SAS controller for 4x 16TB WD Red Pro Drives, an ITX z390 Motherboard and a Node304 Case

[Drama_Derp]

This is the 2nd time rebuilding a server from old PC parts but I this time I'm going to figure out a more advanced storage storage solution. 

 

I'm looking to mirror/Raid1 a cache drive (Sata or NVMe, not sure) and will be using 4x new 16TB WD Red Pro Drives to start with the option to add 2 more in the case. 

 

Server is 90% for Plex (Mostly Local Playback, 2x remote streams max)

10% Shared Family Storage

 

CPU: i5-9600K

MOBO: Z390 I AORUS PRO WIFI

 

Three questions …

 

What is the best SAS card to keep temperatures down? 

 

Should the SSDs in the cache pool be on the same controller as the hard drives? 

 

If there are 4 available SATA ports and 2 NVMe slots on the motherboard and the SAS card and accommodate up to 8 drives, what is the most stable configurations of Parity, Cache, and Remaining storage drives?

[ChatNoir]

1. Why a SAS controller and not a regular SATA expansion card ?

From what I read you don't have SAS drives and don't plan to have that many drives (6+2). A 2 or 4 ports SATA controller would do and tend to generate less heat.

If you absolutely need a HBA, simply plan to have direct airflow on the heatsink and you should be OK.

 

2. Having disks on the same or a different controller is generally irrelevant. There are 2 exceptions though :

• most HBA could cause some problems with SSDs, TRIM in particular
• there should not be any bandwidth issues unless 
  • you use a super fast SATA SSD on a old controller
  • or your controller uses a port multipler

3. as for your drive organisation, it will depend on what you want to do, your tolerance to failures and backup strategies.

Remember that SSDs in the Array possible but not advised unless for very specific use-cases and that depending on MBs, SATA M.2 often deactivate some SATA ports when in use (does not seem to be the case on that MB).

 

A basic startup config with the HW you list above would be 1 Parity and 3 HDDs on the Array and 2 NVME M.2 SSDs in a Mirrored Pool (BTRFS or ZFS now).

[Lolight]

21 hours ago, Drama_Derp said:

This is the 2nd time rebuilding a server from old PC parts but I this time I'm going to figure out a more advanced storage storage solution. 

 

I'm looking to mirror/Raid1 a cache drive (Sata or NVMe, not sure) and will be using 4x new 16TB WD Red Pro Drives to start with the option to add 2 more in the case.

Two identical capacity NVMe mirrored pool drives in M.2 slots and 4 HDDs attached to motherboard's SATA ports.

Don't add a HBA or SATA expansion card until you run out of SATA ports.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Lolight

[Drama_Derp]

On 6/18/2023 at 4:57 AM, ChatNoir said:

Why a SAS controller and not a regular SATA expansion card? 

I was hoping a pre-owned/IT mode sas controller would be inexpensive and limit the number of days cables needed in Node 304.

 

I'm still trying to confirm with Gigabyte if the m.2 drives turn off any SATA ports.

 

Is there a non sas/hba expansion card you can suggest that would handle 4-6 drives? 

[ChatNoir]

1 hour ago, Drama_Derp said:

Is there a non sas/hba expansion card you can suggest that would handle 4-6 drives? 

see the thread I linked above

[Lolight]

11 hours ago, Drama_Derp said:

I'm still trying to confirm with Gigabyte if the m.2 drives turn off any SATA ports.

According to the board's manual one SATA port will be disabled with a SATA-type M.2 SSD installed into the top-side M.2 connector:

 

Edited June 20, 2023 by Lolight

[ChatNoir]

The important word being SATA M.2 SSD. If you use a NVME M.2 SSD it should be fine.

[Drama_Derp]

On 6/20/2023 at 1:56 AM, ChatNoir said:

The important word being SATA M.2 SSD. If you use a NVME M.2 SSD it should be fine.

Have confirmed with Gigabyte support. No issues with NVME m.2 SSDs.