SATA PCI-E Controller needed.

jsheed_sa said:
Hi,

I'm looking for a SATA PCI-E controller.

I've got a Dell T20 and its got 4 SATA ports and i'd like to extend this, hence the controller.

I've found this on Wootware:

http://www.wootware.co.za/sunix-ac-...a3-6gb-s-dual-port-pci-e-raid-controller.html

Are there any alternatives? I see it does RAID and I don't need any HW RAID as i'll be doing software type RAID with ZFS.
Click to expand...

Those cheap SATA controllers are terrible and I would recommend something more reliable if you can afford it.

Controller of choice for ZFS setups is the M1015 flashed to IT mode, you can pick them up on eBay for quite cheap like here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEU-IBM-Ser...ecc4192&pid=100623&rk=2&rkt=6&sd=151193725495

You'll just also need the miniSAS to sata cables which you can also pick up on eBay.

Some background: I was using two of those cheap SATA cards and used to see constant IO issues in my kernel logs, to save myself any pain I decided to get one of these and it's been running like a dream ever since.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
Those cheap SATA controllers are terrible and I would recommend something more reliable if you can afford it.

Controller of choice for ZFS setups is the M1015 flashed to IT mode, you can pick them up on eBay for quite cheap like here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEU-IBM-Ser...ecc4192&pid=100623&rk=2&rkt=6&sd=151193725495

You'll just also need the miniSAS to sata cables which you can also pick up on eBay.

Some background: I was using two of those cheap SATA cards and used to see constant IO issues in my kernel logs, to save myself any pain I decided to get one of these and it's been running like a dream ever since.
Click to expand...

Agree on the cheap SATA controllers not being worth it !!. I've had cases where the driver for the cheap Sunix line of cards crashes under both Linux and FreeBSD... causing the storage pool to go into error state.

Tho, instead of going the stand alone raid card in IT mode route... I instead bought a decent motherboard with 10 SATA-3 ports and ECC memory support... It was the best decision I could have made, I now had 4+ years of no hassle home storage (touch wood).
 
You can get the cheap controllers from Matrix, but I agree with the guys above, rather upgrade your motherboard.
 
kidcolt said:
Agree on the cheap SATA controllers not being worth it !!. I've had cases where the driver for the cheap Sunix line of cards crashes under both Linux and FreeBSD... causing the storage pool to go into error state.

Tho, instead of going the stand alone raid card in IT mode route... I instead bought a decent motherboard with 10 SATA-3 ports and ECC memory support... It was the best decision I could have made, I now had 4+ years of no hassle home storage (touch wood).
Click to expand...

I've had one channel of a mobo SATA controllers die on me, turning off half an array during a write. Trashed the entire array, not saying it's a common thing but definitely put me off using the onboard controller (at least on cheaper consumer boards.)
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
I've had one channel of a mobo SATA controllers die on me, turning off half an array during a write. Trashed the entire array, not saying it's a common thing but definitely put me off using the onboard controller (at least on cheaper consumer boards.)
Click to expand...

Luckily I'm sure you remembered that RAID!=backup and restored easily with just a time penalty ;-) :P... Just kidding. True... on the cheapo motherboards they normally only expose 2-4 SATA ports from the chipset then use use cheap third-party chips directly connected to the PCI bus to provide additional ports... I.e. since the OS drive normal connects to the first sata port, users land up with data drives on onboard Sunix chipset ports :cry:

In my experience boards based on the Intels Z/X series chipsets tend to be of a better quality, plus getting ECC memory support is worth it in my opinion for a ZFS setup... Yes, they do require a bit more of a upfront investment... but I had to many conversations with users desperate to recover their children's childhood photos because they setup a "cool" nas on their home network without redundancy or backups and not even simple SMART monitoring on the drives.
 
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