Need help with sata controller choice.

[technojunkie]

I'm having a bit of trouble deciding between two configurations of sata controllers

 

Config 1: 2x SUPERMICRO AOC-SASLP-MV8 PCI Express x4 Low Profile SAS SAS RAID Controller

Pros: only two cards needed to support a 20 drive config, less power required

Cons: I'm reading reviews that the card throughput isn't as high as it could be

 

Config 2: 4x Rosewill RC-218 PCI Express x4 SATA II 3G Controller Card (2x with port multipliers, provided throughput can still exceed drive capability)

Pros: redundancy, high reported throughput, supports port multipliers

Cons: Higher power demand, higher cost

 

Unknowns: I'm not very familiar with PCIe and available bandwidth when using multiple cards. I don know the mobo I am planning to use restricts PCIe0 to x8 when a card is inserted into PCIe1 but aside from that I'm not sure of any other ports share badwidth

[betaman]

Don't know as much about the Rosewill card but it seems to be older technology.  It is less expensive than the SM card (btw, check out Superbiiz for the SASLP and look for a coupon code as it can be had for less than $100 USD plus forward breakout cables are going on E-bay for $15 per).

 

When I was researching expansion options, the SM AOC-SASLP-MV8 seemed to be the clear front runner in terms of the highest performance:price ratio.  Everything I read indicated the performance during streaming definitely would not be an issue and the PCI-E x4 would keep parity checks in line.  I'm still waiting on my drives and cables to arrive but I'll report back once I get everything up and running.  Are you more concerned about streaming, file transfer or parity checks?

[technojunkie]

I'm looking to get The best balance. I don't mind spending a bit more for my parts but I'm not going to just throw money at this build. Currently My server streams 2 or more videos at any given time that will probably expand to 4 streams of both HD and SD quality. I also plan to add Crash plan to my server so I need both read and write performance. I know that I can use a cache drive to aid in writing and I will probably do that.

[Kaygee]

The Supermnicro card can read from all eight drives simultaneously at twice the highest rate you'll need for HD video, it isnt going to be a bottleneck. Stick with the Supermicro, uses only one of your valuable PCI-e slots.

 

The real issue you will have is your network being able to sustain two true hd streams and another two SD streams at them same time and additional bandwidth again required for crash plan without stalling and stuttering.

[technojunkie]

I realize that bonding isn't yet an option, so I plan on using both NICs in separate VLANS to try and maximize network throughput. As for valuable PCIe slots. The board I'm looking to use is this and It has plenty of PCIe to work with.

[Rajahal]

I don't think it is possible to use two NICs at all, but I may be wrong.

 

That motherboard has no onboard video, so you'll be wasting power and a PCIe slot on a video card.

[dgaschk]

This command might allow you to use the second nic:

ifconfig eth1 192.168.20.5 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

Change the IP address to match your network.

 

[Kaygee]

For VGA card buy a cheapo PCI video card, if it wont boot without video.

[kanth]

I've been thinking about that supermicro card as well.

 

Does anyone have it? And if so.. does it come with a full sized bracket if you are not putting it into a LP case?

 

 

 

[opentoe]

I just bought the SuperMicro SATA card from buy.com and it came with the half height bracket and the full height bracket. Full kit.

 

http://www.buy.com/pr/product.aspx?sku=211410774

 

 

[aaronwt]

I'm having a bit of trouble deciding between two configurations of sata controllers

 

Config 1: 2x SUPERMICRO AOC-SASLP-MV8 PCI Express x4 Low Profile SAS SAS RAID Controller

Pros: only two cards needed to support a 20 drive config, less power required

Cons: I'm reading reviews that the card throughput isn't as high as it could be

 

Config 2: 4x Rosewill RC-218 PCI Express x4 SATA II 3G Controller Card (2x with port multipliers, provided throughput can still exceed drive capability)

Pros: redundancy, high reported throughput, supports port multipliers

Cons: Higher power demand, higher cost

 

Unknowns: I'm not very familiar with PCIe and available bandwidth when using multiple cards. I don know the mobo I am planning to use restricts PCIe0 to x8 when a card is inserted into PCIe1 but aside from that I'm not sure of any other ports share badwidth

 

the Rosewill card is working fine with four sans digital enclosures with port multiplier capability. I just used a bracket to go from sata to eSATA for two of the internal ports on the Rosewill card. And attached the four eSATA ports to my four enclosures with sixteen drives in them.

[WeeboTech]

I'm having a bit of trouble deciding between two configurations of sata controllers

 

Config 1: 2x SUPERMICRO AOC-SASLP-MV8 PCI Express x4 Low Profile SAS SAS RAID Controller

Pros: only two cards needed to support a 20 drive config, less power required

Cons: I'm reading reviews that the card throughput isn't as high as it could be

 

Config 2: 4x Rosewill RC-218 PCI Express x4 SATA II 3G Controller Card (2x with port multipliers, provided throughput can still exceed drive capability)

Pros: redundancy, high reported throughput, supports port multipliers

Cons: Higher power demand, higher cost

 

Unknowns: I'm not very familiar with PCIe and available bandwidth when using multiple cards. I don know the mobo I am planning to use restricts PCIe0 to x8 when a card is inserted into PCIe1 but aside from that I'm not sure of any other ports share badwidth

 

Keep in mind these specifications about the rosewill card

 

Rosewill special design, “Magic Switch”, allows two modes operation.

Mode one: You can active 4 internal SATA ports and two external e-SATA ports are off-line.

Mode two: You can active 2 internal SATA + 2 external e-SATA ports for connecting your e-SATA enclosures. In this mode, two internal SATA channel will be off-line.

 

Also with port multipliers you are typically limited to 60MB/s for any drive accessed on the port multiplier.

 

Consider the supermicro cards.

 

[aaronwt]

I'm having a bit of trouble deciding between two configurations of sata controllers

 

Config 1: 2x SUPERMICRO AOC-SASLP-MV8 PCI Express x4 Low Profile SAS SAS RAID Controller

Pros: only two cards needed to support a 20 drive config, less power required

Cons: I'm reading reviews that the card throughput isn't as high as it could be

 

Config 2: 4x Rosewill RC-218 PCI Express x4 SATA II 3G Controller Card (2x with port multipliers, provided throughput can still exceed drive capability)

Pros: redundancy, high reported throughput, supports port multipliers

Cons: Higher power demand, higher cost

 

Unknowns: I'm not very familiar with PCIe and available bandwidth when using multiple cards. I don know the mobo I am planning to use restricts PCIe0 to x8 when a card is inserted into PCIe1 but aside from that I'm not sure of any other ports share badwidth

 

Keep in mind these specifications about the rosewill card

 

Rosewill special design, “Magic Switch”, allows two modes operation.

Mode one: You can active 4 internal SATA ports and two external e-SATA ports are off-line.

Mode two: You can active 2 internal SATA + 2 external e-SATA ports for connecting your e-SATA enclosures. In this mode, two internal SATA channel will be off-line.

 

Also with port multipliers you are typically limited to 60MB/s for any drive accessed on the port multiplier.

 

Consider the supermicro cards.

 

 

Before I put all 16 drives in my Array, I did some testing by making some of the drives the cache drive that were in the port multiplier enclosures . They had no problems getting between 720mb/s(90MB/s) and 880mb/s(110MB/s) throughput transfer rates, just like when the cache drive is attached to my motherboard SATA port.

 

There was no 60MB/s limit. If there was a limit, it was much higher. But throughput performance from my green drives was identical to the SATA connection on the Motherboard.

 

I do have an issue with my MB though and the PCIe slots. I have the Rosewill card in my x16 slot and had planned on having my other port mutilplier card in the x1 slot. But my Asus MB will not accept my other Port multiplier card in the x1 slot along with the Rosewill. I know if I used both of the x1 port multiplier cards when I have one in the x1 and one x16 slot it will work, but since those are only x1 cards, speeds to the enclosures is much slower. Which is why I got the Rosewill Rc-218 which is an x4 card. So now I will need to put drives 16 through 20 in the unRAID PC instead of having them in a fifth external enclosure.

[lionelhutz]

Are you using an enclosure something like this?

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111148

 

Good to hear the feedback on how this stuff works fine with unRAID. Do you have the final speed number for a parity check?

 

Peter

 

 

[aaronwt]

Are you using an enclosure something like this?

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111148

 

Good to hear the feedback on how this stuff works fine with unRAID. Do you have the final speed number for a parity check?

 

Peter

Those are the ones I have.

 

Sent from my HTC Incredible using Tapatalk

[aaronwt]

Are you using an enclosure something like this?

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816111148

 

Good to hear the feedback on how this stuff works fine with unRAID. Do you have the final speed number for a parity check?

 

Peter

 

 

 

I realized when you posted this I never did a parity check after all 16 drives were added to the Array. It finished some time this morning and the log shows that the parity check speed was 32825KB/s. It was certainly alot faster when I had checked it with only eight drives.

[lionelhutz]

That's a decent number. It sounds a little slower than other builds using the Supermicro, possibly as low as 1/2 the speed of what would typically be seen. Still, it's pretty decent for having 16 drives hanging off a PCIe x4 card like that.

 

How do those cases work? Do you just slide the drive in on the rails (the metal ledges bent in the cage frame) and then put a few screws into them?

 

Peter

[WeeboTech]

When I tested the Rosewill RC-218 card I saw the 60MB/s limit no matter what I did.

It could have something to do with the downstream PMP array.

 

Also from what I can remember, the Supermicro PCI-X MV8 SATA card also supported port multipliers.

 

Now about that 32825KB/s parity speed.

 

You could try re-arranging the drives so that the successive drives are always on a different PMP array.

 

This complicates things a bit, but the balance of how much data is being used in one cable/one array may speed things up.

 

I.E. Do a round robin of the array layout.

Drive 1 -> Array 1 Position 1

Drive 2 -> Array 2 position 1

Drive 3 -> Array 3 position 1

Drive 4 -> Array 4 position 1

...etc, etc,

Drive 5 -> Array 1 Position 2

 

 

[aaronwt]

When I tested the Rosewill RC-218 card I saw the 60MB/s limit no matter what I did.

It could have something to do with the downstream PMP array.

 

Also from what I can remember, the Supermicro PCI-X MV8 SATA card also supported port multipliers.

 

Now about that 32825KB/s parity speed.

 

You could try re-arranging the drives so that the successive drives are always on a different PMP array.

 

This complicates things a bit, but the balance of how much data is being used in one cable/one array may speed things up.

 

I.E. Do a round robin of the array layout.

Drive 1 -> Array 1 Position 1

Drive 2 -> Array 2 position 1

Drive 3 -> Array 3 position 1

Drive 4 -> Array 4 position 1

...etc, etc,

Drive 5 -> Array 1 Position 2

 

 

 

The RC-218 also supports port multipliers. I have four, 4 bay cases attached to it.(I have a SATA to eSATA bracket for the two internal ports to use with my external 4 bay cases.)

Before I went to 16 drives I did have the array set up where drive 1 through 4 was in case 1 through four etc.. But I moved thngs around to put the first four drives in the same case since it was easier to deal with that way. I figured since I am using a cache drive, I wasn't going to be too concerned with transfer rates to the array. Since it will be transferred on the schedule I set from the cache drive. So far this has worked out well this way.

[aaronwt]

That's a decent number. It sounds a little slower than other builds using the Supermicro, possibly as low as 1/2 the speed of what would typically be seen. Still, it's pretty decent for having 16 drives hanging off a PCIe x4 card like that.

 

How do those cases work? Do you just slide the drive in on the rails (the metal ledges bent in the cage frame) and then put a few screws into them?

 

Peter

 

Yes you use a screw on the side rails to keep the drive in place. That is the thing I don't like about theses cases since they aren't designed to be able to quickly replace drives. I like the Mediasonic cases I use with my WHS better. But I already had a couple of the Sans Digital cases and didn't want to mix them so I just purchased some more. Of course the Newegg sale for almost $75 each also helped.