Best SATA III Controller Card?

[ZipsServer]

Hi guys.

 

This is actually my first post so please forgive any uneducated errors I make.

 

First, I am running on 

-Unraid 5.0rc8a

-ASUS F1A75-V PRO FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) 

----http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_Socket_FM1/F1A75V_PRO/#specifications

-AMD A8-3870K Llano 3.0GHz FM1 Quad-Core

-Kingston HyperX 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM 1866

-Rosewill CAPSTONE 550W ATX12V Modular

-(TWO)  ICY DOCK MB974SP-B Tray-less 4 in 3 SATA I/II/III Hot-Swap Backplane RAID Cage Module

-With currently (THREE) WD RED 3TB

-I plan to add 5 other drives with one of them being a SSD cache drive

 

 

Second, I have been looking around the forum and all the talk seems to be about SATA II cards. I understand that regular hard drives cannot approach 6Gb/s sustained speeds, so for most people a SATA II controller works fine.

 

However, I would like to retain the most flexibility in my system as possible with the option of adding all SSD's in the future if I would want to. Currently I use my unRAID system as a media server, file repository, and computer backup, but I want to use it for other purposes in the future. I may even stop using this system as an unRAID server at some point in time. Basically, I want a SATA III card if possible.

 

 

So any suggestions on what SATA III Controller I should get that will work with the current(and future) unRAID software?

-ideally around $100 and no more expensive that $300,

-ideally has 8 SATA ports, but 4 is fine because i have a lot of slots (2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 ( x16, x4) || 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1 || 3 x PCI)

-x16 vs x4 vs regular PCIe 2.0? (noob question)

 

***I am also open to the possibility of SAS, port multipliers, etc if that offers more flexibility, although I am not as educated on SAS as I am SATA.

 

Finally,

Thank you!

[BobPhoenix]

I like my M1015s (labeled LSI 9220-8i) - SataIII 8 port SAS controller. I bought 6 total all purchased on eBay for 65-110 only had one burn out.  If you have to have new - Newegg has M1015s for $320.  The LSI 9211-8i is what I flashed my M1015s into being and it is 258.  Or you could get a LSI 9240-8i for 265 and it is essentially a M1015.  The other LSI cards at Newegg are likely to work with unRAID as well if you can flash them to IT mode - IR mode doesn't appear to work - at least not on my M1015s anyway.

[ZipsServer]

Hey, thanks for the reply.

 

I dont know how to flash the card's bios into IT mode. I am also not sure what the difference between IT and IR mode is. Are there any resources you can point me towards to learn how to do this?

 

Also, since it is an SAS controller I would need to use forward breakout cables correct?

 

Thanks for your help!

[shat]

I agree with Bob. The M1015 is one of the best cards that unraid users rely on. It is worth the bit of time searching eBay to find one. There are always tons of them available.

 

Flashing is easy. There is a thread in the hardware section under controllers. Just do a find for the card in the thread. It's detailed and very easy to do.

[BobPhoenix]

Hey, thanks for the reply.

 

I dont know how to flash the card's bios into IT mode. I am also not sure what the difference between IT and IR mode is. Are there any resources you can point me towards to learn how to do this?

 

Also, since it is an SAS controller I would need to use forward breakout cables correct?

 

Thanks for your help!

As shat said Look at the first sticky thread in the "Hard Drives and Controllers" forum.

[shat]

Thanks Bob. You're on the ball.

[HAVOC]

Second the m1015 

[dikkiedirk]

M1015 +1. Got 4 of ebay. 50-75 Euro last year. Prices went up though.

[Johnm]

M1015 +1 ...

 

Like bob, i have 6 also. and I have also fried one myself.. (hot plugged it.. DOHH!!)

 

[ZipsServer]

Just got the M1015 on ebay for $90.

 

Hopefully flashing it will be easy enough!

 

Thank you guys for your input!