HBA suggestions


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So I am building a new server, and I was looking for an HBA, and found this http://www.ebay.com/itm/LSI-SAS9200-16e-H3-25140-16-Port-6Gbs-PCIe-SATA-SAS-Card-4x-SFF-8088-Warranty-/182536601132?hash=item2a80077e2c:g:7PsAAOSwaEhZNVVA, and was wondering if I was any good. If you know of anything better, my max budget is around 75, and I need more than 8 SATA slots, I would also prefer internal ports but external are fine as well. Also, what are the advantages over the standard motherboard ports with an HBA, besides more ports and external enclosures/backplanes? 

Edited by shortsyoungster
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1 hour ago, BobPhoenix said:

I'm sure it is supply and demand at work.  The 16i is more desirable to the home user (those most likely to buy from eBay) so the price is higher.

 

You are probably right. And it make sense. But we are talking about <$50 for the -16e, and >$200 for the -16i. Virtually if not identical components. And the -16e can be made to function just like the -16i with a little cable routing from outside to inside. Just seems odd the price would be so different. A 16 drive PCIe x8 card for <$50 is a steal!

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On 7/18/2017 at 8:06 PM, bjp999 said:

 

You are probably right. And it make sense. But we are talking about <$50 for the -16e, and >$200 for the -16i. Virtually if not identical components. And the -16e can be made to function just like the -16i with a little cable routing from outside to inside. Just seems odd the price would be so different. A 16 drive PCIe x8 card for <$50 is a steal!

I know I would rather pay an extra $150 to get the internal version rather than routing cables inside.  I would have to cut a whole big enough in the case or leave the top off my Norco 4224s - neither of which would I want to do just to save $150 dollars.  Now I see a use for the -16e even in my case but I would be going to an external case with them when I ran out of space in my Norcos.  Right now I can't afford either version as I over spent my Tax refund on some retro computer gear on ebay the last few months.

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1 hour ago, jonathanm said:

No empty slots to let the cables do a U-turn?

Nope.  Most are full of TV Tuner cards.  For instance one server's MB has 5 PCIe slots, 1 PCI slot and the last slot has no MB connection but is used to supply power to external devices.  Two of the PCIe slots are used for 2x9201s for unRAID.  Another PCIe for a USB card to pass through to Windows VM since the linux drivers for HDPVRs don't do 5.1 sound without interruptions in the recordings much too often for me.  Two x1 slots are for HVR-2250 tuners.  The 6th slot is PCI and is used for an nVidia DualTV for my one remaining SD DirecTV STB.  Since unRAID is useless for passing through the DualTV in the PCI slot to a VM I have this server on ESXi now.  The 2x9201s provide the unRAID VM drive slots in the Norco 4224 for unRAID and I have 8 drives stacked between the fan wall and the MB and PSU that are Recording drives separate from the array.  The OS drive tray is for ESXi data store drive.  One Windows VM gets the nVidia tuner and the HVR-2250s the other VM get the USB controller so I can use Windows Drivers for HDPVR and no bad recordings to a SageTV Docker running on the unRAID VM.  The HD-PVRs are powered from the power supply in the server rather than the wall warts that always seem to fail for the HD-PVRs. 

 

My other servers have similar problems (full of TV Tuners) but would be the most likely to be able to route external to internal if needed and I might go that route if I can find the external to internal slot connector again.

 

Edited by BobPhoenix
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