Hi All,

 

2 HBA card for consideration:

(A) ebay seller - 2nd LSI 9212-4i HBA

(B) Amazon = IO Crest 5 port SATA III PCI-E HBA

 

I am undecided which Host Based Adapter should I buy on my unRAID NAS.

 

By camprison:

1) IO Crest 5 port SATAIII PCI-E HBA, of course has an extra 1 SATA port more than the LSI counterpart (max. 4 SATA III port)

2) IO Crest 5 port SATAIII PCI-E HBA, cost more expenisve than the LSI counterpart.

3) LSI 9212-4i HBA is running warmer than its counterpart, hence you need to install a fan to dissipate the heat.

4) LSI 9212-4i HBA supports x8 lanes using PCI-E v2.0 while IO Crest 5 port SATAIII PCI-E HBA PCI-E v3.0 supports x4 lanes

5) LSI 9212-4i HBA requires user to flash into IT mode (which I have no hassle of doing it)

 

Question.

I have an existing motherboard called mobo A which has got

dual (primary + secondary) x16 slots but the secondary only run at x4.

 

I have found a motherboard called mobo B in the market,

which has got dual (primary + secondary) x16 slots

but the secondary can run at x8.

 

The manual of LSI 9212 4i HBA shown a diagram that

the card can be installed on a PCI-E x4 / x8 / x16 slot.

 

This HBA card is able to support PCI-E x8, according to the specification.

 

On my existing mobo A, let's say, the LSI 9212 4i HBA card is inserted into

secondary PCI-E x16 slot, but it supports only at X4 according to the

mobo A's specification details.

 

In my existing mobo A, I had a video card already used up primary PCI-E x16 slot

running x16 for video output.

 

With reference to mobo A. Would you say there is slower transfer rate

compares to mobo B when its secondary PCI-E x16 slot that can support x8?

 

If this true, logically, rather than buying the LSI HBA card, it would be best

to go for the IO Crest 5 port SATAIII PCI-E HBA, since it supports x4?

 

Thank you.

 

 

Edited March 5, 20206 yr by wepee

10 minutes ago, wepee said:

Would you say there is slower transfer rate

compares to mobo B when its secondary PCI-E x16 slot that can support x8?

x4 is more than enough for 4 spinners.

 

Also note that the JMB controller is PCIe 3.0, so approximately same bandwidth as an x8 PCIe 2.0 slot, assuming board supports PCIe 3.0 obviously.

 

Some performance numbers in this thread.

 

 

Check out this card: https://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-81Y4494-H1110-SAS-2-6Gbps-HBA-LSI-9211-4i-P20-IT-Mode-for-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/163937114433?hash=item262b69d941:g:FjkAAOSwUQBdxo2S:sc:USPSPriorityMailSmallFlatRateBox!45230!US!-1

 

It’s perfect for 4 hard drives and comes already flashed to IT mode. The seller is fantastic. He’s very knowledgeable and helpful and has a very good YouTube channel.

@johnnie.black

 

Thanks you for you reply.

 

I did some research on my own.

 

My existing Mobo A does support PCI-E gen 3.0 only at the 1st PCI-E x16 slot.

Sadly, PCI-E gen 2.0 x4 is used on the 2nd PCI-E x16 slot.

 

3 hours ago, johnnie.black said:

Also note that the JMB controller is PCIe 3.0, so approximately same bandwidth as an x8 PCIe 2.0 slot, assuming board supports PCIe 3.0 obviously.

 

Since my existing mobo A (GA-Z77P-D3) + my CPU is Ivy Bridge i7-3770,

the combination allows my motherboard's PCI-E bus to support gen. 3 running @ 16

only for the primary PCIE x 16 slot.

 

However, if another device is to use the secondary slot x16, the spec. of the

motherboard shown " conform to PCI express 2.0 standard " @ x4

which translates to 2GB/s of bandwidth. This is bottleneck I will be facing.

 

Therefore, I would say having neither 2 of the HBA cards give full value of its worth.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 5, 20206 yr by wepee

2 minutes ago, wepee said:

which translates to 2GB/s of bandwidth. This is bottleneck I will be facing.

Correct, but 2GB/s is more than enough for 4 disks, 4 SSDs would be a different story.

2 hours ago, ramblinreck47 said:

Check out this card: https://www.ebay.com/itm/IBM-81Y4494-H1110-SAS-2-6Gbps-HBA-LSI-9211-4i-P20-IT-Mode-for-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/163937114433?hash=item262b69d941:g:FjkAAOSwUQBdxo2S:sc:USPSPriorityMailSmallFlatRateBox!45230!US!-1

 

It’s perfect for 4 hard drives and comes already flashed to IT mode. The seller is fantastic. He’s very knowledgeable and helpful and has a very good YouTube channel.

Yes, I have come across this guy.......thanks.

 

But at this point, I don't think buying a HBA card will give me

the full benefit in terms of getting the full bandwidth

as I have discovered just now.

 

32 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

Correct, but 2GB/s is more than enough for 4 disks, 4 SSDs would be a different story.

@johnnie.black

 

Would I have worry much about having a Z77 chipset which is using DMI v2.0 which also have a bandwidth of: 2GB/s?

 

What application / operation would I see bottleneck happening between the CPU (i7-3770) and the PCH (Z77 chipset)? Video transcoding?

6 minutes ago, wepee said:

Would I have worry much about having a Z77 chipset which is using DMI v2.0 which also have a bandwidth of: 2GB/s?

Depends if the controller will be installed on a CPU or PCH slot, if PCH it will share the bandwidth with the onboard SATA ports, there are also some performance numbers for that in the link above.

8 hours ago, johnnie.black said:

Depends if the controller will be installed on a CPU or PCH slot, if PCH it will share the bandwidth with the onboard SATA ports, there are also some performance numbers for that in the link above.

I assume that " the controller " means the HBA card. Right?

Yes