Hi,

 

So - it's time for me to upgrade my array with some more HDDs, but I've run out of SATA ports on my motherboard (an X8SIL-F-O).  I've got plans to add another 16-18 drives in due course, and whilst I'm not going to use 3TB drives until thoroughly tested, I would of course want the controller to be compatible.

 

I've read a number of topics on controller cards, and thought the AOC-USAS2-L8i was the right card for me.  I was under the impression that it would support another 8 drives (with the use of two forward breakout cables), but the Supermicro page talks about supporting 63 devices.  Further my motherboard isn't on the list of compatible motherboards on the SM page either.

 

The AOC-SASLP-MV8 seems to have been the card of choice... would I be better off with this one?

 

Grateful for any clarification/ advice you could dispense!  Thank you in advance.

The USAS2 is not a standard PCIe card, but is what Supermicro call a UIO card.  In reality, this is simply a PCIe card, but with the components on the 'wrong' side of the card.  It should work in most PCIe x8 or x16 slots, provided that there is no physical obstruction.  However, you will need to remove (or modify) the card's backplate.  I like this card because, in a standard tower configuration, the heat is dissipated from the top surface of the card, not from the lower surface.

 

The choice between MV8 and L8i comes down to the SATA controller used - Marvel on the MV8 and LSI on the L8i.  I am not in a position to prove it, but Supermicro do claim that the L8i is compatible with 3TB drives.  It is SATA3 and PCIe2.0 compliant, meaning that it should have no problem in attaining the highest possible data transfer rates.

 

It does support eight drives natively - 63 with a port multiplier.

 

I am very happy with my L8i (in an Intel mobo).

I am not a big fan of LSI. Although I think they make excellent controllers, I also think they intentionally build obsolescence into their firmware to limit support for larger drives, and while other companies like Areca add support for newer drives, at least with currently marketed product, LSI adds support to only the newest (most expensive) controllers.

 

Of the 8 or so controllers / motherboards I have tested for 3T compatibility, only the LSI failed. Some of the boards I tested were much older products than that LSI controller.

Of the 8 or so controllers / motherboards I have tested for 3T compatibility, only the LSI failed. Some of the boards I tested were much older products than that LSI controller.

 

Since SM claim that the card is 3TB compatible, it would be helpful if you specified which f/w version you tested.

Of the 8 or so controllers / motherboards I have tested for 3T compatibility, only the LSI failed.

 

Can you give me some reccomendations in the $100 - $150 price point?

 

Thank you

Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Can you give me some reccomendations in the $100 - $150 price point?

 

AOC-USAS2-L8i

When doing Google searching related to getting my IBM branded LSI controller working with 3T drives, I read about an older LSI controller that was documented to work at one size (i think it was 1T) but when the next largest drives came out (1.5T?), the controller seemed to support them as well and users created RAID arrays with the larger disks. Until someone had a disk failure and found the drive rebuild logic did not support the larger disks. LSI's official response was that this was not a supported configuration and not a defect.  They did not issue a firmware update/fix.

 

I also sent an email to LSI support asking if it was planned to support 3T drives on my controller, and the tech support responded that some controllers were being updated but they didn't know which ones and couldn't tell me. I couldn't believe I'd get such a response from tech support!

 

Both of these experiences have me shying away from LSI.

 

No offense intended to PeterB or other happy LSI controller users recommending them, but when 4T and/or larger drives come out, I expect the current crop of LSI controllers will be found not compatible, while the Marvel based SASLP will be. Sad because I think the LSI is the better product.  (I hope to be proven wrong.)  

When doing Google searching related to getting my IBM branded LSI controller working with 3T drives, I read about an older LSI controller that was documented to work at one size (i think it was 1T) but when the next largest drives came out (1.5T?), the controller seemed to support them as well and users created RAID arrays with the larger disks. Until someone had a disk failure and found the drive rebuild logic did not support the larger disks. LSI's official response was that this was not a supported configuration and not a defect.  They did not issue a firmware update/fix.

 

I took a look at the SuperMicro site for the AOC-USAS2-L8i card (here), which has a link to the list of compatible HDDs (here).  I notice that there are 2 3TB drives listed... a Seagate and a Hitachi... makes me feel a little more confident about the card.

 

Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

I read somewhere that people were concerned with the "future-proof" effect of only 3Gb channels, which makes this card potentially less appealing.  Is this not a big deal for an UnRAID user?

 

Thanks for your assistance.

I took a look at the SuperMicro site for the AOC-USAS2-L8i card (here), which has a link to the list of compatible HDDs (here).  I notice that there are 2 3TB drives listed... a Seagate and a Hitachi... makes me feel a little more confident about the card.

 

That card is definitely compatible with 3T drives.  But how about 4T? 6T, 8T?  Are those sizes realistic within the lifespan of the unRAID server your're building?

 

My point is that it seems that LSI plans obsolescence into their controllers, and limits drive sizes for non-technical reasons.  The motherboard ports going back several generations are supporting 3T drives.  The add-on controllers from Promise, Adaptec and others that came out before 500G drives, are supporting 3T drives.  It seems likely that these types of controllers will continue to support larger drives, maybe up to full LBA64 size.  The Marvel chipset used in the SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8, which I think came out with the 1T drives, has also been supported the larger drives at least through 3T.  But my BR10i (with LSI 1068E chipset) only supports up to 2T drives.  I therefore have little confidence that the current crop will work with drives larger than 3T.  Only time will tell.

 

Compare that with Areca. I bought an ARC-1200 (2 port PCIe RAID controller).  It has been around for a while - WeeboTech has been using one for at least 2 years.  I bought one without really thinking would it support 3T drives.  When I got it, it didn't.  I went to their website and there was a firmware update.  30 minutes later it supported 3T drives.  Don't expect that from LSI!

 

I read somewhere that people were concerned with the "future-proof" effect of only 3Gb channels, which makes this card potentially less appealing.  Is this not a big deal for an UnRAID user?

 

Mechanical drives are only recently able to deliver anywhere close to 1.5Gb/sec (SATA I speed).  SSDs are faster than that, and some need a bit more and therefore require 3Gb/sec (SATA II speed) to run at their full potential.  No drives need more that 3 Gb/sec.  6Gb (SATA III speed), it is for the future.  Remember too, we are also limited by 1 Gb/sec network speeds.  And due to Ethernet inefficiency, that 1Gb/sec isn't real - you are luckly to get something approaching 1/2 of that speed.  So the network, and not the drive speeds, will bottleneck you for the forseeable future.  Although I can certainly give examples of applications where you would want 6 Gb/s speeds for future proof purposes, unRAID isn't one of them.

@bjp999

 

Many thanks for taking the time to put together such a thorough and thoughtful analysis.  You have convinced me to go with the AOC-SASLP-MV8.  It seems to be the controller of choice anyway.

 

Very much appreciate your helpful comments.

Great analysis BJP...

 

I am trying to plan my card purchase too....  And I very much want to support 4TB drives that will be available (almost certainly) within 12 months.  For me that's like the holy grail of storage.  3TB is just an interim step.

 

I was thinking of an LSI board - like the BR10i (I think that's it)....  But I do not want to get screwed over because LSI wants me to replace the board.

 

I WISH that Areca boards supported spin down and drive temps.  I have a 1220 that I'm not doing anything with, but spindown is a must since the drive would be spun down 98% of the time.

Remember that, if you have a staple of existing disks <= 3T, that one of these LSI boards could be used to support them, while the motherboard ports, and possibly a second controller like the SASLP, could support the larger drives.

 

And please don't take my ramblings as fact.  The new LSI drives may very well scale to 4T, especially if the 4T drives come out relatively soon while these controllers are still current and choice.  And who knows, maybe the new LSI firmware allows larger drives.  We don't know until larger drives come out and we can try them.

 

I too was planning to wait for the 4T drives, but had such good luck with Hitachi that I decided to stock up on 3T.  I do have room to add a few 4T drives when they come out and hit a good price point.  But that's a year off, maybe more with competition drying up.

 

My Areca drives DO spin down.  Not on command, but there is a timer that can be set in the BIOS to spin them down.  The longest delay is 1 hour, but that works for me.  I have 2 3T 7200 RPM drives on an ARC-1200 running multi-RAID.  One is RAID-0 unRAID parity, and one is a RAID-1 mirrored set.  Very happy with this setup!  And my parity can scale to 4T easily while still maintaining a 1T RAID-1 volume.

HERE is the article I was referencing about the "bug" that prevented rebuilding of a failed RAID drive.  Seems pretty shitty to me that they would not fix this, but does seem problem is limited to RAID mode which is not exactly how I remembered it.

 

So if prior generation controllers supported up to 2T as JBOD, maybe the newer controllers that support 3T drives will support larger drives in JBOD.  I wouldn't be surprised either way.