February 16, 201610 yr Is one better than the other and are there issues with knockoffs or copies that may prevent flashing to IT mode? I notice on Ebay there are a bunch of the 1015 come from Hong Kong. I see listings for 1015 with notices not to flash IT and other listings that are already flashed IT for ~$30 more. IBM 1015 Dell H310
February 16, 201610 yr Once they are flashed, there really should not be a difference between the two. I've purchased 3 used IBM ServeRAID M1015s via eBay. Flashing them is a pain even if you understand what you're doing. I read through every page of the various flashing threads on this board a few times and then found some external blog resources as well. Based on my research and some exploration with the different motherboards I had available, I put together a process to flash cards that works for my particular situation. Yes, you can buy a card already flashed... but imo if you're buying a card like this for your own custom NAS like unRAID, you should really understand every piece yourself. There is nothing wrong with the Dell's. They are priced a fair amount lower and you'll find many people here use, like and recommend them above the m1015s (mostly due to cost I think). The only real difference I saw is that the flashing procedure is slightly different than the m1015s. I think you need to get specific files from Dell or something? I'm sure someone else can chime in with the details. Also, the connectors come out a different direction from the card. That helps for some case situations. For me, I went with the m1015s because there seem to be more of them in use by the unRAID community and I happened to have some folks I know irl that used them in unRAID and ESXi without issue. That being said, the Dell's are a fair amount less $ these days so that might make them more tempting if I were in the market today. Like I said above... do your homework on the flashing procedures before you make your choice. As for knock-offs... I generally don't buy via eBay from outside my own country (US) so I can't speak to that. Buying on eBay is always a crap-shoot. I try to find someone who has an established "eBay store" and clearly accepts returns in case you get one DOA. I think the part you read about "warning" not to flash to IT is re: attempting to use a flashed card in a Windows machine, not unRAID/ESXi/FreeNAS/etc. When you flash the card, you won't be doing it from Windows. You make your own boot disk and run your flashing tools from that.
February 17, 201610 yr Either one is fine. Just find a US seller that has good feedback. If you have a newer board with efi shell that's how you're going to want to flash. I think you still want to run the megarec command in dos though, and then do the actual flashing in efi shell.
February 17, 201610 yr Author Thanks. I picked up one of the H310's. Hopefully get to play with it this weekend.
February 17, 201610 yr I've used a H310 with no issues. Some people have reported an issue that can be solved with a bit of sticky tape on the pci-e connector. Can't find the link atm, but a search should reveal it.
February 17, 201610 yr Found it: https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=29236.0 and http://yannickdekoeijer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/modding-dell-perc-6-sas-raidcontroller.html
February 17, 201610 yr As noted, both of these cards work well in UnRAID and either should be fine. The Dell Perc card (310 may have issues booting on non-Dell motherboards, but the link CHBMB posted shows the very simple fix for this -- just taping over 2 contacts [Note that you only do this on one side of the board]. I think quite a few folks returned perfectly good 310's because they "wouldn't boot" on their systems ... when in fact all they needed was to cover those two contacts.
February 18, 201610 yr Is it the same sata cables for H310 that 1015 and br10 have? Yes. I went with these: Monoprice 0.75m 30AWG Internal Mini SAS 36-Pin Male with Latch to 7-Pin Female Forward Breakout Cable, Black (108187) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008VLHSQO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_2xGXwb8EK47DC
February 18, 201610 yr Great, ordered one now. I have 2 cables for my br10 that I will use. Any good guide to follow to flash the card? I will start googling.....
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