July 10, 201214 yr I'm getting ready to build a new server because I'm out-growing my current unRAID server. In my current server I believe I went with some cheaper $40 PCI cards (2 total for 8 ports) and it has worked well... although parity checks on my 15 array server take about a day. Anywho... I plan on building a new server... likely an ESXi server this time so that I can combine unRAID with a Windows Server all in one box. That being said, performance is more important to me this time around since it will be running more then just unRAID. I've searched back through this forum and I saw a couple recommendations for the Adaptec 1430 as being the best bang for the buck SATA PCIe card (retails for just over $100). Since my MOBO will only have 8 ports and I plan on building a 20 drive server, I would need 3 of these cards which would give me 12 SATA II ports at around $315. Note that the recommendations I found for this card were from 2009 and 2010... so I'm not sure if there's a new cheaper chip that performs just as good or better then the 1430 card. I need to get 12 additional ports on my Motherboard and I'd like to do it for a reasonably low price. I'll take performance over cost savings for the most part. Should I go with the 1430SA from Adaptec or is there another card or two worth considering?
July 10, 201214 yr Why do you want to stay with multiple 4-port cards? Why not opt for one 16-port, two 8-port, or one 8-port and one 4-port? LSI-based, or Marvel-based are both good options. You don't tell us whether you're sticking with an existing mobo, or replacing that. The recommendations for SATA cards may depend on the mobo you use.
July 10, 201214 yr Author Why do you want to stay with multiple 4-port cards? Why not opt for one 16-port, two 8-port, or one 8-port and one 4-port? LSI-based, or Marvel-based are both good options. You don't tell us whether you're sticking with an existing mobo, or replacing that. The recommendations for SATA cards may depend on the mobo you use. 16 port would be great! Except I haven't seen one reasonably priced yet. I'm not only looking for 3 four port cards... I'm fine with an 8 port along with a 4 port, or a 16 port card. I also haven't picked the motherboard yet. I'm going to be buying a new MOBO, so whatever PCI or PCIe options I need for the SATA card I should be able to accommodate. Do you have any specific recommendations?
July 10, 201214 yr Author Why do you want to stay with multiple 4-port cards? Why not opt for one 16-port, two 8-port, or one 8-port and one 4-port? LSI-based, or Marvel-based are both good options. You don't tell us whether you're sticking with an existing mobo, or replacing that. The recommendations for SATA cards may depend on the mobo you use. Checked out the LSI cards... expensive . However, it looks like those are only made to support server motherboards, and I don't see the need for something like that for a home server (at least with the home server I plan on configuring).
July 10, 201214 yr Why do you want to stay with multiple 4-port cards? Why not opt for one 16-port, two 8-port, or one 8-port and one 4-port? LSI-based, or Marvel-based are both good options. You don't tell us whether you're sticking with an existing mobo, or replacing that. The recommendations for SATA cards may depend on the mobo you use. Checked out the LSI cards... expensive . However, it looks like those are only made to support server motherboards, and I don't see the need for something like that for a home server (at least with the home server I plan on configuring). If you are going with ESXi I would suggest it (server motherboard). Server boards are usually built for stability and that is something you want when running VMs. Also if the LSI boards you checked included the IBM M1015 they are actually one of the cheapest when you get them off of EBAY. You can go to ServerSupply and get NEW ones that are still economical. Just need to get on ebay and by a bracket (M1015, BR10i) for it.
July 11, 201214 yr Author Why do you want to stay with multiple 4-port cards? Why not opt for one 16-port, two 8-port, or one 8-port and one 4-port? LSI-based, or Marvel-based are both good options. You don't tell us whether you're sticking with an existing mobo, or replacing that. The recommendations for SATA cards may depend on the mobo you use. Checked out the LSI cards... expensive . However, it looks like those are only made to support server motherboards, and I don't see the need for something like that for a home server (at least with the home server I plan on configuring). If you are going with ESXi I would suggest it (server motherboard). Server boards are usually built for stability and that is something you want when running VMs. Also if the LSI boards you checked included the IBM M1015 they are actually one of the cheapest when you get them off of EBAY. You can go to ServerSupply and get NEW ones that are still economical. Just need to get on ebay and by a bracket (M1015, BR10i) for it. That's a good point... I'll start looking into server motherboards as well. But it looks like the majority of service MOBO's only have 6 SATA II ports... so I would need to get 2 8 port (or 1 16 port) PCIe card.
July 11, 201214 yr Author Actually... if I decide to go the Server Motherboard route that has SATA and SAS connectors... I may not even need these add-on SATA cards (since the SAS connector (depending on the exactly type of connector) may be able to support more then 1 drive per connector if I understand this correctly). If that's true and I can connect all my drives directly to the motherboard using the SATA and SAS connectors, then I'd prefer to go that route. It may even be cheaper in the end then buying a bunch of add-on cards! So I guess my question then is... since I should have a strong preference for a server motherboards because of ESXi, can I get a reasonably affordable motherboard that supports at least 20 drives out of the box?
July 11, 201213 yr If that's true and I can connect all my drives directly to the motherboard using the SATA and SAS connectors, then I'd prefer to go that route. It may even be cheaper in the end then buying a bunch of add-on cards! Just consider that using port expanders may create a bottleneck which would slow down parity check/build operations.
July 11, 201213 yr If that's true and I can connect all my drives directly to the motherboard using the SATA and SAS connectors, then I'd prefer to go that route. It may even be cheaper in the end then buying a bunch of add-on cards! Just consider that using port expanders may create a bottleneck which would slow down parity check/build operations. It may slow it down some but I still get acceptable parity checks with my Intel RES2SV240 SAS expander. They appear to finish in about the same time as they use to on my SASLP-MV8's but now I can get 24 drives out of one M1015 (20 on one port of the M1015 through the RES2SV240 and 4 more on the 2nd port of M1015). I would expect that if I used several M1015s the speed would increase just not sure how much. The biggest factor in the parity check speed is still the drive itself.
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