cj0r Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Heh that's what I get for breaking one of my religiously followed slickdeal rules... buy first think about it later! I got 3 of them last night. Not sure what I will do with them just yet. I am researching motherboards that have 3 PCI-e x8 slots. So far I see the Supermicro X8SIA and X8STE. Regards, Peter Coincidentally I just bought the X8SIA-F 2 days ago through ANTOnline at Amazon. I managed to grab $500 in Amazon giftcards through eBillme for $400 so all my funds were commited to there (20% off $100 giftcard purchases, 5 orders total). It should arrive around Monday/Tuesday along with the x3440 I'll be plopping into it. I reckon I'll let everyone know how it goes. Before you say that processor is overkill, my plan is to get ESXi and unRaid running happily together. Norco 4220 + Corsair 850HX + X8SIA-F + X3440 + 8GB Crucial memory + 2x BR10i's. It will be a very interesting ordeal considering ESXi is still very fresh/raw and so are the BR10i's. Quote Link to comment
dyrewolfe Posted February 18, 2011 Author Share Posted February 18, 2011 Before you say that processor is overkill, my plan is to get ESXi and unRaid running happily together. Norco 4220 + Corsair 850HX + X8SIA-F + X3440 + 8GB Crucial memory + 2x BR10i's. It will be a very interesting ordeal considering ESXi is still very fresh/raw and so are the BR10i's. Sounds like you'll have a very nice build! Actually, unRAID seems to run very well with a proper ESXi setup. I'm running a Phenom II x4 on an Asus 890FX board w/2 1068e HBAs. One (the non BR10i) is dedicated to ESXi and I'll replace it with the 2nd BR10i once I receive it. ESXi is installed to and booted from a flash drive and as for unRAID (5.0b4), it's booted in a VM from another flash drive with the help of plop. On-board and BR10i are setup for VMDirectPath to the unRAID VM. At this moment, I'm pre-clearing two drives connected to the BR10i, parity check on the six drive array and streaming video at the same time. No slowdowns (can't tell any performance difference from a non-VM booted unRAID -- I need to do more comparisons of that) and no errors logged. Quote Link to comment
cj0r Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Awesome news, yes I'm very excited to get into this project. I went to pull the trigger in November on this board but it went out of stock from buy.com, literally the night I was going to pull the trigger I opted to grab some pizza and drinks with friends instead lol. I was fairly upset since I was going to get it for $200ish. Then all the Sandy Bridge warfare started kicking up so I held off. That all popped for me with the big intel recall fiasco so now I'm back to my original build (not to mention I was skeptical about new hardware especially when using with ESXi). Regardless, I'm very happy for those who did actually pull the trigger on these cards and got them at that price. Very very nice deal. Quote Link to comment
queeg Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 I ordered 2 the other day. And had one in my cart after that, not sure why. But when I read that about the in-stock change I bought the one that was in my cart as well. Two have shipped already. Not sure about the disposition of the third. Quote Link to comment
justme Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Mine hasn't come yet, but it's out for delivery. I'll post details ASAP. Hopefully pictures too, but no promises on those. queeg, Good luck on your attempt to get your 3rd, at the original price. Anyone, I have a question about serversupply.com and part #s for this card... What is the difference between the 44E8688, 44E8689, and the 44E8690, other than price? I found the other #s by clicking serversupply's "All of this Type" link. They all seem to have the same details to my old eyes. Also it seems like when you follow this link for the 44E8690 version, it list for $65. But if you just add to cart(don't do any lookups/detailed info,etc. first) it shows up as $62 with free shipping(lower 48). I discovered the link while researching these cards. I found the link(to serversupply) at this page at www2.shopping.com. Is this just the store's way of having a "under the radar" sale? Sorry, I don't mean to derail this thread. Mods feel free to move the "anyone" section if you want. I was just thinking that if the $44.45 were all gone/marked up... This 44E8690, for $62, might be the next best thing. /justme Quote Link to comment
BRiT Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 The 44E8690 is an IBM BR10i, it's exactly the same card perhaps just a newer or different revision. The two cards I have actually have 44E8690 part numbers on them. Quote Link to comment
prostuff1 Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 The 44E8690 is an IBM BR10i, it's exactly the same card perhaps just a newer or different revision. The two cards I have actually have 44E8690 part numbers on them. And the 44E8690 you have is working just fine, save for the already known limitations correct? Quote Link to comment
BRiT Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Yup, it's been working fine. It is running the absolute latest firmware I could find and the "IT" variant of it [ http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7451.msg104148#msg104148 ] It was working similarly even with earlier firmware. The limitations in 5.0 beta 4 are no built in drive temp reports and no built-in spindown/spinup control, but using smartctl and hdparm are possible workarounds. This weekend I may flash over to the "IR" Raid version to toy around with RAID1. Quote Link to comment
prostuff1 Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Yup, it's been working fine. It is running the absolute latest firmware I could find and the "IT" variant of it [ http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7451.msg104148#msg104148 ] It was working similarly even with earlier firmware. The limitations in 5.0 beta 4 are no built in drive temp reports and no built-in spindown/spinup control, but using smartctl and hdparm are possible workarounds. This weekend I may flash over to the "IR" Raid version to toy around with RAID1. Good to know and just wanted to make sure. My rebuild is going to be an all out thing and I am going to try and get ESXi and unRAID playing nicely together. We shall see... Quote Link to comment
justme Posted February 18, 2011 Share Posted February 18, 2011 Despite what I said above... I did break down(I always do) and order one...My card will arrive on Fri(according to Fedex), but I find my Fedex shipments often come a day early. Unfortunately I don't have a system(mainly spare MB) to test out the card in right now. Still when it arrives I'll post with details on the quality(shipping,appears new/used,etc) I can see with my eyes. I'm curious how closely mine will resemble dyrewolfe's, given I bought from the same source.... I'm no photographer, but I'll see if I can post some unboxing shots. /justme Please do update when you receive your card. I ordered another one this morning. Hopefully they all come from the same lot. I got my card. Unfortunately no pictures(camera is evil today, and I'm tired).Still... The inner(not shipping) box(8.5"Wx6"Dx1.5"H) is brown with a white label. The label has big barcode in upper left with the "44E8689" part # right below it. The part desciption reads "IBM SERVERAID BR10I SAS/SATA CARD". In the lower right the label says "REPACKAGED IN THE USA". The card itself is in a folded anti-stitic bag that looks like it could've been hand done, ableit nicely done(clean cut). Barely sealed with the usual big yellow sticker. The card is the type with the 2 SFF connectors pointing upwards from a notch cut in the end of the card. It has a mounting bracket with the LED indicators. The card looks to be new, to my eyes. I did look for signs of wear or cleaning, but didn't see anything obvious. The front has all 3 stickers. The first(white) one says: "SAS3082E-R L3-25116-01H" The back of the card has a small sticker with a long barcode and what may be a serial#. Below that it says " FRU 44E8690 EC: L06166 Made in THAILAND 2010-02-26" So it seem relatively new, based on the date. If I left any needed info out just ask and I'll edit the post. It's just I'm tired now and am going to try and get some sleep. Peace, justme Quote Link to comment
neilt0 Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 I'm reading the manual and it states: ServeRAID™-BR10i SAS/SATA Controller provides four or eight serial ports for connection to Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Serial ATA (SATA) devices. Each port is capable of a SAS link rate and a SATA link rate of 3.0 Gbps (gigabits per second). The PCI Express transmission and reception data rate is 2.5 Gbps in each direction, yielding a total bandwidth of 5.0 Gbps for each full-duplex lane. The controller is implemented using four or eight PCI Express physical layers (PHYs), which provide possible host-side maximum transmission and reception rates of up to 4.0 GBps (gigabytes per second). The ServeRAID-BR10i controller PCI Express interface is compliant with the PCI Express Specification, revision 1.0a. The controller implements the PCI Express interface as an x4 or x8 interface. Does this mean I could put two of these cards in my P5B-VM motherboard, which has both a 16x and a 4x PCI-E slot? EDIT: Looks like it should work in theory, but I've heard people have problems using two Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 cards in the P5B-VM? The controller supports PCI Express interfaces. The controller has the following PCI Express features: v Four or eight PCI Express physical layers v Single-physical-layer (1 lane) link transfer rate up to 2.5 Gbps in each direction v x8 and x4 link width support v Automatic downshift to an x4 link width if the controller is connected to an x4 connector or to an x8 connector that is wired as an x4 connector Quote Link to comment
BRiT Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 The two cards I have are physically 8x PCI-Express. In order to physically fit in a 4x PCI-Express physical slot it would need to be open ended. I do not know if they will work at the electrical 4x PCI-Express level. Quote Link to comment
dyrewolfe Posted February 19, 2011 Author Share Posted February 19, 2011 I got my card. Unfortunately no pictures(camera is evil today, and I'm tired).Still... The inner(not shipping) box(8.5"Wx6"Dx1.5"H) is brown with a white label. The label has big barcode in upper left with the "44E8689" part # right below it. The part desciption reads "IBM SERVERAID BR10I SAS/SATA CARD". In the lower right the label says "REPACKAGED IN THE USA". The card itself is in a folded anti-stitic bag that looks like it could've been hand done, ableit nicely done(clean cut). Barely sealed with the usual big yellow sticker. The card is the type with the 2 SFF connectors pointing upwards from a notch cut in the end of the card. It has a mounting bracket with the LED indicators. The card looks to be new, to my eyes. I did look for signs of wear or cleaning, but didn't see anything obvious. The front has all 3 stickers. The first(white) one says: "SAS3082E-R L3-25116-01H" The back of the card has a small sticker with a long barcode and what may be a serial#. Below that it says " FRU 44E8690 EC: L06166 Made in THAILAND 2010-02-26" So it seem relatively new, based on the date. If I left any needed info out just ask and I'll edit the post. It's just I'm tired now and am going to try and get some sleep. Peace, justme That describes mine perfectly. I think my born on date is 03-12-2010. Otherwise, everything else is the same. Quote Link to comment
dyrewolfe Posted February 20, 2011 Author Share Posted February 20, 2011 Looks like they restocked. It's currently available and back up to 87 in stock. Quote Link to comment
j5428 Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I decided to order one for future use. Does anyone have the links for the cables that are needed for this card? Quote Link to comment
j5428 Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I think these may be the ones but wanted to double check: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116097&cm_re=8087_forward-_-16-116-097-_-Product Or are they cheaper anywhere else? Quote Link to comment
dyrewolfe Posted February 20, 2011 Author Share Posted February 20, 2011 I think these may be the ones but wanted to double check: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816116097&cm_re=8087_forward-_-16-116-097-_-Product Or are they cheaper anywhere else? Those are the correct cables. These are the ones I ordered: http://www.scsi4me.com/3ware-cbl-sff8087ocf-06m--0-5-meter-multi-lane-internal-sff-8087-controller-to-4-serial-ata-breakout-cable-forwa.html?osCsid=a1b1911259eab96da11346e59ac1f869 https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=CBLSFF10M&title=LSI-3Ware-CBL-SFF8087OCF-10M-SFF-8087-to-Discrete-Forward-Breakout-Cable Quote Link to comment
justme Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 I'd get another if I could get my $5 off coupon code "BC3D46B1", to work. The coupon shows as active in "my account". The terms say it's not valid on previous purchases, but I thought that meant retro-active... But I guess it means future orders of the same item. I looked for SFF8087 to SFF8087, or SFF8087 to 4xSATA cables to add to the cart, but they all appeared backordered. Oh well, knowing me I'll likely give in sometime today. Because between 2 of these and my AOC-SASLP-MV8, I could max out my Norco 4220 AND have a sweet data redundacy server(considering WHS or ZFS based box, at the momemt). BTW: We need to find a cheaper source of SAS cables. Both ..87to87 and ..87toSATA. Shipping and handling shouldn't be as much as most sites charge. I have what I need for my current UnRaid build, but I'll need more to do the redundant server. I would say "thanks", to you, dyrewolfe... But you likely just caused me to spend money, I hadn't planned too. peace, /justme Quote Link to comment
ohlwiler Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 BTW: We need to find a cheaper source of SAS cables. Both ..87to87 and ..87toSATA. Shipping and handling shouldn't be as much as most sites charge. I have what I need for my current UnRaid build, but I'll need more to do the redundant server. I purchased 3ware 8087 cables from buy.com. Their budget shipping was free. About $15 a cable. Quote Link to comment
queeg Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Are these the same thing for cheaper? http://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-CBL-0188L-Serial-4-Lane-MultiLane/dp/B000XRRZIA http://www.buy.com/prod/supermicro-sas-cable-sata-sff-8087-2ft/q/sellerid/14387982/loc/101/206709632.html And why don't these cables come with latches? Quote Link to comment
dyrewolfe Posted February 20, 2011 Author Share Posted February 20, 2011 I'd get another if I could get my $5 off coupon code "BC3D46B1", to work. The coupon shows as active in "my account". The terms say it's not valid on previous purchases, but I thought that meant retro-active... But I guess it means future orders of the same item. I looked for SFF8087 to SFF8087, or SFF8087 to 4xSATA cables to add to the cart, but they all appeared backordered. I got a $5 off coupon and the promo code box not showing up in the cart. Ended up emailing the sales dept and they credited me for the difference. I didn't see any cables for a decent price so ordered elsewhere. Did you find cables for a good price? Quote Link to comment
justme Posted February 20, 2011 Share Posted February 20, 2011 Yep. Gone again, for me too. Fortunately I did place an order(around noon EST) and got an email confirmation. dyrewolfe , What address did you send the email to? Should I just reply to my order confirmation. I tried to do a chat, just now, from their site and it seemed to fail. I just got a copy(at my email address) of my chat text, and it said something about a fail "When you were offline (via LivePerson)". As for cables... I got my 8087 to 8087(Norco brand .5M) on an old(monthes ago) sale from NewEgg. I got 5 at the time. 2 for my 1st AOC-SASLP-MV8, 2 for a 2nd I planned to buy(this card will replace that plan), and 1 as a spare/test cable. They were ~$13 with shipping included. I think because I purchased them with something huge/heavy. As far as the breakout cable go... I was only looking at "reverse"(MB's 4 sata headers to one of my Norco's SAS backplanes) breakout cables til now, since I was shopping for my Norco 4220. I'm just suprised how much more a "forward"(..87 to 4 sata harddrives) cable costs. I'll be on the look out for deals, since I'll need forward breakout cables now(2nd nonNorco server). I'll post any links I find with total prices(including S+H) cheaper than those you guys already put up. EDIT>> Amazon.com has 3ware .6 meter forward breakout cables for $18.60 total(if you buy 2 to get over the $25 for free S+H).<<EDIT peace, /justme Quote Link to comment
dyrewolfe Posted February 20, 2011 Author Share Posted February 20, 2011 Yep. Gone again, for me too. Fortunately I did place an order(around noon EST) and got an email confirmation. dyrewolfe , What address did you send the email to? Should I just reply to my order confirmation. I tried to do a chat, just now, from their site and it seemed to fail. I just got a copy(at my email address) of my chat text, and it said something about a fail "When you were offline (via LivePerson)". I sent it to [email protected] Quote Link to comment
BRiT Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 They only seem to have them listed under br10i now, but at a higher price before shipping with the cheapest being $55 without shipping costs. Quote Link to comment
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