Onboard SAS vs External SAS Controller (HBA) for Unraid

[LVNona]

Hello Folks! Ned your help. Im new to Unraid and experimenting with system.

I bought new server with SuperMicro mobo + LSI 9260 MegaRaid external card but realize Unraid dont see raid cards and do his own stuff using software raid.

So lucky wise my motherboard has his own 2 SAS ports so I maked my HDD visible.

So here is the questions. Should I leave as is and use motherboards SAS for 8 SATA HDD or buy External something like LSI HBA?

I was thinking external would be more easy for mobo overload + memory because it has his own?

What do you guys think?

 

Server build as Movie storage / NAS

 

Thanks

Norm

[LVNona]

and another question is I have current arrey and change my current hdd from onboard sas to controller is unraid also need to me setup from zero or it is still will be visible without problems?

 

[JorgeB]

You can use either HBA and as long as they are regular HBAs (not RAID) you can swap disks around no problem.

[LVNona]

9 hours ago, johnnie.black said:

You can use either HBA and as long as they are regular HBAs (not RAID) you can swap disks around no problem.

Thanks Johnnie! So you think external HBA SAS will perform better than onboard? 

 

 

[JorgeB]

Should perform similarly, as long as both are similar gen and using an equivalent PCIe connection.

[LVNona]

On 5/8/2018 at 9:37 AM, johnnie.black said:

Should perform similarly, as long as both are similar gen and using an equivalent PCIe connection.

So im guessing there is no point to change from mobo to external controller if there is no difference in performance?

 

Thanks

[LVNona]

So I just notice my mobo SAS for some reason acting as SATA 2 and Unraid shows HDD is 6Gb/s (current 3Gb/s). So I'll try to play with Bios to see if there is any option to change.

Worst case I'll get external for full 6Gb/s power

[JorgeB]

SATA2 is enough for disks, SSDs are a different story.

[LVNona]

46 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

SATA2 is enough for disks, SSDs are a different story.

Off topic  - I have now x2 Raptor 250Gb 10000Rpm HDD - is it good enough for cash or I'll fill way better performance with SSD?

Server just for movies + storage and Win10 VM

 

Thanks

Norm

 

[JorgeB]

Should be good enough for storage, assuming gbit network, but VMs will perform much better on SSDs.

[BobPhoenix]

I used Raptors when I had an ESXi server.  They worked fine for me but I wasn't running any databases or gaming from the VMs.

[LVNona]

Thanks I'll keep Raptors for now

And just got my LSI HBA - will play with it Hopefully unraid will have no issues to recognize HDD from new device connection.

Or I should be ready for any issues?

 

Thanks,

Norm