

Great, just downloaded a diag zip. It;s in the middle of a parity check, if that matters?

I appreciate your help!

 

Edited by Tom899
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29 minutes ago, Tom899 said:

Great, just downloaded a diag zip. It;s in the middle of a parity check, if that matters?

I appreciate your help!

Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3132 Serial ATA Raid II Controller

 

This is a PCIe 1.0 controller, with two devices it will be limited to around 80MB/s, would recommend getting a PCIe 2.0 controller from the list on the 1st post, like an Asmedia 1062.

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32 minutes ago, Tom899 said:

Great, that is what i will do, thank you so much!

One more quick question please? I'm assuming to replace my current card its a plug-n-play swap and don't have to get into the BIOS at all?

I ordered a StarTech.com SATA PCIe Card - 2 Port PCIe SATA Expansion Card - 6Gbps - Full/Low Profile - PCI Express to SATA Adapter/Controller - ASM1061 Non-Raid - PCIe to SATA Converter (2P6G-PCIE-SATA-CARD)

Edited by Tom899
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