I need a SAS Expander card but what about the specs? x16 versus x8 and 12Gb/s versus 6Gb/s...

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cemster

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Hi,

I found myself in need of a SAS expander card to accommodate my Z590 series motherboard that I am running an audio workstation with. Which only comes with 6 HDD Bays.

I am not going to RAID. I need 6 ports. So they are gonna be 12 total with my MOBO. They should support at least 8 TB drives, and they are all going to be needed at any given moment in my workflow.

But most of the cards I found Googling are either: x1, x2, x4, or Lanes are not mentioned at all.

And then there is 6Gb/s versus 12Gb/s cards... I've heard that the performance is %30 better with the latter.

I am perplexed about which specs I should chase. Which would be good enough? Obviously, I'd like a fast and reliable card.

So help on the subject and also maybe some specific card suggestions would be appreciated.
 
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what drives? Honestly you should be able to run something pretty cheap for what your trying to do.

for most drives you wont notice the bandwidth difference between x8, or x16 and 12Gb/s versus 6Gb/s.
 
I have one 10TB drive, 6x 8TB drives, 4x 6TB drives, and 2x SSDs.
I might later consider one backup-related RAID for the system SSD.
I am also hoping in the near future that I would populate more SSDs and some 16Gb/s SAS drives in my system. And maybe some M.2 devices...

But while we are at it do you have any card suggestions?
Thank you
 
If they're SATA hard drives, you don't need to worry about 12Gb/s cards. SAS drives are the only drives that can do that interface speed as far as I know, even then the drives can't hit that speed physically anyway.

If you google "LSI 2008 Chipset" cards, you'll find a bunch of information on them. I run a LSI 9211-8i in my Unraid NAS server with 8 drives - no sweat. You can get one for $50 or less on eBay.

If you're set on the 12Gbs cards - the LSI 3008 based controllers are the next step up. This is where I got a lot of my information when I was shopping for my card: https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...and-hba-complete-listing-plus-oem-models.599/

Stay far away from the ones with the Marvell controllers or even the Adaptec cards - they just don't work as well.
 
For audio, do you need more than 500MB/s cap of 6gb/s? Maybe you are using very very high lossless, but that’s still a lot of bandwidth for scrubbing. I would think the random access of the spinner drives would come into play before the bandwidth limitation of 6gb/s.
 
To simplify this for you, jump on ebay or amazon and grab a perc H310 OR H330. Base your choice off of your budget. The 310 is a 6gb hba, the 330 is a 12gb hba.

You will also need some sata (or SAS) break out cables, pick the card first though. The cables you buy need to match the card.
 
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cemster said:
I have one 10TB drive, 6x 8TB drives, 4x 6TB drives, and 2x SSDs.
I might later consider one backup-related RAID for the system SSD.
I am also hoping in the near future that I would populate more SSDs and some 16Gb/s SAS drives in my system. And maybe some M.2 devices...

But while we are at it do you have any card suggestions?
Thank you
Click to expand...
you are planning to use sas hdds correct? Were you thinking of using sas ssds or just sata on the motherboard. For quick ssds and specific workloads it can be detrimental to use the motherboard or a cheap raid card. Ideally pick up some m.2 nvme ssds (pcie adapter cards if necessary) they run about $100/tb (inland premium 1tb).

for cheap raid cards the suggestions above are good. Dell perc 6i can also be found for dirt cheap and should be just fine running 8 hdds
 
Wow! Thank you so much, guys. That's a lot of resources and info. I appreciate it. Some forums truly suck! And then some, truly come through...
I will work on the info and do some related research.
Meantime, anything that runs about $100/TB will be too painful to achieve at the moment. I need min 8TB drives to achieve a reasonable workflow, balanced with the coast and toil...
I wish I could spend as my heart wishes so I could get these new SSD-SAS drives I've just discovered! Like Seagate Nytro 3031 XS15360TE70004 15.36 TB Solid State Drive - SAS

CHANGE of HEARTS

So, I figured out (finally) that I won't be able to achieve anything more than 150-200 MB/s with any HDD. Except Seagate's Mach.2 Exos 2X14 promises 524MB/s maximum sustained transfer rate on a 14 TB drive.
And 450MB/s with a SATA SSD...

So either an LSI card that can be flashed to IT mode or a Non-RAID PCIe 3.0 x2 (Electrical) card will be my choice...
 
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