hello world --

 

on a whim, and even before i'm done with the house renovations, i have decided to upgrade my server to facilitate swapping in bigger drives and to permit more units in the future.  i know, i know, one thing at a time, but better get all my geeking done before new g/f appears in my life.  for those who don't get it, think "w.a.f.".  not all chicks are understanding of their nerd-in-residence as my late wife used to be.

 

i have already maxed out the physical config of my current case (Antec 300, 6 drives -- 3x500g + 3x1t) and, from what Tom (? mr. unraid himself) uses for the builds he sells, decided on the following new h/w:

 

* cooler master centurion 590 (i already have this case for my main box)

* 2 x supermicro CSE-M35T1 5in3 hot-swap cages

* 1 x promise SATA300 TX4 card (to add to the motherboard's 6 sata ports)

* 1 x 600w ocz modxtream psu

 

i'm already running unraid plus on a gigabyte ga-ma770-ud3 + sempron 1250 + 2g ram + ocz 500w psu + asus 4350 passive graphics card (oh, and there's an ide dvd burner just in case).  i think the new hardware should work just fine, but...

 

anywho, the question is: does anyone know if i can use the supermicro cages with one of them partialy populated?  1st one will be full (5 drives) but the 2nd one will have just one drive until i buy more.  and would the promise card be happy being connected to empty hotswap slots?

 

i hope i'll be able to run with 6 drives for the short/medium term, because i've already spent a pretty penny on the new components and will have to wait for the drives.

 

cheers.

I'd rethink the TX4 and go with a PCIe card (if the MB supports it). Your 500 watt PSU is probably fine. I run 17 drives on a 550. The cages don't have to be full.

it's too late to change my new hardware, as it has been already paid for and is (most of it) in transit.

 

i selected the promise pci card because i don't remember ever seeing a pciex1 4xsata card (that's what my motherboard would force me to use -- gigabyte ga-ma770-ud3).  and i went with what is used/sold by lime-tech, to be sure it would be supported.

 

if you have a suggestion for a pciex1 satax4 card, i'm all ears.  it could be useful in the future.

 

i'm assuming you are using/have used the supermicro card cage?

 

cheers.

it's too late to change my new hardware, as it has been already paid for and is (most of it) in transit.

 

i selected the promise pci card because i don't remember ever seeing a pciex1 4xsata card (that's what my motherboard would force me to use -- gigabyte ga-ma770-ud3).  and i went with what is used/sold by lime-tech, to be sure it would be supported.

 

if you have a suggestion for a pciex1 satax4 card, i'm all ears.  it could be useful in the future.

 

i'm assuming you are using/have used the supermicro card cage?

 

cheers.

 

This one says it supports JBOD and it uses a SIL chipset if I remember correctly.  You can also check out the Syba website for more options.  The next controller I buy will probably be the one I linked.

it's too late to change my new hardware, as it has been already paid for and is (most of it) in transit.

 

i selected the promise pci card because i don't remember ever seeing a pciex1 4xsata card (that's what my motherboard would force me to use -- gigabyte ga-ma770-ud3).  and i went with what is used/sold by lime-tech, to be sure it would be supported.

 

if you have a suggestion for a pciex1 satax4 card, i'm all ears.  it could be useful in the future.

 

i'm assuming you are using/have used the supermicro card cage?

 

cheers.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2081.msg15307#msg15307

thats pcie4x not 1x.

 

the only 1x cards are the hpt rocketraid 2300 and the cards that bundle port multiliers, ie you can now buy 4-5 port pcie1x cards as they often have both the sil 35xx and steelvine multilier. same goes for jmicron and via based cards.

the one I linked is 1x and has 5-6 SATA ports.

 

There are some on the Syba website that also support port multipliers

the main problem is due to the PM, theyre slow

update:

 

well, it turned out the promise card was back-ordered.

after being pointed to the potential bottleneck that this card is (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2081.msg15307#msg15307), i dug a bit in the hcl for unraid, searched the forums and quickly phoned the store to change my order.  i ended up buying a pair of these:

 

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/185548/SY-PEX40015/Syba/

(hmm, this is a better link: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124027)

 

i might gain some performance (splitting the sata i/o between two pcie-1x slots instead of  "everything" going through the pci bus) and it was less expensive, making it more palatable.

 

in addition, for those it might interest, i also bought a pair of Noctua NF-B9-1600 fans that should make the supermicro drive cages sound less like screaming banshees (2x17.x db vs. 2x32.x db!!). i also got other fans to ensure my new case would be well ventilated (ARCTIC COOLING AF12PWM + Scythe S-FLEX SFF21D), but as silently as i can make it.

 

the only disappointment now is that it appears that the drive fail indicator lights do not work in the sata version of the supermicro drive cage. oh, well.

 

 

 

update:

 

well, it turned out the promise card was back-ordered.

after being pointed to the potential bottleneck that this card is (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2081.msg15307#msg15307), i dug a bit in the hcl for unraid, searched the forums and quickly phoned the store to change my order.  i ended up buying a pair of these:

 

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/185548/SY-PEX40015/Syba/

 

Are the SY-PEX40015 cards working for you?  I just bought one for my unRAID box.  I wanted to go into the bios (Ctrl+S or F4) but no matter how many times I tried it skips past to starting up unRAID. 

It turns out that after a drive is connected the F4 or Ctrl-S works.  With no drive connected it still displays during machine boot but it doesn't respond to the keyboard.

update:

 

well, it turned out the promise card was back-ordered.

after being pointed to the potential bottleneck that this card is (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2081.msg15307#msg15307), i dug a bit in the hcl for unraid, searched the forums and quickly phoned the store to change my order.  i ended up buying a pair of these:

 

http://www.bestdirect.ca/products/185548/SY-PEX40015/Syba/

 

Are the SY-PEX40015 cards working for you?  I just bought one for my unRAID box.  I wanted to go into the bios (Ctrl+S or F4) but no matter how many times I tried it skips past to starting up unRAID.  

 

oops, just noticed your question. "my bad", as they say.

 

these syba sil3132-based cards will indeed work, though be aware that you can get a dud.  one out of 3 (yes, i added two more drive slots, needing a third card) is defective and i am in the process of exchanging it with the vendor.  as they appear to be part of the "disposable because they're cheap" category, i bought two more from monoprice (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10407&cs_id=1040702&p_id=2530&seq=1&format=2), which seems to have a different batch than my original reseller (bestdirect).  i'll be prepared to deal with short-lived cards.

 

the two other cards are working just fine, unraid (v4.5) detected them without a problem and i already have drives running off them with no detectable slowness compared to the motherboard-connected ones.  fwiw, the new drives are wd10ears, with pins 7-8 jumpered.

 

lastly, you will have to flash the firmware to the latest version if you want to use the cards in non-raid mode.  for this you will need a windows box. plug in, let it be detected as a raid controller; flash bios to the latest "base" version, reboot, ta-da!  it will now look like an added ide/sata controller.  you will then be able to use it in your unraid server.

 

i hope this helps, even if it's late.

 

cheers.

 

p.s.: just saw the update you posted just before me.  quite a coincidence! (sp?)

 

I just got the SY-PEX40015 card from Monoprice. It worked in my Intel machine, but not on my AMD GA-MA78GM-S2H board. Even tried flashing to the latest base bios.

no joy. I'll hafta RMA it