Anyone have experience with Chinese 9201-16i HBA's?

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I am currently have an LSI 9211-8i with an HP SAS Expander card. I am having issues with this setup and am considering simplifying to just getting a single controller that can support more drives.

 

In case anyone wants to see what issues Ive been having I have posted on the unraid forums and reddit. At this point im convinced there an issue with either my HBA or Expander.

Unraid Forums Post

Reddit Post

 

So that brings me to the 9201-16i, I have searched eBay and find tons of them, but they all ship from China or Hong Kong, and I have heard mention of them being "counterfeit". But when I look at American listings, they are double the price, and look like the exact same card. So counterfeit or not, has anyone actually ordered one of these from China and what was your experience?

If anyone can suggest a different controller that's fine too, I need to connect 12Drives, and id like to stay under or around $150.

 

Thank guys!

[ChatNoir]

You cannot trust pictures too much on ebay, Amazon and the likes.

 

Not saying that all cards from China are local reproductions not to be trusted, but if I was selling counterfeit products, I would do my best to use pictures of the real thing.

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21 hours ago, ChatNoir said:

You cannot trust pictures too much on ebay, Amazon and the likes.

Normally I would agree 100%, except the pictures they are using clearly aren't the same card. All of the "official" LSI 9201-16i I have seen have 3 distinct differences between the cards I see on eBay.

 

1. The "real" cards use Yellow capacitors while the Chinese cards use black.

2. The "real" cards have a smaller heatsink than the Chinese cards.

3. The "real" cards ALL have an LSI logo on them, many of the Chinese cards do not.

 

But realistically I'm not too worried about weather its a knockoff card or not. What I'm really worried about is do they work? and are they reliable?

[Squid]

6 hours ago, relink said:

What I'm really worried about is do they work? and are they reliable?

I bought one for a song and a dance for the hell of it, and had nothing but problems with it and threw it out.  But at $20 I was willing to take a shot.

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17 hours ago, Squid said:

had nothing but problems with it and threw it out.

Ah, that's what I was afraid of. I see plenty of people speculating on the forums about these cards, but almost no actual accounts of people buying one and trying it.

 

I've got to find something that can handle at least 12 drives and not break the bank.

[Squid]

Something else you can do, but not quite as pretty is find a server pull of a 9201-8e or 16e, and then pick up the cabling and run them back into the case via an empty expansion slot.  I found a 16e a while back in Florida for $50 (genuine), and then some grabbed 8088 -> sata cables.   LOL, the cabling actually cost more than the card, but have had zero problems

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It's looking like that's going to be my best bet. Even with having to buy all new breakout cables I can manage it for under $90 total.

 

The only crappy part....I just replaced every cable in my system 2 weeks ago. lol

[UhClem]

3 hours ago, relink said:

I've got to find something that can handle at least 12 drives and not break the bank.

Maybe the answer is "staring you in the face". See (currently) 3 threads below this one, same sub-forum.

(LSI is not the only game in town ...)

 

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11 minutes ago, UhClem said:

3 threads below this one

I assume your referring to the thread talking about the Adaptec ASR 71605. That is actually a really nice looking card, and I will defiantly add it my list of options. The only reason I did not order one right now is that it uses SFF-8643 ports, and all I have are SFF-8087 Cables. With those breakout cables at $15 each now I'm back into the same price range as the other cards.

 

But if I end up having to bite the bullet and get new cables (again) then Ill probably go with the Adaptec, no special firmware, and it uses internal connections.

[UhClem]

Yes. And, it is a drag to have to "re-buy" (different) cables. But, if it helps to rationalize/justify going with the 71605, note that you might get some added flexibility and/or future-proofing. The 71605 is a low-profile card (be sure to get the bracket you want/need); and it is PCIe Gen3, so it would likely suffice if you only gave it 4 (g3) lanes (=~ 12x275).

 

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Thought id update you guys on the situation, I bit the bullet and bought an Adaptec ASR 71605. Found a decent deal on ebay, less than $90 and it came with whatever that little daughter board is (many used ones seem to be missing this), the battery, my choice of bracket size, and 4 brand new cables.

 

Luckily I had some extra thermal compound because Fedex was so rough they knocked the heatsink off in shipping. Other than that this card has been amazing. Just set it to HBA mode and it has been a flawless experience. All drives show up on boot every time so far, no more CRC errors, and so far no more 100% CPU lockups.

[hawihoney]

Just to add something to the OP:

 

Two years ago I ordered several LSI 9300-8i and LSI 9300-8e PCI-e 12Gb/s HBA from that chinese guy at eBay. They are working without any problems in 24/7 servers. Always check ratings and count of ratings. It's a lottery but for me it worked all the time.