<I am on the latest beta of unRAID which supports 3TB drives>

 

I'm trying to figure out if the Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 8-port SATA card will work with 3TB Western Digital Green drives.

 

I've somehow managed to fill my 21x2TB server. It has 3 of these SATA cards in it. I'm looking at replacing a few with 3TB greens since Amazon has them for $139.99, which is the lowest price I can find (by far). However, i've seen many complains about 3TB issues. Mainly on the SAS version of this card.

 

Is there a firmware update I will need to do, or is it just plug in and go like with my 2TB drives?

 

Thanks. (Sorry if this is a repost, I searched but couldn't find a definite answer)

Look at recent threads in hard drives and controllers subforum. Thread name will be very clear. You will find your answer there.

Look at recent threads in hard drives and controllers subforum. Thread name will be very clear. You will find your answer there.

I think you are refering to the AOC-SASLP-MV8 (PCIe) aren't you?  He wants the AOC-SAT2-MV8 (PCIx) something I'm interested in as well.  I don't remember a thread for the PCIx version just the PCIe version.

If I am not mistaken, Both cards have the same marvel chipset.

I could be wrong since i have not looked in a while.

 

If they do, I would assume it would work based on my testing.

 

I be live amazon has the hitachi's on sale for $106 right now. see the deals section.

 

EDIT: I am Mistaken. See my post below.

Sorry - I misread the model number.

 

But I did run a test on this controller also. I think you will find a link to my test thread in the thread I referred to. If not I can post a link tonight.

Sorry - I misread the model number.

 

But I did run a test on this controller also. I think you will find a link to my test thread in the thread I referred to. If not I can post a link tonight.

 

Well looks like i'll just buy one from Amazon and make sure. Looks like some people can't get them to work and others have no problems.

I don't recommend this controller unless your MB has PCI-X slots.

I don't recommend this controller unless your MB has PCI-X slots.

 

It has 3. I bought this motherboard a year ago for these controllers.

If I am not mistaken, Both cards have the same marvel chipset.

I could be wrong since i have not looked in a while.

 

If they do, I would assume it would work based on my testing.

 

I be live amazon has the hitachi's on sale for $106 right now. see the deals section.

I'll have to check since I have both but the display on boot if very different.

I am wrong.

 

I just looked it up.

 

SAT2-MV8 SATA controller (based on the Marvell Hercules-2 Rev. C0 SATA host controller)

SASLP-MV8 controller (based on the Marvell 6480 host controller)

 

This makes it Iffy for 3TB.

I am wrong.

 

I just looked it up.

 

SAT2-MV8 SATA controller (based on the Marvell Hercules-2 Rev. C0 SATA host controller)

SASLP-MV8 controller (based on the Marvell 6480 host controller)

 

This makes it Iffy for 3TB.

 

I'ved ordered one from Amazon, if it doesn't work I can return it I guess.

 

Though, it looks like i'd have to spend a TON of money to get 3TB support if it doesn't work. There are no motherboards with my socket type that have 3x PCI-E for the SAS controllers. I'd have to upgrade my motherboard, cpu, and possibly ram. Then buy 3 of those controllers. Looking at $300 for controllers + easily another $200 for the rest. I really hope these work......

I'm in the same position as you, with a maxed out server using 2T. drives and two SAT2 cards. I plan to just build a second server, replacing 2T. drives with 3T. drives just isn't cost effective. It would cost over 2k in drives for 20T. of extra space.

I'm in the same position as you, with a maxed out server using 2T. drives and two SAT2 cards. I plan to just build a second server, replacing 2T. drives with 3T. drives just isn't cost effective. It would cost over 2k in drives for 20T. of extra space.

 

!!!

 

for 2K you can build a complete 40TB server using 2TB drives.

assuming you get the 2TB drives at $65 each and the server is budgeted at $800..

 

I'll agree, it is not cost effective to replace 2TB drives with 3TB drives yet.

I plan on running my 2TB drives till they die. for now they'll live in older storage servers where they are now.

 

I have replaced some 1.5TB drives in some hardware raid boxes with 3TB drives. bumping the 1.5's to unraid use.

 

I think My main box will only receive 3TB from now on.

Look here ...

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=11183.msg109527#msg109527

Look here ...

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=11183.msg109527#msg109527

 

Thanks, looks like it works.

 

I don't know what all those commands are though. I was just going to preclear the 3TB like normal, then shut the server down.. pull out my current parity drive, and put in the 3TB and rebuild parity. Will I need to do more?

No. Either your hardware will see it as a 3T drive or as a 2.2T drive. The SAT2-MV8 saw it as 3T in my testing. The only controller that did not see the 3T drives properly was the BR10i from IBM, but made by LSI.

Just an update.

 

- The SATA card's BIOS during startup detected it at 2.2TB, which made me worry.

- Unraid detects it as 3TB.

- Preclear script detects it as 3TB and shows the right amount of bytes.

 

Seems like it works minus it not detecting it correctly on startup, which doesn't seem to cause any issues. I'm preclearing the drive now.. which will likely take over a day due to it's size. After that I'll replace my current parity drive with it and rebuild parity, then I will sync parity afterwards to make sure there is still 0 errors before deeming it "working correctly".

 

Going to be a long process....

Thank you for the update.  Please do keep this thread posted on your results... I'm avidly watching!

Thank you for the update.  Please do keep this thread posted on your results... I'm avidly watching!

Me too!

Precleared fine, parity syncing now.

 

Only problem is the drive now has 5.3k LLC counts.. I can't seem to get it to disable it's head park features, unlike my 1.5TB and 2TB greens. Wdidle3 just doesn't seem to want to do it. Many of my greens had this problem but it was fixed by disabling the feature.

Final Update: Everythings fine and parity is valid, no errors. I will grab a couple more if they go on sale.

 

I recommend running WDIDLE3 for /S300 and then for /D. Seems to stop the LLC count. Not sure why you'd have to do both.

Awesome - thank you for the confirmation!

I know this is old, but I am currently debating adding a 3TB drive, but I want to ensure it is supported.  Running 5.0 Rc3 and this card.  I would put this drive as parity to start before adding another, but I want to make sure 3TB is fully supported with unraid and this card before I waste money.  If needed I will go 2TB, but I would hope 3TB support is here.

This is old but according to others, it looks like the SAT2-MV8 will also work with 4TB drives... Anyone already tried out?

 

I am just getting two Seagate 4TB DM drives in couple of days, will test and report.

Current (latest) firmware on the SAT2-MV8 is 1.0b.

This is old but according to others, it looks like the SAT2-MV8 will also work with 4TB drives... Anyone already tried out?

 

I am just getting two Seagate 4TB DM drives in couple of days, will test and report.

Current (latest) firmware on the SAT2-MV8 is 1.0b.

It is very doubtful that they wouldn't work.  The 2.2TB limit is an addressing limit not a software limit.  Since the controller works with 3TB drives it should have 64bit LBA addressing so they should handle drives WELL in excess of any drives even projected in the next few years.  I saw a post by someone else that mentioned exabyte size which should be a million terabytes or so.  Assuming I have my scales correct.  In any case I wouldn't expect drives greater than this for quite a while.