LSI SAS9207-8i for $99


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This is a PCIe 3.0 card with x8 bus. It is overspeced for most anything you'd need to use it for, but it is new (as opposed to used on eBay). $99 for a new 8 port card is a very good price

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAD5G5JG6318&ignorebbr=1

 

I like the PCIe 2.0 version, the LSI SAS9201-8i,, and it works just as well for most people. They are closer to $50 on eBay. I have the -16i and -16e versions of this card and can attest they are excellent and work well with unRAID.

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  • 3 weeks later...
4 hours ago, Shamalamadindong said:

Ok so, why is this one so cheap new?

 

Some (including me) fear these are chinese fakes, that price is from a merchant, Newegg price is 219.99$, sometimes there's a reason when the price seams to good to be true.

 

I prefer to buy a used server pull on ebay than possibly a new chinese fake.

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For the money, I'd tend to go with the 9201-8i card on eBay (~$45 shipped). It will do the same thing for nearly every use case. But I will say that controllers tend to be the longest living assets in my unRAID server. I still have a couple Adaptec 1430SAs that still work quite well. So if you are betting on drives continuing to get faster, maybe the 9207 is worth a small premium. Its up to you. Here are some facts to guide the decision depending on your use case.

 

The 9201 and 9207 are basically the same thing, except PCIe 3.0 vs 2.0. I think the card might have been better packaged as an x4 card. Or better yet, been sold as a 16 drive card in an x8 slot. But maybe if using this with a SAS expander, the x8 bandwidth makes sense.

 

If you put it in a PCIe 3.0 x8 slot, you'd basically have 1000 MB/sec to each drive. That is faster than the 6Gb/sec sata spec for the drives, so you'd really only be getting 600 MB/sec to each drive. With the 2.0 card, you'd get 500 MB/sec, enough to run 8 SSDs at near full speed (full speed is 550 MB/sec) in parallel. (Who runs 8 SSDs at full speed?) With the PCIe 3.0 bandwidth, I'd like the 12 Gb/sec SATA capability for the future proofing.

 

If you put it in a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot, you'd have half that bandwidth (500 MB/sec per drive), enough to run 8 SSD drives nearly full speed in parallel). Not bad. And for spinners, this is way overkill. At PCIe 2.0, you'd be half that (250 MB.sec), constrained for a full complement of SSDs running in parallel, but plenty fast for 8 spinners or 7 spinners with 1 SSD. This is the same as the speed of the PCIe 2.0 in an x8 slot, which is how many people run the 9201-8i.

 

Interestingly, if you put it into a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot, you'd be able to run 6 drives at a very respectable 165 MB/sec, or 8 at 125 MB/sec. That is actually very good for an x1 slot, where with a typical PCIe 1.x card, you'd be limited to 1 drive at 250MB.sec or 2 drives at 125 MB/sec. Although I don't know too many x1 slots that are PCIe 3.0 or would hold an x8 card without melting the back of the slot!. The PCIe 2.0 card would get your 3-4 drives, considerably fewer than 6 to 8. This card really shines in a fast x1 slot! :)

 

I'd have few reservations about ordering the $99 card if that's what I wanted. I have to believe Newegg would hold them to a high standard for customer satisfaction. And if you put on an credit card, you'd have all the power needed to get your money back if they didn't work properly. I bought a new 9201-16i from Hong Kong for a decent price on eBay, and it works great!

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HP H220 is the same 9207-8i card and can be had on eBay for ~$40. I tend to stick with used Dell/HP/IBM OEM cards to avoid LSI counterfeit cards.

With SAS2308 there are two different steppings C0 and D1. C0 ones are only PCIe 2.0 and need to use 9205 FW for some reason. D1 is PCIe 3.0 and flashes to 9207. There is a thread on STH on this topic.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

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26 minutes ago, Zonediver said:

One question: Does the LSI 9207-8i need to be actively cooled?

It does need some airflow around it, remember these controllers are designed for servers with excellent ventilation, I usually have a 120mm or larger side case fan blowing air on them.

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