Should I buy this card?

[adrianz]

Hello,

 

I need to buy a HBA card for my constantly growing server. Is this card a good choice? http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-LSI-MegaRAID-9240-8i-8ports-PCI-E-6Gb-RAID-Controller-IBM-M1015-46M0861-/291130540147?pt=US_Computer_Disk_Controllers_RAID_Cards&hash=item43c8bb8073

 

I've seen some mentions about it on the forum, and everything looks like it won't give me any problems with my unRAID, but I just want to make sure before I spend $100 on this card.

[c3]

Yes, the LSI 9240-8i will work great.

 

Someone recent mentioned they purchased a counterfeit, this might be too http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=34081.0

 

So that looks like the LSI 9240-8i, but unlike the real LSI 9240-8i, no cables are included. Also the brackets are solid not perforated.

 

Compare with photos from Newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118128

 

[sgibbers17]

I would stay away from eBay and Amazon for LSI cards I just got a 9211-8i that turned out to be either stolen or counterfeit from amazon.  There are stories on the web specifically about LSI cards being stolen or counterfeit with fake s/n so you can't RMA.  Stick with the authorized resellers.  I got my money back from amazon but I learned my lesson.

 

I would recommend the 9211-8i because the 9240-8i, I believe, doesn't officially support IT mode which is needed for unRAID.  So if the flashing goes wrong your out of luck.  The 9211-8i is also cheaper.

 

 

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[adrianz]

Well, that's unfortunate :-( The cheapest card I can find locally is M1015 and it's twice the price of what I can find on ebay :-/

 

But I guess there is no point in buying a knockoff that's going to give me a headache and won't work properly.

 

Thanks for the warning.

[sgibbers17]

M1015 is a LSI 9240-8i card manufactured for IBM, just try buying from a reputable dealer and you should have now problem.  What you will see people do on this site is cross flash a M1015/9240-8i to be a 9211-8i in IT mode,  I believe it is because they all run the LSI sas2008 controller.  Basically you are turning the 9240 raid controller into a HBA controller.  The 9211-8i on newegg is $30 cheaper than the 9240-8i.

 

 

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[adrianz]

Thanks sgibbers17 for your help. Unfortunately, I can't order from newegg because I don't live in United States. So that's why I wanted to buy from ebay.

 

I've read all about reflashing M1015 with the IT firmware and probably that's what I'm going to do once I actually buy this card.

 

btw - what do you think about this seller? http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-SERVERAID-M1015-ADAPTER-PCI-E-2-0-X8-RAID-CONTROLLER-CARD-46M0861-LOW-P-/311010842573?pt=US_Internal_Network_Cards&hash=item4869b0d7cd - would you call them reputable? They are form States, not China and even with shipping to Poland it would still be a lot cheaper than anything I can buy locally from authorized dealers. I realise this is a refurbished item, but I don't mind.

[garycase]

... what do you think about this seller? http://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-SERVERAID-M1015-ADAPTER-PCI-E-2-0-X8-RAID-CONTROLLER-CARD-46M0861-LOW-P-/311010842573?pt=US_Internal_Network_Cards&hash=item4869b0d7cd - would you call them reputable?

 

With ebay there's always some risk, but the seller does have excellent feedback.  Only you can decide if the feedback causes you any concerns.    EBay and PayPal both have some protections against fraudulent sales, just in case you have any issues ... but I'm not certain if those apply in your country like they do here (in the US).

 

... it does LOOK like the seller is very reputable, so I suspect it's fine, but there's simply no way to guarantee it.