Which slot for the 2nd AOC-SAT2-MV8 Card on MBD-X7SBE MB?


mifronte

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I am planning to use the SuperMicro MBD-X7SBE (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182142) motherboard along with two SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009) SATA controllers.

 

Since this mother board has two PCI-X 133 MHz slots and two PCI-X 100 MHz slots, where should I install the second SATA controllers for optimal throughput?  I am not quite sure which buses are shared and which are dedicated.

 

I have never built a computer and so I am still trying to learn about computer hardware architecture.  Please also give an explanation for your recommendation so that I can understand the reasoning.

 

Thanks.

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Look at the motherboard manual's block diagram on page 1-8 (System 3210 block diagram)

 

They all feed through a x8 connection to the 3210 MCH.

 

Either will do.

 

In comparison, from what I remember the tyan S5211G2NR Toledo i3210W board had each set of PCI-X cards through the ICH9R, which I believe equates to x4.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151172

http://www.tyan.com/product_board_detail.aspx?pid=591

http://www.tyan.com/manuals/m_s5211_140.pdf  (Page 10)

 

The Supermicro is a nicer deal if you get the IPMI Card.

 

To review, any of the slots PCI-X Slots will work out fine with the Supermicro.

Choose the fastest for these cards.

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The SuperMicro MDB-X7SBE block diagram shows each pair of the PCI-X slots shares a path to the PCIe x8 path.  However, one pair of PCI-X is at 133MHz (1067 MB/s) and the other pair is at 100MHz (800 MB/s).

 

Since the AOC-SAT2-MV8 cards are at 133 MHz, wouldn't it be better to place one card on the PCI-X 133 MHz slot and the other on the 100 MHz slot so that I don't potentially have 16 drives sharing one PCI-X 133 MHz path to the  PCIe x8 path?  This will mean running one card at the lower 100 MHz speed.  Am I interpreting the block diagram correctly?  Or it doesn't matter and I should just install the two controller cards into the two PCI-X 133 MHz slots to run both cards at their max rate?

 

Sorry I am still a little confused and getting more confused ;-)

 

Also, I googled IPMI Card, but have yet to find a good explanation of what is the purpose of the card.  Can someone elaborate?

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yes, you are correct, one on each bus 133 and 100 Mhz.

 

Ipmi is onboard on x7sbe via winbond bmc. ipmi was developed to allow remote monitoring of hardware. Allows power cycling hardware, snmp event generation, can remote monitor environmental sensors from the motherboard and fans. later ipmi adds remote access, serial over lan and kvm over ip.

 

 

 

 

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Is it one of these addon card to get KVM over LAN?

 

http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/sim.cfm

 

That would be nice so that I would not have to connect a keyboard and monitor to the Unraid server.  According to the link, only the AOC-SIMLC-HTC is compatible with the MDB-X7SBE?  I read in some other threads that someone was using the AOC-SIM1U, but the X7SBE is not listed as compatible.  Am I reading the link correct?

 

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Is it one of these addon card to get KVM over LAN?

 

http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/sim.cfm

 

That would be nice so that I would not have to connect a keyboard and monitor to the Unraid server.  According to the link, only the AOC-SIMLC-HTC is compatible with the MDB-X7SBE?  I read in some other threads that someone was using the AOC-SIM1U, but the X7SBE is not listed as compatible.  Am I reading the link correct?

 

I came to the same conclusions as you yesterday.

Download and double check the manual for the AOC-SIM1U, I believe it has the X7SBE listed in the manual. I plan to go with this also so I can put my unRAID server on the other side of the room and take it off the KVM.

 

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  • 4 months later...

So has anyone made a final determination of whether or not it matters (speed wise) to put TWO of the AOC-SAT2-MV8 cards both on the 133 MHZ slots or if it would be best to put ONE AOC-SAT2-MV8 on the 133 Mhz PCI-X slot and the other card on the 100 Mhz PCI-X slots respectively?

 

I would love to know which method would be best if anyone has the final answer on this please.

 

Thanks...

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I have both in the 133Mhz slot and my parity check times are fast for 15 data drives of various speeds and sizes.

 

root@Atlas /boot/logs #grep 'sync done' syslog*.txt

syslog-20100614-054224.txt:Jun 13 18:21:25 Atlas kernel: md: sync done. time=29013sec rate=74017K/sec

 

I did make it a point to put the parity drive on a separate areca caching raid controller with a dedicated set of lanes.

 

My set up is.

 

5 drives motherboard controller Mostly Seagate 7200RPM drives, 2 WD 2TB 5400 RPM drives.

5 drives AOC-SAT2-MV8 PCI-X 133MHZ These are all 1TB WD 5400 RPM drives

5 drives AOC-SAT2-MV8 PCI-X 133MHZ These are all 1TB WD 5400 RPM drives

 

2 Drives Areca 1200 - PCIe carved up as RAID 0 (2tB) RAID1 (350MB) using Seagate 1.5TB 7200 RPM drives.

 

When I drop files off on the parity protected array to the faster drives (Seagate 1.5TB 7200RPM drives) I get 40-43MB/s.

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  • 3 months later...

I just got my second SAT2 and so I thought I'd do a little experiment. I have my first SAT2 in slot 6, a 133 MHz slot. I placed  my second SAT2 in slot 5, the second 133 slot. I have 8 drives on my first SAT2 and 6 drives on my second SAT2, all my drives are 2TB and no drives were hooked to the motherboard for this experiment.

 

I ran a parity check for about an hour my parity check speeds maxed out at 63,000 KB/sec.

 

Next I moved the SAT2 from slot 5 to slot 2, one of the 100 MHz slots. I also went into the bios under Advanced - PnP Configuration and changed the PCIX frequency for slots 1 and 2 from AUTO to 133 MHz.

 

I ran a parity check again for about an hour, my parity check speeds maxed out this time at 92,000 KB/sec.

 

From this I conclude that it does make a difference which slot the second SAT2 card uses.

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Thanks ohlwiler for the testing.  I am in the process of putting together my server with the same hardware and will be splitting the two AOC-SAT2-MV8 cards into the 133 MHz and 100 MHz slots.  At least you affirmed my initial assumption that splitting the cards so as to not use the shared PCI-X buses on the Supermìcro X7SBE is beneficial.

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