ChatNoir Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 I don't think you can expect more than 6 SATA ports on a x1 PCIE without some kind of port multiplier. So 10 or 20 is taking a big risk on transfer speed and dropped connections. 5 hours ago, klor said: I need 6 disks Your motherboard already have 6 SATA ports, do you mean 6 additional disks ? Quote Link to comment
klor Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 56 minutes ago, ChatNoir said: I don't think you can expect more than 6 SATA ports on a x1 PCIE without some kind of port multiplier. So 10 or 20 is taking a big risk on transfer speed and dropped connections. This is the reason, why I plan to buy PCI-E X4 version. Over PCI-E 2.0 X4 has 2000 MB/s of bandwidth available, so it will give plenty of transfer speed. I plan to connect all 8 drives to the PCI-E SATA card. On motherboard SATA a system drive and a DVD writer is attached. Quote Link to comment
trurl Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 7 hours ago, klor said: On motherboard SATA a system drive and a DVD writer is attached. Doesn't sound like you are planning to use Unraid. Are you? Quote Link to comment
dopeytree Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 (edited) Does depend on what drives you're hooking up and how many you intend to use at once. Most normal spinning sata drives less than 180MB/s & unlikely to be reading that from 6 drives at once. Sata SSD's could be up to 600MB/s each so would eat up the bandwidth. But using on x1 will become more of an issue once ZFS is implemented. Edited October 3, 2022 by dopeytree Quote Link to comment
ChatNoir Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 50 minutes ago, dopeytree said: unlikely to be reading that from 6 drives at once. Until the first parity check/build. 1 Quote Link to comment
dopeytree Posted October 3, 2022 Share Posted October 3, 2022 (edited) 4x traditional sata drives (not SSD!!) would be acceptable on PCIe gen3 x1 because 900MB/s ÷ 4 = 225MB/s which is on par with the fastest spinning drives. I'm running 3x traditional sata's & 1x sata SSD and seems ok so far. The SSD is part of a mirror cache pool with the other half connected to motherboard. https://www.fullexposure.photography/how-fast-is-pcie-4-0-nvme-vs-pcie-3-0/#:~:text=But the biggest benefit of,(31.52 Gb%2Fs). Edited October 3, 2022 by dopeytree Quote Link to comment
klor Posted October 4, 2022 Share Posted October 4, 2022 (edited) Is any of the following cards using sata port multiplier? PCI-E Sata Adapter 4X PCIE Sata PCI Express Expansion Card with 10 Ports PCIE3.0 (using ASM1166+JMB585 chipset): https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOKtbzq Another nominate card could be this one: PCIE SATA Card SATA 3.0 PCIe Card, PCIe To SATA Controller Expansion Card with 16 Ports (using ASM1064 x 4 chipset): https://a.aliexpress.com/_mK9YdS0 There said, cards with sata port multiplier should be avoided. Is there any specific reason? Perhaps because of the bandwidth? Edited October 6, 2022 by klor Quote Link to comment
klor Posted October 6, 2022 Share Posted October 6, 2022 On 10/3/2022 at 7:49 AM, ChatNoir said: Your motherboard already have 6 SATA ports, do you mean 6 additional disks ? Yes, but I plan to hang all disks on the same card. Should work all disks, or nothing. Just imagine the situation, that 6 disk are attached to the SATA xard, 2 to the motherboard SATA. If the card is broken, then suddenly 6 disks will be missing, 2 will be still available, which will result unwanted situation. Quote Link to comment
klor Posted October 6, 2022 Share Posted October 6, 2022 On 10/3/2022 at 7:49 AM, ChatNoir said: without some kind of port multiplier I still don't get why the port multiplier should be avoided. Quote Link to comment
klor Posted October 6, 2022 Share Posted October 6, 2022 On 10/3/2022 at 6:01 PM, dopeytree said: Does depend on what drives you're hooking up I use traditional SATA drives. Quote Link to comment
trurl Posted October 6, 2022 Share Posted October 6, 2022 7 hours ago, klor said: I still don't get why the port multiplier should be avoided. Parity checks and disk rebuilds require simultaneous access of all disks so multiplier will slow things down a lot. Quote Link to comment
klor Posted October 6, 2022 Share Posted October 6, 2022 6 hours ago, trurl said: Parity checks and disk rebuilds require simultaneous access of all disks so multiplier will slow things down a lot. I understand. So SATA multiplier affects performance, when parity checks and disk rebuilds are done.Thanks! I'm thinking, if my mentioned cards are using SATA multiplier or not. PCI-E 4X 10 Port SATA Card with PCIE3.0 (using ASM1166+JMB585 chipset): https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOKtbzq ASM1166 chipset supports 6 SATA disks: https://www.asmedia.com.tw/product/45aYq54sP8Qh7WH8/58dYQ8bxZ4UR9wG5 JMB585 chipset supports 5 SATA disks: https://www.jmicron.com/products/list/15 So I suppose this card supports natively 10 SATA ports without multiplier. Am I right? Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted October 7, 2022 Author Share Posted October 7, 2022 10 hours ago, klor said: using ASM1166+JMB585 chipset That looks like an extremely unlikely combo, bet it's the ASM1166+JMB575 which is a SATA port multiplier. Quote Link to comment
klor Posted October 7, 2022 Share Posted October 7, 2022 27 minutes ago, JorgeB said: That looks like an extremely unlikely combo, bet it's the ASM1166+JMB575 which is a SATA port multiplier. I understand now. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
klor Posted October 7, 2022 Share Posted October 7, 2022 Which is the cheapest card you still recommend, with at least 8 SATA ports? Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted October 7, 2022 Author Share Posted October 7, 2022 An LSI 9211-8i or similar, they can be found pretty cheap used on ebay. Quote Link to comment
dopeytree Posted October 7, 2022 Share Posted October 7, 2022 (edited) Just future proofing... is there any LSI card that would make use of a 16x slot for bandwidth? If you factor in below it would give 4GB/s on gen1 x16 so 500MB/s if we go for a 8port sas card. If not then x8 would dish out speed to cope with spinning drives but not 8x SSDs. I ask because on many motherboards when using the 2nd m.2 slot the gen3 x16 card becomes a gen1 x16 card and the 2nd m2 becomes a gen2 instead of gen3. The gen4 x16 slot has a graphics card in. Edited October 7, 2022 by dopeytree Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted October 8, 2022 Author Share Posted October 8, 2022 the gen3 x16 card becomes a gen1 x16 card Never seen something like that, it can have fewer lanes, it won't change the PCIe generation. 1 Quote Link to comment
klor Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 On 10/7/2022 at 10:30 AM, JorgeB said: An LSI 9211-8i or similar, they can be found pretty cheap used on ebay. I did read, that LSI cards are getting very hot and needs additional cooling, because the attached factory heatsink is not enough. What is the experience? Does it cause problems, if only the original heatsink is used? Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted October 9, 2022 Author Share Posted October 9, 2022 Original heatsink if fine if you have overall good airflow in the case, obviously including the zone where the controller is, if using a tower style case a large side fan can also be a good solution. Quote Link to comment
klor Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 17 minutes ago, JorgeB said: Original heatsink if fine if you have overall good airflow in the case I use Thermaltake Armor tower case. It does not seem to be possible to attach side fan: https://www.newegg.com/amp/black-thermaltake-armor-series-atx-full-tower/p/N82E16811133154 Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted October 9, 2022 Author Share Posted October 9, 2022 Like mentioned good overall case airflow is enough, I have a couple like that, but more direct airflow is better. Quote Link to comment
klor Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 2 hours ago, JorgeB said: I have a couple like that, but more direct airflow is better. How do you detect overheating of an LSI card? Is there thermometer sensor implemented, which can be read by drivers or firmware? Quote Link to comment
JorgeB Posted October 9, 2022 Author Share Posted October 9, 2022 1 hour ago, klor said: Is there thermometer sensor implemented, which can be read by drivers or firmware? Nope, touch it, if you get burned it's too hot. 1 Quote Link to comment
dopeytree Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 (edited) Could always change the thermal pad / thermal paste behind the heatsink. But as @JorgeB says airflow is your best friend. Have you used all your motherboard's fan connectors at the moment? Might be able to add another fan. Noctua make near silent fans Edited October 9, 2022 by dopeytree Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.