hernandito Posted November 3, 2015 Posted November 3, 2015 Hi Guys, My case is maxed out in terms of how many drives I can fit in. I am currently at 12 drives. which include Parity, cache and the array drives. No other drives other than that. As I have commented in various posts, my unRAID is in my bedroom inside a cabinet whose door I have to leave cracked open, otherwise drives start to overheat. Wife approval factor is important. I have one or 2 of the motherboard sata ports open. I can snake a cord that goes from the sata port into the back where is provides an esata plug. I would not use the moelex power connector. See image below: Would a NAS enclosure like the links below work to be able to add drives to my array? Will unRAID recognize the port multiplier and allow me to add the drives individually? I would configure the box (not sure show) as a JBOD. These would be a low cost way to add capacity without the noise. Here are the links: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111455&cm_re=nas_enclosure-_-16-111-455-_-Product http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132015&cm_re=nas_enclosure-_-16-132-015-_-Product Thanks. H.
WeeboTech Posted November 3, 2015 Posted November 3, 2015 unRAID will support port multiplier if the card/sata interface does and the driver does. Silicone image chipsets are amoung the fastest. The Asmedia works as well, but it's not as fast with simultaneous access. The sans digital case works. I have a few. but it can run a bit hot. I might 'try' the rosewill case since it can support 5 drives instead of 4 plus it comes with the silicone image controller.
BobPhoenix Posted November 4, 2015 Posted November 4, 2015 The only thing I can say is that a port multiplier will slow parity checks/syncs. SAS Expanders are supposed to be faster than a port multiplier and I see a 25% reduction in speed over separate controllers with my SAS expanders. But that was acceptable for me because I still get 80+MB/s on the outer cylinders with a 16 drive array. A port multiplier might work just fine for you but the only way to know is to test it out.
hernandito Posted November 4, 2015 Author Posted November 4, 2015 Thank you guys... nice to know I can go with an inexpensive solution. I worry about the heat... how hot do the drives get? Parity checks dont bother me... I used to have regular PCI cheap controllers for 8 of my drives before I upgraded to PCIe controllers. 4TB parity checks went from 2+ days to 12 hours. Thansk again. H.
uldise Posted November 4, 2015 Posted November 4, 2015 Thank you guys... nice to know I can go with an inexpensive solution. I worry about the heat... how hot do the drives get? Parity checks dont bother me... I used to have regular PCI cheap controllers for 8 of my drives before I upgraded to PCIe controllers. 4TB parity checks went from 2+ days to 12 hours. Thansk again. H. i have some negative experience with port Multiplier - i have Enermax 3203 which by spec is a port multiplier too when configured as no raid mode. both my supermicro boards and IBM 1015 HBA dont recognize both disks but only single one.. as mentioned already, you should find sata port which supports port multiplier. Intel ICH wont support it.
WeeboTech Posted November 4, 2015 Posted November 4, 2015 I worry about the heat... how hot do the drives get? Don't put 7200rpm drives in the sans digital. The rosewill may be better as there are metal holders which should help absorb and dissipate heat. You should find sata port which supports port multiplier. Intel ICH wont support it. The rosewill comes with a silicon image controller which works very well with port multipliers.
hernandito Posted November 4, 2015 Author Posted November 4, 2015 i have some negative experience with port Multiplier - i have Enermax 3203 which by spec is a port multiplier too when configured as no raid mode. both my supermicro boards and IBM 1015 HBA dont recognize both disks but only single one.. as mentioned already, you should find sata port which supports port multiplier. Intel ICH wont support it. Thanks for reiterating this point. I had assumed my MB would support it, but I also have this sata card which it says it does indeed support port multiplier. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124064 I also have a Supermicro AOC-SASLP-8MV card... will try to figure out if those port support it. Thanks again, H.
hernandito Posted November 4, 2015 Author Posted November 4, 2015 Don't put 7200rpm drives in the sans digital. The rosewill may be better as there are metal holders which should help absorb and dissipate heat. Thank you Weebo... the heat may be a deal breaker for me. I will look into the Rosewill... one clear indication why this is an issue is that the fan is in the back, and there are NOT too many openings on the board that essentially blocks the air for moving through. YOu can see that in the Newegg photos.
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