IBM M1015 vs Dell Perc H310

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Ciamician

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Specs are pretty similar, the H310 has a couple more RAID modi which doesn't really bother me since I'm going to use it as a dummy controller on my current MDADM build + use it in my future ZFS build:

The M1015 costs around 140 EUR. I'm able to get a second-hand H310 + 2 mini-SAS to 4x-SATA cables for around 100 EUR.

What's the better choice here? They should be able to support 2TB (+) drives. Planning on flashing the card obviously.
 
140 EUR is the price of a new M1015 around here in Western Europe.

Do you think I should get the H310 + 2 two cables for around 100 EUR?
 
The M1015 is easy to load LSI 9240 (and 9210/9211 if you want) firmware on. The Dells are not and thus will likely have worse support for recent drives unless Dell is doing a good job keeping their firmware up to date.

Same controller but supposedly Dell does some stuff that IBM didn't (at least on the M1015) to make firmware updates more controlled.
 
dandragonrage said:
The M1015 is easy to load LSI 9240 (and 9210/9211 if you want) firmware on. The Dells are not and thus will likely have worse support for recent drives unless Dell is doing a good job keeping their firmware up to date.

Same controller but supposedly Dell does some stuff that IBM didn't (at least on the M1015) to make firmware updates more controlled.
Click to expand...

That's funny, I had the exact opposite reaction, I own a M1015 and a Dell Perc card. (I forget which model, may be a H310, possibly a H400 if it exists)
Could not get the IBM to flash at all, tried it in the fileserver, tried it in the desktop, both failed. (whoo that was a pain, had to yank the GPU to get at the x16 slot to plug the x8 card in)
The Dell? Load it up and flash the thing, zero issues. Was harder finding the firmware than it was flashing it. (as I recall, that perc I had identified itself as a tape controller before I put the alternate firmware on it)
 
dandragonrage said:
The M1015 is easy to load LSI 9240 (and 9210/9211 if you want) firmware on. The Dells are not and thus will likely have worse support for recent drives unless Dell is doing a good job keeping their firmware up to date.

Same controller but supposedly Dell does some stuff that IBM didn't (at least on the M1015) to make firmware updates more controlled.
Click to expand...

easy path on on H310/200 is using dellizer IT firmware, if you need IT

But....
if you running H310 on linux or windows. do NOT need to use 6G IT dell firmware.
all unconfigure drives are pass-through.
except on dell H200, which 9211 IR. you NEED to flash with 6G IT dell firmware to get real passthrough aka IT.
 
FnordMan said:
That's funny, I had the exact opposite reaction, I own a M1015 and a Dell Perc card. (I forget which model, may be a H310, possibly a H400 if it exists)
Could not get the IBM to flash at all, tried it in the fileserver, tried it in the desktop, both failed. (whoo that was a pain, had to yank the GPU to get at the x16 slot to plug the x8 card in)
The Dell? Load it up and flash the thing, zero issues. Was harder finding the firmware than it was flashing it. (as I recall, that perc I had identified itself as a tape controller before I put the alternate firmware on it)
Click to expand...

I have good luck on M1015 and H200 including H310.
for dell, I just stick with dell firmware, since Dell is being picky on what to put in their card.

M1015, I just use LSI firmware

the blocker was flashing via UEFI, since new lsi firmware bundle does not included anymore.
 
The picture does look right for the M1015, but I will note that the following is incorrect - the 9211 and 9240 are NOT the same card - they are close enough for you to be able to use 9211 firmware but you lose some features (but gain some OS and possibly motherboard compatibility) doing so


Selling an IBM ServeRaid M1015, also known as the LSI 9211-8i, and also known as a re-branded LSI 9240-8i
Click to expand...

But aside from that incorrect statement, I don't see any red flags about the auction. It seems like a simple mistake and one that is relatively easy to make.

If you do buy it, make sure to download the latest drivers rather than use the CD there, but you likely already knew that.
 
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I flashed a dell H200 or the M1015 equivalent a year ago. It was a paint to cross flash. The IBMs are easy.
 
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