PCI-e Sata expansion card

[peterg23]

Cards based on the JMB585 (5-port) chip have received good reports when used with Unraid.

The ASMedia 1061/1062 (2-port) cards also play nicely with Unraid.

Edited December 17, 2020 by peterg23
correction

[JorgeB]

8 hours ago, methanoid said:

ASM1064 any good? 

Don't remember seeing anyone using it so far, probably a recent model, but should be OK.

[methanoid]

9 hours ago, peterg23 said:

Cards based on the JMB585 (5-port) chip have received good reports when used with Unraid, not so the ASM1064.

But the ASMedia 1061/1062 (2-port) cards play nicely with Unraid.

 

I see you editted to say "not so the ASM1064" but there is NOT ONE mention of that card on unRAID forum except for ME asking... so how can you say that? Likewise Google "asm1064" "unraid" and you get NO HITS....   Please share the evidence to support your statement?

[peterg23]

I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that because the ASM1064 is PCIe-X1 and has four ports it uses port multiplier technology, which I know has been discouraged by some forum members. I will delete the reference in my reply and await confirmation that the ASM1064 does not cause problems. 🙄

[methanoid]

https://download.asrock.com/IPC/Download/e-catalog/M2-SATA-4P.pdf  suggests the ASM1064 is JUST a PCIE 3.0 4 port chip rather than a port multiplier version of the ASM1061 (which has 2 ports anyway!)

 

I think this should be fine with unRAID... Now if I was still running unRAID I might try it....

[JorgeB]

On 12/30/2020 at 8:57 PM, methanoid said:

I think this should be fine with unRAID

It works with Unraid as expected, not as much bandwidth as the JMB585 but sufficient for 4 HDDs, time will tell is it's reliable but I would expect to be similar to the 2 port Asmedia, which is fine.

[peterg23]

Thanks for the update on the ASM1064.

[neihn]

I currently have the 4 ports marvel pcie 1x in my system - so far it works, however, I have couple episodes of 2 or 3 drives read errors (after force reboot and parity check everything was ok). I am looking forward to hear more about the ASMedia 1064 too.

 

just saw it listed on Amazon 

https://www.amazon.com/IO-CREST-Expansion-Non-Raid-SI-PEX40156/dp/B08J2PK1HF/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=asmedia+1064&qid=1609764887&sr=8-1

Edited January 4, 2021 by neihn
Addamazon link

[methanoid]

On 1/4/2021 at 12:52 PM, neihn said:

I currently have the 4 ports marvel pcie 1x in my system - so far it works, however, I have couple episodes of 2 or 3 drives read errors (after force reboot and parity check everything was ok). I am looking forward to hear more about the ASMedia 1064 too.

 

just saw it listed on Amazon 

https://www.amazon.com/IO-CREST-Expansion-Non-Raid-SI-PEX40156/dp/B08J2PK1HF/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=asmedia+1064&qid=1609764887&sr=8-1

 

LOL.. double price - Bezos obviously not making enough billions during pandemic 🙂

[bobbintb]

On 1/5/2021 at 2:13 PM, methanoid said:

 

LOL.. double price - Bezos obviously not making enough billions during pandemic 🙂

He's got to catch up to Musk and reclaim his title. Last one to a trillion is a rotten egg!

[bobbintb]

Has anyone seen a PCIe 4.0 version of the M.2 adapter? Since the PCIe 3 one has 5 SATA ports, I'm hoping a PCIe 4 version will be able to handle 10 but I have yet to see any.

[methanoid]

On 1/2/2021 at 5:18 PM, JorgeB said:

It works with Unraid as expected, not as much bandwidth as the JMB585 but sufficient for 4 HDDs, time will tell is it's reliable but I would expect to be similar to the 2 port Asmedia, which is fine.

 

So @JorgeB do you think I could have two of these cards in my 2 empty PCIE 4.0 x1 slots and be okay for Parity speeds etc? Theory says at PCIE 3.0 x1 speed they get 1GB split 4 ways so 250MB each. Can't think that is going to bottle neck spinning rust drives!?

[JorgeB]

33 minutes ago, methanoid said:

So @JorgeB do you think I could have two of these cards in my 2 empty PCIE 4.0 x1 slots and be okay for Parity speeds etc? Theory says at PCIE 3.0 x1 speed they get 1GB split 4 ways so 250MB each. Can't think that is going to bottle neck spinning rust drives!?

You can check here for some bench results.

[beverage]

Looking for a SATA expansion card for my system.  My hardware knowledge has really been lagging (young kids will do that) so I'm hoping someone could chime in with a suggestion.  My slant is more toward trouble-free than latest-and-greatest because troubleshooting time is hard to come by.

 

My motherboard has 6 onboard slots, but all are in use (2 x SSD cache drives, 3 x HDD array/parity drives, 1 x Bluray disk drive that's rarely used).  I have an UnRAID plus license, so I may as well aim for a 6+ port SATA expansion card.  I'm running low on drive space (all those kid videos!), so am just looking to add drives to the array.

 

UnRAID 6.8.3

Motherboard: ASUS H70M-Plus

All PCI express and M.2 ports are currently empty.

 

I've read through this thread, but there's a lot of mixed information, so I'm a bit confused.

 

Any suggestions are welcome.  Thanks in advance!

[JonathanM]

2 hours ago, beverage said:

Looking for a SATA expansion card for my system.  My hardware knowledge has really been lagging (young kids will do that) so I'm hoping someone could chime in with a suggestion.  My slant is more toward trouble-free than latest-and-greatest because troubleshooting time is hard to come by.

 

My motherboard has 6 onboard slots, but all are in use (2 x SSD cache drives, 3 x HDD array/parity drives, 1 x Bluray disk drive that's rarely used).  I have an UnRAID plus license, so I may as well aim for a 6+ port SATA expansion card.  I'm running low on drive space (all those kid videos!), so am just looking to add drives to the array.

 

UnRAID 6.8.3

Motherboard: ASUS H70M-Plus

All PCI express and M.2 ports are currently empty.

 

I've read through this thread, but there's a lot of mixed information, so I'm a bit confused.

 

Any suggestions are welcome.  Thanks in advance!

 

 

[beverage]

12 hours ago, jonathanm said:

 

 

Thank you.  I didn't see that post when I searched, but probably because my search terminology didn't align with it, and I came across this thread first.

[bigbangus]

On 1/2/2021 at 12:18 PM, JorgeB said:

It works with Unraid as expected, not as much bandwidth as the JMB585 but sufficient for 4 HDDs, time will tell is it's reliable but I would expect to be similar to the 2 port Asmedia, which is fine.

 

I've been using the ASM1064 for about a year now no issues. 

[tr3bjockey]

On 10/12/2020 at 1:21 PM, Hoopster said:

With PCIe x1 you can really only get a 2-port SATA card. 

 

Look for something based on the JMicron JMB582 or ASMedia ASM1061 controller chip.  There are some from Syba, IO Crest, etc.

I combined this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09N8MCDTZ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

with this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VGTMX7W

 

I didn't think this would work at all, but so far it's working (past hour). 

 

UPDATE:  This has worked flawlessly and no more UDMA CRC error counts.  Going to toss this IO CREST Internal 5 Port Non-Raid SATA III in the trash which was causing my problems.

 

 

Edited December 10, 2022 by tr3bjockey
update on usage

[lepa71]

On 12/1/2022 at 4:53 PM, tr3bjockey said:

I combined this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09N8MCDTZ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

with this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VGTMX7W

 

I didn't think this would work at all, but so far it's working (past hour). 

 

UPDATE:  This has worked flawlessly and no more UDMA CRC error counts.  Going to toss this IO CREST Internal 5 Port Non-Raid SATA III in the trash which was causing my problems.

 

 

 

I'm wondering if this will work in my setup. I have windows server 2016 essentials running on older Asus P8H67-M EVO motherboard. It has 2 SataI3 and 4 Sata2 ports. I use sata 3 for boot drive and have 3 Sata3 drives connected to 3 out 4 Sata 2 port. Then I use MS storage for raid 5 for those 3 drives. I got my self IO CREST 4 Port SATA III PCI-e 3.0 x1 Expansion Card Non-Raid with Low Profile Bracket ASMedia 1064 SI-PEX40156 card.

My MB has

Slot 1 PCI Express 2.0 x16

Slot 2 PCI Express x1

Slot 3 PCI

Slot 4 PCI Express x4 in a x16 size

I believe all those are PCI Express 2.0

 

Do you think using your setup would work better than just the card?

My drives are physical enterprise Hitachi 4TB drives(3x4tb drives in RAID5 = 8TB storage). Not really planning to upgrade to ssd at those sizes any time soon. I'm just trying to increase the throughput.

Or maybe it is time to upgrade the whole setup with a more modern MB and CPU.

I'm primarily using WSE 2016 as a clients backups. 

 

Thanks in advanced.

[tr3bjockey]

On 2/26/2023 at 4:47 PM, lepa71 said:

 

I'm wondering if this will work in my setup. I have windows server 2016 essentials running on older Asus P8H67-M EVO motherboard.

 

 

Do you think using your setup would work better than just the card?

 

Thanks in advanced.

I'm only using the card with unraid.  I did not test this card with any microsoft operating system.  Maybe ask someone in a microsoft forum?

[pras1011]

Is it better use a pcie slot or m2 slot for the sata expander?

[sanfark]

On 3/6/2019 at 2:47 AM, JorgeB said:

There aren't very good 4 port controller options. Marvell controllers are not recommended for some time, they might not even work with newest Unraid v6.7, if 2 ports are enough you can get an Asmedia controller, for more than that an 8 port LSI HBA is the best option, they can be found used on ebay starting at around $40/50.

Are we still recommending this controller for Unraid as of today?

I am in need of an extra SATA port (or two) for my PCIe 1x slot. MOBO GA-MA785GM-UD2H-rev-10, very old but solid as a rock and I assume the PCIe x1 is ver 1.0, hence a  2 port controller is sufficient.

[ChatNoir]

46 minutes ago, sannitig said:

Are we still recommending this controller for Unraid as of today?

Here you can find the recommended controllers :

 

There are options for 2 SATA ports.

[sanfark]

On 4/10/2024 at 10:17 AM, ChatNoir said:

Here you can find the recommended controllers :

 

There are options for 2 SATA ports.

TY! I believe my MOBO may be using PCIe 1.0 (250MB/s). My question is, when you use a SATA controller how are the lanes split? 

 

Are the lanes split evenly even if only one port is in use? Or are they split only if you use more than one SATA port?

 

Another way of putting it:

I install a 2 port sata controller, does each port receive 125MB/s dedicated or if I decide to only install one disk and only use one port will it receive the full 250MB/s while other port with no disk currently uses 0MB/s?

[JorgeB]

19 minutes ago, sannitig said:

Another way of putting it:

I install a 2 port sata controller, does each port receive 125MB/s dedicated or if I decide to only install one disk and only use one port will it receive the full 250MB/s while other port with no disk currently uses 0MB/s?

It's not dedicated to each port, if you have two disks connected, but are only sung one, it will have the full bandwidth.