LSI 9211-8I or something else?

AnIgnorantPerson

Limp Gawd
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Should I get an LSI 9211-8i or should I get a different HBA? I already have 1 LSI 9211-8i and have no issue with it. Should I get the same thing again or should I get a server one?
 
The 9201-16i is a great product if you need 16 ports. Although it is discontinued. Last week I purchased 2 at work on Amazon (since it did not exist in the "approved" vendor).


Edit: With that said I just paid ~$46 for a 9211-8i on ebay. I don't expect to see a 9201-16i for only 2 times that..
 
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9211-8i's are all I use at home. Got 5 - 6 of them in use, never had an issue. All flashed to IT mode however.
 
Doesn't matter much as long as you're using them for regular HDD they can manage perfectly, SSD need the 2308 or 3008 variant or you'll see bottlenecks when fully utilizing the drives.
I prefer having them all the same for aligning positioning of cooling them (I have a standard case rather than a server one and the cards ideally need airflow).
I'm getting one of these with a 120/140mm fan (it can support dual 80mm, single 120, single 140), haven't decided if I'm going to blow the air down or pull it up yet.
I may end up doing the dual 80mm and add a right angle fan shroud to have the back one blow the air towards the rear exhaust then have the front one blow down, so I have some circulation going for them.
 
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Doesn't matter much as long as you're using them for regular HDD they can manage perfectly, SSD need the 2308 or 3008 variant or you'll see bottlenecks when fully utilizing the drives.
I prefer having them all the same for aligning positioning of cooling them (I have a standard case rather than a server one and the cards ideally need airflow).
I'm getting one of these with a 120/140mm fan (it can support dual 80mm, single 120, single 140), haven't decided if I'm going to blow the air down or pull it up yet.
I may end up doing the dual 80mm and add a right angle fan shroud to have the back one blow the air towards the rear exhaust then have the front one blow down, so I have some circulation going for them.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/G35851-301...c:g:g~8AAOSweWZbkv8F:sc:UPSGround!60542!US!-1

whats the difference exactly?
 
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That one you linked is a raid card not a HBA, if you're using it for freenas/unraid you should get a HBA/IT mode card not raid/IR mode (its about half the price too).

There are two major differences:
First the 2308 controller is pcie 3.0 x8 card, the 2008 is a pcie 2.0 x8.
The second is the 2308 uses dual processors, the 2008 is a single processor.
This effectively gives the 2008 a maximum i/o of about 3,200MB/s and 350K IOPS, which is plenty for 8-16 HDD, but it would struggle or bottleneck you if fully using 8x ssd, the 2308 is effectively double that and using the pcie 3.0 x8 gives it enough throughput (pcie 2.0 x8 would cap at about 4,000MB/s).

So lets start from the top what is this being used for? /what are you using your current 9211-8i for?
 
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That one you linked is a raid card not a HBA, if you're using it for freenas/unraid you should get a HBA/IT mode card not raid/IR mode (its about half the price too).

There are two major differences:
First the 2308 controller is pcie 3.0 x8 card, the 2008 is a pcie 2.0 x8.
The second is the 2308 uses dual processors, the 2008 is a single processor.
This effectively gives the 2008 a maximum i/o of about 3,200MB/s and 350K IOPS, which is plenty for 8-16 HDD, but it would struggle or bottleneck you if fully using 8x ssd, the 2308 is effectively double that and using the pcie 3.0 x8 gives it enough throughput (pcie 2.0 x8 would cap at about 4,000MB/s).

So lets start from the top what is this being used for? /what are you using your current 9211-8i for?
I have 9211-8i in a Norco 24 bay case using SnapRAID with 20ish 6TB 7200 RPM drives. Using an Intel SAS expander

EDIT maybe i will get the 2308 and switch it would of my Norco case

This card? 9217?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LSI-SAS230...450823?hash=item1ebf5b4dc7:g:0-kAAOSwoA1bUdzM

I see newer controller and 3.0 vs 2.0 So basically updated 9211
https://www.servethehome.com/current-lsi-hba-controller-features-compared/hba_features-2/
 
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I have 9211-8i in a Norco 24 bay case using SnapRAID with 20ish 6TB 7200 RPM drives. Using an Intel SAS expander

EDIT maybe i will get the 2308 and switch it would of my Norco case

This card? 9217?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/LSI-SAS230...450823?hash=item1ebf5b4dc7:g:0-kAAOSwoA1bUdzM

I see newer controller and 3.0 vs 2.0 So basically updated 9211
https://www.servethehome.com/current-lsi-hba-controller-features-compared/hba_features-2/

Pretty much, so snapRAID I think uses the itmode/HBA just like freenas/unraid therefore:

If you're looking for an LSI branded 2308 HBA/IT mode card pre-flashed this is the one I would recommend: https://ebay.us/ZADsnv
If you want to get a OEM and flash it yourself to save yourself a few dollars you can get this one: https://ebay.us/ZwsZss (or if you want a version that has the ports facing up for the intel expander: https://ebay.us/DqDIZr)
(you can flash the HP H220 and IBM N2115 cards to the 9207-8i IT mode firmware)

You can get some good information from here: https://www.servethehome.com/buyers...s-freenas-nas-servers/top-picks-freenas-hbas/

Since you already found the speed chart there is a great list of all of the different vendor model and overall card models of the different versions here: https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...and-hba-complete-listing-plus-oem-models.599/


However as I mentioned unless you're running SSD that 9211-8i can handle 24 drives no problem.
 
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Pretty much, so snapRAID I think uses the itmode/HBA just like freenas/unraid therefore:

If you're looking for an LSI branded 2308 HBA/IT mode card pre-flashed this is the one I would recommend: https://ebay.us/ZADsnv
If you want to get a OEM and flash it yourself to save yourself a few dollars you can get this one: https://ebay.us/ZwsZss (or if you want a version that has the ports facing up for the intel expander: https://ebay.us/DqDIZr)
(you can flash the HP H220 and IBM N2115 cards to the 9207-8i IT mode firmware)

You can get some good information from here: https://www.servethehome.com/buyers...s-freenas-nas-servers/top-picks-freenas-hbas/

Since you already found the speed chart there is a great list of all of the different vendor model and overall card models of the different versions here: https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...and-hba-complete-listing-plus-oem-models.599/


However as I mentioned unless you're running SSD that 9211-8i can handle 24 drives no problem.
Do I need to flash it? I don't even remember flashing my 9211:confused:

whats the difference from 9205/9207/9208/9217
 
Doesn't matter much as long as you're using them for regular HDD they can manage perfectly, SSD need the 2308 or 3008 variant or you'll see bottlenecks when fully utilizing the drives.
I prefer having them all the same for aligning positioning of cooling them (I have a standard case rather than a server one and the cards ideally need airflow).
I'm getting one of these with a 120/140mm fan (it can support dual 80mm, single 120, single 140), haven't decided if I'm going to blow the air down or pull it up yet.
I may end up doing the dual 80mm and add a right angle fan shroud to have the back one blow the air towards the rear exhaust then have the front one blow down, so I have some circulation going for them.

Yes everybody should remember cooling for these.. these gets really hot when u abuse these.. i have lsi 9211-8i/other cards + hp sas expander combos in cases and all of those has somekind of fan blowing into heatsinks... bigger servers has i think 3000 rpm noctuas layin over the cards and blowing cooler air to those.. maybe overkill but makes me sleep better.. better have overkill than lower kill :p
 
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Do I need to flash it? I don't even remember flashing my 9211:confused:

whats the difference from 9205/9207/9208/9217

It might have been in IT mode already, I can't speak for snapRAID, I know unraid and freenas work without too technically, but get very persnickety when it comes to the information the drive is reporting and can cause issues.

Yes everybody should remember cooling for these.. these gets really hot when u abuse these.. i have lsi 9211-8i/other cards + hp sas expander combos in cases and all of those has somekind of fan blowing into heatsinks... bigger servers has i think 3000 rpm noctuas layin over the cards and blowing cooler air to those.. maybe overkill but makes me sleep better.. better have overkill than lower kill :p
Probably a touch overkill, they are designed to run fairly hotter in the 50c range.
 
It might have been in IT mode already, I can't speak for snapRAID, I know unraid and freenas work without too technically, but get very persnickety when it comes to the information the drive is reporting and can cause issues.


Probably a touch overkill, they are designed to run fairly hotter in the 50c range.
ah SnapRAID just runs on top of Windows logical drives so I doubt I ever bothered flashing

So what are the differences in all those numbers? Signifying vendor?
 
ah SnapRAID just runs on top of Windows logical drives so I doubt I ever bothered flashing

So what are the differences in all those numbers? Signifying vendor?
Vendor/OEM as well as the speed of the card (pcie 2.0 x4 or x8 etc, whether its a low or full profile card, whether the ports are vertical or horizontally facing, the type of heatsink and direction of fin placement) the link you already found gave a decent breakdown of most of them:
hba_features1.png
 
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