September 19, 201411 yr Hi - I've been trying to pick up an IBM M1015 on eBay for a reasonable price - no luck, I think some of you outbid me . I don't have any reason to prefer an LSI based card, they just looked interesting. Since I haven't had any luck with the M1015, I've been planning to pick up an SAS2LP-MV8 from NewEgg. I saw some notes on the Dell card, though - they are a) reasonably cheap, but b) seem to have had some issues flashing them to IT mode. Is there any reason to prefer any of these x8 cards to the others? Thanks.
September 20, 201411 yr Never used IBM, but have 2xSASLP-MV8 and 1xH310. Never had issues with the DELL card. There was a complete howto flash in IT mode with all the necessary files available in the net just cant find the blog now.
September 21, 201411 yr Author Thanks. I gather from threads here that the LSI based cards support S3 sleep mode, which isn't a factor for me. I've also seen some suggestions that they may be a bit faster though I have not see it quantified. Does it mostly come down to the buying decision? I.e. - price, availability, return options, etc.? I would have guessed there might be more considerations like compatibility and performance of 8 slot x8 cards but it makes things easier if they are more of a commodity item.
September 21, 201411 yr If you ask me it comes down mainly to the availability. I found H310 over the UK eBay for the "huge" price of 12 GBP, including 2 SFF 8087 cables. About S3 sleep, cant confirm as I don't use this option at all and do not mind 24/7 operation of the server.
November 13, 201411 yr One thing I can say that differentiates the Dell's is that in some cases they need to be modded to work and/or be flashed in some motherboards. I can't say for sure if that's the case with the IBM's and Supermicro's. details on the required mod.... http://techmattr.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/sas-hba-crossflashing-or-flashing-to-it-mode/
November 14, 201411 yr Also no issues with crossflashing the H310 here so far. I've flashed 5 of them. See the wiki for other cards and follow the link to the appropriate toolset. The taping mod is often required when you insert the card into the primary PCIe port that is intended for the use with a graphics card.
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