Hi,

 

I have been reading throught the compatibility list for controller cards and wondering if anyone has some personal experience with an 8+ Port internal controller card that will not bottleneck?

 

Many Thanks

That ultimately depends on the platform the card is plugged into.

I am currently using an Asrock H77 Pro4/MVP which has 

 

• - 1 x PCI Express 3.0 x16 slot (PCIE2: x16 mode)
  - 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot (PCIE3: x4 mode)
  - 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot
  - 3 x PCI slots

LSI SAS9201-8i. Would work in the x16 slot or x4 slot. x4 slot might very slightly bottleneck on outer cylinders, might only run 7 disks in full bore simultaneously at absolute full speed. But IMO you'd never notice the minor slowdown of the 8th disk. I run a -16i in an x8 slot (twice as many disk, twice as wide, so equivalent), and have 14 disks array disks running on it. Using the x4 would leave your x16 slot open for a video card or something. If you wanted to get the -16i version, you'd need to run in the x16 slot or face slowdowns anything over 8 or so disks.

Note that the x4 slot is a PCH slot, so it shares the DMI connection with other things including the onboard SATA ports, so if they are in use it will be much more limited.

On the phone earlier so harder to post links, you can check this thread for some bandwidth tests and tips:

 

 

This is great, thanks so much for all your advice! 

 

I have managed to pick one up for £35 but now need to get the SAS to SATA cable's any recommendations?

 

Lastly will I have to flash this into IT mode?

 

Again, 

 

Thanks!!