SATA Controller Card Upgrade Procedure

[Starfox]

I am adding a 7th hard drive to my unraid server and as I have filled all 6 SATA ports on my motherboard I have been educating myself on getting more SATA ports via a PCI card.  I have just ordered a Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 card plus iPass to 4xSata cables based on what I have read as it seems that unraid v5 supports this card with drivers plus I have a Supermicro MB and find it to be excellent.

 

I am very much an amateur whenever it comes to all things unraid so stick with me...some questions,

 

[*]Can anyone see any hardware issues with my spec and this new card (listed in my signature...)?

[*]Is there a guide for actually fitting the card, connecting the hard drive, getting it up and running etc... - in my head it is just a matter of powering down my server, fitting the card to a PCI-E 3.0 slot, connecting the hard drive, powering up the system and the hard drive will be recognised to allow me to pre-clear?

[*]I noticed a lot of discussion around bios version on both the MB and the card.  Is it recommended to update your MB bios and the card bios to the latest straight away?  (My MB is currently on 2.0b - the latest out there is 2.20.)

[*]I just noticed after I purchased the card that my PSU only has x6 SATA power connections - is there a way round this as I will need a 7th?  I.e. can you purchase a PSU to SATA modular lead separately?  (Actual image below)

[*]Should I be concerned about my PSU powering a 7th drive & SAS card?

 

 

Thanks All!

 

 

 

[pkn]

>I just noticed after I purchased the card that my PSU only has x6 SATA power connections - is there a way round this as I will need a 7th?

 

I would just use a splitter.

 

>I.e. can you purchase a PSU to SATA modular lead separately?  (Actual image below)

 

Never seen one... not that I was looking too hard, though.*

 

>Should I be concerned about my PSU powering a 7th drive & SAS card?

 

I wouldn't worry... yet. Your PSU has single-rail for +12 Volts (that's the voltage most important for HDDs) with 37 Amps capacity and combined load of 444 Watts.

 

Rules of thumb from The Power Supply Thread:

2 amps (24 watts) per green drive and 3 amps (36 watts) per non-green drive on the 12 volt rail.

5 amps (60 watts) for the motherboard on the 12 volt rail.

 

You should be OK  with 7, and even with a few more, drives.

 

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* -- And even if found, I would strongly recommend be extremely careful. Unless your know exactly what are you doing. I've learned that the hard way, when I mindlessly tried to use modular cable from one PSU on another PSU  ...and killed three 4 TB Seagates at once,  by putting 12 volts onto drives 5 volts input.

[Squid]

>I just noticed after I purchased the card that my PSU only has x6 SATA power connections - is there a way round this as I will need a 7th?

 

I would just use a splitter.

 

>I.e. can you purchase a PSU to SATA modular lead separately?  (Actual image below)

 

Never seen one... not that I was looking too hard, though.

If you do get an additional cord for your P/S make sure that it is for that particular power supply (brand and model).  There is no guarantee that any cable that "happens to fit" will be wired correctly.

 

When I needed additional plugs, I actually just asked the manufacturer (Antec) about buying them, and within a week the cables I wanted showed up in the mail at no charge.

 

Under ideal circumstances, you should avoid splitters, as it is another "point of failure", and by and large the quality of them isn't that great.  But, sometimes you just can't avoid it and have to use them

[Starfox]

Thanks guys - after I created this thread I actually e-mailed Seasonic direct and they came back to say they would pop one PSU to SATA cable set in the post.  Awesome service...as per your experience with Antec Squid.  Nice customer service!

 

I assume then the horror story of wrecking hard drives shouldn't apply as I am using the correct cable direct from manufacturer even if I am plugging in 3 SATA cable sets (only 2 came originally with it) as there seems there are 2x6pin plug points still free?  I could test on an old hard drive first...

 

AOC-SASLP-MV8 card arrived y'day, fitted it and so far so good.  Checked the BIOS and it is at 0.21 and turned off INT 13...just got to wait for the iPass to SATA cables and HD now...

[pkn]

I assume then the horror story of wrecking hard drives shouldn't apply as I am using the correct cable direct from manufacturer even if I am plugging in 3 SATA cable sets (only 2 came originally with it) as there seems there are 2x6pin plug points still free?

Yes, that should work. Just make sure your are plugging modular SATA cable into "Peripheral-IDE/SATA", not into "PCI-e/CPU". (just saying ... )

 

I could test on an old hard drive first...

I most certainly would.

[Squid]

I assume then the horror story of wrecking hard drives shouldn't apply as I am using the correct cable direct from manufacturer even if I am plugging in 3 SATA cable sets (only 2 came originally with it) as there seems there are 2x6pin plug points still free?  I could test on an old hard drive first...

Shouldn't be an issue, but definitely worth the extra minute to do it.  Wouldn't be the first time some guy in shipping / receiving picked the wrong item.

[RobJ]

Recommend you upgrade to v6, should be better driver support for the card.  Please see the Upgrading to UnRAID v6 guide.

[switchman]

Recommend you upgrade to v6, should be better driver support for the card.  Please see the Upgrading to UnRAID v6 guide.

 

I would do one or the other, but not both at the same time to not introduce multiple variables at once.  If it were me, I would stay on the release you are on, add the controller and your drive.  Make sure everything works correctly and then consider upgrading.  My reasoning is that the card has been widely used under V5.x and its characteristics are known as well as how to troubleshoot it.  If you then want to go to V6, you know your current hardware is working.