SATA Controller Cards


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42 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

Notice that the LSI logo is missing on some of the pictures.

Yes, there are a lot of fakes on the internet, unfortunately a missing logo is not a way to tell, most fakes have the LSI logo, LSI makes OEM versions without the logo, I do usually recommend buying used server pulls instead of new ones from China, I prefer an used genuine over a new fake any day.

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25 minutes ago, shanehm2 said:

do you mean something more like this for a server pull the h310 ?

Yes.

 

Dell/IBM need to be crossflashed, it's not difficult but it can be harder than a normal flash, still since that one is already pre-flashed it will be plug'n play.

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If you can find one preflashed from a vendor with a good reputation, it can be well worth the extra cost to have it done.  I seem to recall that there have been issues from finding computers that can still be booted to DOS to 'bricking' the card from doing some little detail wrong. (I recall that most of the time you will be working with the command line.)  Before you decide to flash one yourself, find the directions (and software)  for the exact card you are considering purchasing and read through the procedure to see if it is something you will be comfortable doing.

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55 minutes ago, Frank1940 said:

If you can find one preflashed from a vendor with a good reputation, it can be well worth the extra cost to have it done.  I seem to recall that there have been issues from finding computers that can still be booted to DOS to 'bricking' the card from doing some little detail wrong. (I recall that most of the time you will be working with the command line.)  Before you decide to flash one yourself, find the directions (and software)  for the exact card you are considering purchasing and read through the procedure to see if it is something you will be comfortable doing.

That's my number one concern. I am comfortable with everything computer wise, except for flashing firmware.

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32 minutes ago, shanehm2 said:

That's my number one concern. I am comfortable with everything computer wise, except for flashing firmware.

When I got my preflashed card, I used the term  IT mode  as part of the share parameter along with the OEM vendor's name the OEM model number on E-bay.  I also got the P20 version software which (as I understand it) is actually LSI's IT mode software for that whole 9200-xx series of cards.  (Version P19 is also commonly available and it may also be unRAID compatible.) 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Based on this thread, I bought two AOC-SASLP-MV8 from ebay..  They basically work, but I've been having some strange drive failures that I didn't have before, when I was using the motherboard SATA..  The strange thing is that I dont get prompted to press Ctrl-M on either machine I have installed the boards into, so  I can't really look at any of the settings.  I did find info on using the DOS utility to backup the config and look at it in the text file, so I've verified that the INT13 is off, and RAID is off.  The BIOS of each is the x.21 version everyone talks about here on the forum, but I'd still like to be able to get into the CTRL-M menu if someone can tell me how to enable that prompt??  

 

My drives are in 4-in-3 hot swap cages, and/or single drive cages, but those cages were also in use when I was using the MoBo ports, so I dont think they're adding to the instability.

 

Is this card generally still looked upon as a good choice for low cost?  ( I really dont care much for highest performance - I'd prefer reliability over performance any day... this is just for home and about the highest load it'll ever get is to stream a standard def DVD to a Kodi box..

 

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!!

-Steve

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Based on this thread, I bought two AOC-SASLP-MV8 from ebay..  They basically work, but I've been having some strange drive failures that I didn't have before, when I was using the motherboard SATA..  The strange thing is that I dont get prompted to press Ctrl-M on either machine I have installed the boards into, so  I can't really look at any of the settings.  I did find info on using the DOS utility to backup the config and look at it in the text file, so I've verified that the INT13 is off, and RAID is off.  The BIOS of each is the x.21 version everyone talks about here on the forum, but I'd still like to be able to get into the CTRL-M menu if someone can tell me how to enable that prompt??  
 
My drives are in 4-in-3 hot swap cages, and/or single drive cages, but those cages were also in use when I was using the MoBo ports, so I dont think they're adding to the instability.
 
Is this card generally still looked upon as a good choice for low cost?  ( I really dont care much for highest performance - I'd prefer reliability over performance any day... this is just for home and about the highest load it'll ever get is to stream a standard def DVD to a Kodi box..
 
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!!
-Steve


Marvel based cards aren't recommended any more. Many users have no problems with them, but alot suffer from parity check errors, drives randomly dropping, etc. Best off to get a LSI based card instead

Sent from my SM-T560NU using Tapatalk

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33 minutes ago, Squid said:

Marvel based cards aren't recommended any more. Many users have no problems with them, but alot suffer from parity check errors, drives randomly dropping, etc. Best off to get a LSI based card instead
 

Thanks for the quick response..  That describes EXACTLY what I'm seeing..  I guess for the few $$ I spent, I shouldn't be surprised..  Oh well - They're probably decent enough cards to leave on the shelf for a windows box someday..  :-)

 

Ebay, here I come for an LSI card..  :-)  Any recommendations, or is any LSI basically the same??

 

Edit: Based on other posts on this thread, I've got 2 Dell  H310 cards..    Thanks for the help!!

Edited by 172pilot
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13 hours ago, 172pilot said:

Thanks for the quick response..  That describes EXACTLY what I'm seeing..  I guess for the few $$ I spent, I shouldn't be surprised..  Oh well - They're probably decent enough cards to leave on the shelf for a windows box someday..  :-)

 

Ebay, here I come for an LSI card..  :-)  Any recommendations, or is any LSI basically the same??

 

Edit: Based on other posts on this thread, I've got 2 Dell  H310 cards..    Thanks for the help!!

 

Wide variety of cards available.  Here's the manufacturers website (googled LSI HBA product family).  Differences in the cards depend on

1. the number of lanes (VERY IMPORTANT)

2. the number of external or internal ports.

3. PCI Express 2.0 or 3.0 (important depending on your motherboard).  This article discusses the difference from a gaming perspective, but the concepts are the same...after all, in the end its ALL data!  http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/pci-express-3-0-vs-2-0-gaming-performance-gain/

 

I bought this card: https://www.broadcom.com/products/storage/host-bus-adapters/sas-9207-8i, which has performed well (get 120mb/s across gigabit ethernet).

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Hello,

 

My unRAID server case (Thermaltake Armour) currently houses 8 drives and can comfortably hold four more in the removable drive cages, for a total of 12 drives.  However, all 8 existing sata ports are occupied (6 on the DH55HC MB, plus 2 on a SiiG sata card).  To create some open stata ports now and add more drives in the future, I need to replace the SiiG SC-SA0L 11-S1 2-port card that is connected to the PCI express 2.0 x16 graphics card slot with a 6-port or 8-port card that will perform optimally in the same slot .

 

I've read through the PCI Sata Controller section of the Hardware Compatibility Wiki and am not sure which controller I should purchase because the only card listed for PCI express 2.0, is the SuperMicro AOC-USAS2-L8i/L8e, which is discontinued according to the SuperMicro website.

 

Any recommendations for a replacement controller card that is <=$150?

 

Thank you,

Peaceful

 

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57 minutes ago, Peaceful said:

Any recommendations for a replacement controller card that is <=$150?

 

I have an old AM3+ motherboard with PCIe v2.0 and I just picked up an LSI SAS9207-8i card that recommends a PCIe v3.0 8x slot for $102 on amazon. It works great. Most importantly, no firmware flashing required. Obviously this card is backwards compatible with PCIe v2 and you won't notice a difference with regular hard drives but it will limit the speed of an ssd.

I average 100.5 MB/s during parity checks with 6 2TB WD blues. No errors and no problems. You will need 2x internal mini-SAS to 4x SATA forward breakout cables.

This price has gone up some now ($120) but you can find them for less if you look. I just purchased a backup card on ebay for $30 NEW.

Edited by SoAvenger
added some more explanations.
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7 hours ago, Peaceful said:

 

I've read through the PCI Sata Controller section of the Hardware Compatibility Wiki and am not sure which controller I should purchase because the only card listed for PCI express 2.0, is the SuperMicro AOC-USAS2-L8i/L8e, which is discontinued according to the SuperMicro website.

Most of the listed cards are PCIe2.0 - by the time the list was started it was state of the art.

The SAS2008 cards from LSI or their rebrands are recommended. PCIe3.0 maybe more future proof, but not necessarily budget.

Dependent on your location, especially the rebranded cards can be very competitive in terms of pricing, but they have to be crossflashed.

In certain regions even the LSI cards are inexpensive, you have to check.

Edited by Fireball3
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On 1/23/2018 at 5:21 PM, SoAvenger said:

 

I have an old AM3+ motherboard with PCIe v2.0 and I just picked up an LSI SAS9207-8i card that recommends a PCIe v3.0 8x slot for $102 on amazon. It works great. Most importantly, no firmware flashing required. Obviously this card is backwards compatible with PCIe v2 and you won't notice a difference with regular hard drives but it will limit the speed of an ssd.

I average 100.5 MB/s during parity checks with 6 2TB WD blues. No errors and no problems. You will need 2x internal mini-SAS to 4x SATA forward breakout cables.

This price has gone up some now ($120) but you can find them for less if you look. I just purchased a backup card on ebay for $30 NEW.

 

Thank you for the suggestion!  That LSI card looks like a good fit and with PCIe 3.0 it offers an upgrade path should I replace the MB one day.

 

21 hours ago, Fireball3 said:

Most of the listed cards are PCIe2.0 - by the time the list was started it was state of the art.

The SAS2008 cards from LSI or their rebrands are recommended. PCIe3.0 maybe more future proof, but not necessarily budget.

Dependent on your location, especially the rebranded cards can be very competitive in terms of pricing, but they have to be crossflashed.

In certain regions even the LSI cards are inexpensive, you have to check.

 

Thanks for the clarification.  I was being too literal with the interface designations.  The LSI that SoAvenger is using sounds like a good solution.

 

Thanks again,

Peaceful

 

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On 1/23/2018 at 7:32 PM, Peaceful said:

 

Any recommendations for a replacement controller card that is <=$150?

 

 

On 1/24/2018 at 2:51 AM, Fireball3 said:

Dependent on your location, especially the rebranded cards can be very competitive in terms of pricing, but they have to be crossflashed.

 

If you are not comfortable with crossflashing a card, you can go to E-bay and Google with the term IT mode  and the model number of the card you are interested in.  That will usually bring a list of vendors who will provide crossflashed cards for about $20US more.  You want to watch the ratings of any vendor on E-bay so don't be guided by price alone.  I got mine for about $80US in the summer of 2017. 

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On 1/25/2018 at 4:49 AM, Frank1940 said:

 

 

If you are not comfortable with crossflashing a card, you can go to E-bay and Google with the term IT mode  and the model number of the card you are interested in.  That will usually bring a list of vendors who will provide crossflashed cards for about $20US more.  You want to watch the ratings of any vendor on E-bay so don't be guided by price alone.  I got mine for about $80US in the summer of 2017. 

 

Thanks for the tip.  I ended up buying an LSI 9207-8i from reputable seller on ebay and according to the Hardware Compatibility guide,  it comes in IT mode by default, so no flashing required (fingers crossed).  Better price than Amazon and no taxes either.

 

Thanks again to everyone for your help!

Peaceful

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