Good Day

 

Haven't fully built my 1st Unraid .. aiming at  10 Sata III drives - I have are 8x 4Tb WD Reds with 2x 250Gb SSD's for cache

I also have Motherboard Asus Z97-K with 6 /Sata III -  either i5 4690 or G3258 intel cpu's  -  2x 4 Gb DDR3 1600 - Antec P100 or Three Hundred Two case

in Australia most Sata Cards mentioned in this forum need to be either imported or are hard to get 

Any ideas about a StarTech 4 Port PCIe SATA III Controller Card - Model No. PEXSAT34RH  - the Chipset is Marvell  88SE9230 ?

it's readily available down under in Australia at about $140-200 aud

Would it need any special configuration work or is it plug and play ?

Any help would be much appreciated

 

Extra info on the Star Tech:

The PEXSAT34RH 4-Port PCI Express 2.0 SATA Controller Card with HyperDuo adds 4 AHCI SATA III ports to a computer through a PCIe slot (x2), delivering multiple internal 6Gbps connections for high-performance hard drives and Solid State Drives (SSDs).

Featuring HyperDuo technology, the SATA card offers SSD auto-tiering which lets you balance the performance advantages of SSD storage with the cost-effectiveness and large capacity of standard hard drives. By combining SSD and HDD drives into a single volume (up to 3 SSD + 1 HDD), HyperDuo discreetly works in the background to identify and move frequently accessed files to the faster SSD drive(s) for improved data throughput - up to 80% of SSD performance! (Note: The HyperDuo automatic storage tiering feature is compatible with computers that use a BIOS.)

The PCIe SATA controller card supports Port Multiplier (PM), enabling multiple SATA drives to be connected to one port over a single cable, for a total of 7 drives (Up to 4 drives through PM on one port, and a single drive to the remaining 3 ports). Plus, the SATA controller card offers an effective hardware RAID solution, with native RAID (0, 1, 1+0) support.

 

Kind Regards

Pokey

6 minutes ago, pokes said:

88SE9230

For example:

 

 

Gee .. searching "StarTech 4 Port PCIe SATA III" when I should have searched: Marvell  88SE9230 chipset

thanks .. I'll steer clear off any Marvell chipsets then !

 

Trouble is good PC shops in Australia only sell StarTech or a cheaper Skymaster PCIe SATA III Card .. both Marvell chipsets 

that's if they even sell sata cards .. I might buy one from US or UK then

 

I'm not real handy when it comes to in-depth configurations on motherboards

for my setup .. any recommendations for the best sata card to use ? 

hopefully plug n play

 

Thanks

8 hours ago, pokes said:

might buy one from US or UK

or France .. all non marvell cards that I've found in Australia are mainly on ebay au, unbranded, under $50 Aud & look like chinese knock offs

this is what I'm thinking of going for LSI SAS 9201-8i

 

I've read elsewhere that the driver for this card misses out on features like s.m.a.r.t. & showing the serial number of the drives?

I can't find secondhand break out cables, new are a fair bit dearer than the card

 

1 - would it be essential to update the TI mode firmware ?

2 - can't find any documentation on cables, are these okay?

 

StarTech Mini-SAS to SATA Cable, 1x SFF-8087 Plug, 4x SATA Female

https://www.startech.com/au/Cables/Drive/SAS/50cm-Serial-Attached-SCSI-SAS-Cable-SFF-8087-to-4x-Latching-SATA~SAS8087S450

Edited July 26, 20205 yr by pokes
clarity

Hi Pokes, check out this site below. Note that it may take a while at the moment for items to get to Australia. The cost is perhaps a bit more, but you will know it works and is not a Chinese fake. 😕

regards, Peterg (Melbourne. Australia)

 

Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA w/ LSI 9211-8i P20 IT Mode for ZFS FreeNAS unRAID

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-H310-6Gbps-SAS-HBA-w-LSI-9211-8i-P20-IT-Mode-for-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/162834659601?hash=item25e9b3b911:g:UxcAAOSwWrxcPvQv

 

Also, take a look at:

 

Edited July 26, 20205 yr by peterg23

Pete

 

thanks for your help there

 

the mini sas to 4x sata 3 cables are either $18 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Krysma-50cm-0-5m-0-5-meter-4x-SATA-3-0-to-4x-SATA-3-0-6Gbps-Hard-Drive-Cable/333662965690?ha

or over $67 with very little else around 

https://www.mwave.com.au/product/startech-sas-cable-sff8087-to-4x-latching-sata-ab64745

would the $18 ones be worth a go, they're from Melbourne area .. everything cable wise is made in china anyway?

EDIT: or from china $10 each for a pair that look the same as the $18 ones

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LOT-2x-Mini-SAS-to-4-SATA-SFF-8087-Multi-Lane-Forward-Breakout-Internal-Cable/192770269883?_trkparms=aid%3D1110009%26algo%3DSPLICE.COMPLISTINGS%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140109102600%26meid%3D8a04afaae1334b7383d5bc5efc3e8af7%26pid%3D100041%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D27%26sd%3D283954767203%26itm%3D192770269883%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2508447%26algv%3Ddefault%26brand%3DUnbranded&_trksid=p2508447.c100041.m2061

 

Pokes

Edited July 27, 20205 yr by pokes

Got a used LSI 9201-8i 

how hot do these cards run at ? .. my infrared thermometer shows about 60°C on the heatsink on the underside of the card & about 48°C directly above it ?

should I reseat the heatsink or put a fan under it 

5 hours ago, pokes said:

put a fan under it 

This.

These cards are meant to be in a server, where conditioned air is continuously forced over all the card slots. In a desktop machine the cards are left to fend for themselves, which is why practically all video cards have fans.

The fan did it .. with the same conditions as yesterday, about 32°C on the heatsink under the card & about 29°C above it