So I have a Supermicro H8DGI-F and it has 6 sata slots AMD SP5100 chipset.

 

I see these suggestions for getting a controller card that can be flashed for IT mode.

but how necessary is it? What would be missing if I did not have one?

 

Thanks

Matt

It depends on the card. Some need IT mode to work, some dont, some work but without full SMART, etc.

Does your card work fine without the need of IT mode?

... how necessary is it?

 

It's not necessary at all if your card works okay as is;  it's critical if your card requires it 

 

As noted above, some cards will only work properly if they're flashed to IT mode;  others work fine with no changes needed.

 

Some common cards are well documented in the UnRAID threads -- and whether they need to be flashed is noted in the discussions ... often with links to the necessary firmware for those that do require flashing.

 

I guess I am more asking...can I not just use the sata ports on the motherboard?

And is there any downside do using the onboard controller?

 

And I guess if i get everything setup and decide to add a controller card and move my drives to it will that cause an issue?

 

Thanks again

UnRAID remembers disk serials so as long as the controller works, it should be transparent to you.

On board vs controller, it depends on the chipset but I generally prefer on board. On board chipset generally dont drop off without catastrophic system failure.

... I guess I am more asking...can I not just use the sata ports on the motherboard?

 

Absolutely -- the onboard ports are fine.  They're SATA-II ports, so they'll be a slight bottleneck if you use an SSD, but traditional disks will run at full speed, as SATA-II is faster than the transfer rate that any modern disk can sustain.

 

... and if you later decide to move the disks to a different controller, it's completely transparent => just move them to the new controller and everything will work just fine.

 

Thank you both.

I guess I am more asking...can I not just use the sata ports on the motherboard?

And is there any downside do using the onboard controller?

 

And I guess if i get everything setup and decide to add a controller card and move my drives to it will that cause an issue?

 

Thanks again

 

I'm sure most of us like myself use a Controller Card just so we can go beyond the limitation of the Mother Board Ports. Mine only had (6) and with the additional Controller Card I can now run with (14) Drives. To bad in my Case I only have room currently for (12) Lol