Sata Controller Options

[HTLuver]

I'm looking at expanding my array and I'm out of SATA ports (6 used up) on the MB. My tower has space for 6 more drives.  My motherboard has 

(1) PCI Express 2.0 x16, (4) PCI Express x1, (2) PCI Slots

 

Since PCI E x1 has a max speed of 250MB/s does this mean I can buy a 2 port SATA controller allowing each drive up to 125MB/s of transfer speed? Or are those theoretical numbers?  I've never seen my drives hit 125MB/s.  This would mean I could buy (3) 2 port SATA controllers and have my tower full?

 

If this isn't true can someone let me know what my options are.

[Rajahal]

Your cheapest option will be to buy three of these cards:

 

2 port PCIe x1 SIL3132

 

I use those cards in nearly all of my builds, and I've never had trouble with them (save for a single DOA unit, no big deal).  You can max out each card with 2 drives without introducing any bottlenecks into your server.

 

The more expensive but potentially more future-proof option would be to buy one of these cards:

 

Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

and two of these cables

Forward breakout cables

 

You could use 6 of those 8 ports and leave the other two unused.  The benefit of this option is that if you ever decide to upgrade to a larger server, this card will likely be much more useful than several of the SIL3132 cards.  The risk of this option is that some motherboards are incompatible with this card.  Let us know what motherboard you are using and we can try to help you find out if it will or won't work.

[joshpond]

That one PCIe 16 slot would be for graphics cards and some motherboards also won't support any other type of card (ie SASLP) there so you'll have to check that. Mine does but some won't.

 

Question for all, Is it possible that the 4 PCIex1 slots share a controller thus limiting bandwidth anyway?

 

Thanks Josh

[HTLuver]

Thanks for the info.  I'm using a GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3 for now.  I do have future plans now that I'm learning more about unRAID and computers but they are a ways off and entail a Norco case and probably new MB, CPU, etc.  Do you think my MB will support the supermicro?

[lionelhutz]

This is the cheapest option;

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280429470355

 

3 of those for about $25.

 

Peter

 

[BRiT]

Question for all, Is it possible that the 4 PCIex1 slots share a controller thus limiting bandwidth anyway?

 

It's not possible in typical systems today due to the way PCI-Express works. All of those 1x PCI-Express each have their own bandwidth.

 

The only way for that to occur is if a motherboard vendor used a secondary south-bridge chip that had a lower bandwidth upstream connection to the CPU than the total number of PCI-Express lanes it provides. On top of that, this secondary south-bridge chip would have to do it's own local buffering or multiplexing of the signals between the peripherals and cpu due to the bandwidth differences.

 

For instance:  CPU <---[8x PCI-Express Bandwidth]--> Secondary SouthBridge Chip <----[16 PCI-Express Lanes provided]--> Peripherals in any arrangement

[joshpond]

Do you think my MB will support the supermicro?

What does the motherboard manual say?

 

It's not possible in typical systems today due to the way PCI-Express works. All of those 1x PCI-Express each have their own bandwidth.

 

The only way for that to occur is if a motherboard vendor used a secondary south-bridge chip that had a lower bandwidth upstream connection to the CPU than the total number of PCI-Express lanes it provides. On top of that, this secondary south-bridge chip would have to do it's own local buffering or multiplexing of the signals between the peripherals and cpu due to the bandwidth differences.

 

For instance:  CPU <---[8x PCI-Express Bandwidth]--> Secondary SouthBridge Chip <----[16 PCI-Express Lanes provided]--> Peripherals in any arrangement

Thanks Brit, was curious as the older PCI ones would be limited.

[Superorb]

This is the cheapest option;

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280429470355

 

3 of those for about $25.

 

Peter

 

 

Damm, I just bought the Monoprice one for $17 shipped yesterday. Do these generic ones use the same chipset as the Monoprice cards?

[Joe L.]

This is the cheapest option;

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280429470355

 

3 of those for about $25.

 

Peter

 

 

Damm, I just bought the Monoprice one for $17 shipped yesterday. Do these generic ones use the same chipset as the Monoprice cards?

No, it appears the Monoprice one uses a Silicon Image SIL3132, while the boards from hong-kong use a Jmicron JMB360 chipset.  (or, at least the picture on e-bay shows that stenciled on their PC board)

 

I'll know for sure in a week or two... since I ordered 3 from the e-bay link/Hong Kong a few weeks ago myself.  They were responsive and they made mention they shipped once they were back from their Chinese New-Year's holiday.

 

Joe L.

[Superorb]

 

 

Damm, I just bought the Monoprice one for $17 shipped yesterday. Do these generic ones use the same chipset as the Monoprice cards?

No, it appears the Monoprice one uses a Silicon Image SIL3132, while the boards from hong-kong use a Jmicron JMB360 chipset.  (or, at least the picture on e-bay shows that stenciled on their PC board)

 

I'll know for sure in a week or two... since I ordered 3 from the e-bay link/Hong Kong a few weeks ago myself.   They were responsive and they made mention they shipped once they were back from their Chinese New-Year's holiday.

 

Joe L.

 

Have you heard any word on whether these cheapies will work with unRAID, or was that your objective?

[Joe L.]

 

 

Damm, I just bought the Monoprice one for $17 shipped yesterday. Do these generic ones use the same chipset as the Monoprice cards?

No, it appears the Monoprice one uses a Silicon Image SIL3132, while the boards from hong-kong use a Jmicron JMB360 chipset.  (or, at least the picture on e-bay shows that stenciled on their PC board)

 

I'll know for sure in a week or two... since I ordered 3 from the e-bay link/Hong Kong a few weeks ago myself.   They were responsive and they made mention they shipped once they were back from their Chinese New-Year's holiday.

 

Joe L.

 

Have you heard any word on whether these cheapies will work with unRAID, or was that your objective?

Yes, they will work.  See this thread:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=10165.0

[Superorb]

Oh well. No big deal, I'll just keep this in mind for my server build, whenever that happens and we can find a new motherboard to go after.

[lionelhutz]

Ya, I just bought 3 of those cards too plus a HDMI cable and a toslink. $28. Couldn't resist throwing in a $1 HDMI cable just in case I need one in the future.

 

Peter

[HTLuver]

Thanks a lot for the choices.  Looks like I know what do now.  I would have never thought I could expand for these low prices! 

[Joe L.]

 

 

Damm, I just bought the Monoprice one for $17 shipped yesterday. Do these generic ones use the same chipset as the Monoprice cards?

No, it appears the Monoprice one uses a Silicon Image SIL3132, while the boards from hong-kong use a Jmicron JMB360 chipset.  (or, at least the picture on e-bay shows that stenciled on their PC board)

 

I'll know for sure in a week or two... since I ordered 3 from the e-bay link/Hong Kong a few weeks ago myself.   They were responsive and they made mention they shipped once they were back from their Chinese New-Year's holiday.

 

Joe L.

 

Have you heard any word on whether these cheapies will work with unRAID, or was that your objective?

Yes, they will work.  See this thread:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=10165.0

My boards arrived from China today.  (ordered on the 7th)  Each came with a standard length red 18" SATA cable.  (And 18" cables are too short for my server enclosure.  ) Looks like an order to monoprice is needed..

 

The controller chip is a JMC362.

That JMC362 product description says:

• Supports 1-Lane 2.5Gbps PCI Express bus

• Internal native interface multiplexed to 2-port SATA II and 1-port PATA

• All registers accessible in unified memory space

• PCI Express PCB trace length can be up to 8” (20.3cm)

 

SATA II

• Supports 2-port 3.0Gbps SATA II interface

• Supports two independent SATA II channels (separate logic and FIFO)

• Supports Native Command Queue (NCQ) on SATA II port

• Supports Hot Plugging like USB on SATA II port

• Supports SATA II Gen1m and Gen2m (External SATA Connection, eSATA)

• Supports Port Multiplier with Command-based Switching on SATA II port