HBA Recommendation for X58 system

D

Deimos

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Messages
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Can anyone recommend an HBA for my aging X58 system. I tried to install an LSI 9211 but my motherboard refused to boot.

My minimum requirements:
PCIe v2 x4
RAID levels 1 and 0 supported
SATA (or SAS) 6GB/s
Reasonable price

System specs are in my sig.

Thanks.
 
I'm using an IBM M1015 (LSI 9240-8i) flashed to 9211-8i-IT with my Asus Rampage III extreme X58. Same here I can't enter LSI BIOS even tho it boot successfully, then the system boot to Windows 7-64.

I'm using my mobo BIOS to setup RAID 1. I could also use LSI megaRAID Storage Manager within Windows for a software RAID.
 
I'm not worried so much about raid, its just the SATA performance on my board is pretty miserable because the marvel controller is only using one lane.

I might give the 9211 another try w/o attempting raid, I'll just reset the card back to defaults and see how I go.
 
You are going to attach SSDs to that? Unless you absolutely need the full transfer rate, the 3 Gbps Intel ports are a good choice. Usually the access times are a bit better an these than on any add-on controllers.

Regarding the LSI controllers, a lot of boards have problems booting from them.
 
omniscence said:
Usually the access times are a bit better an these than on any add-on controllers.
Click to expand...

Just did a quick check, the Marvel controller has lower access times but the response times are so low I doubt the difference would be noticeable at all.
Access times with SSD connected to:
Marvel controller = 28µs
Intel controller = 34µs
 
Deimos said:
I'm not worried so much about raid, its just the SATA performance on my board is pretty miserable because the marvel controller is only using one lane.

I might give the 9211 another try w/o attempting raid, I'll just reset the card back to defaults and see how I go.
Click to expand...

Flash it to IT mode (target) and use your mobo to manage RAID if need be. At least, you will be connected to pcie 8x instead of pcie 1x (marvell 9128) or two pcie lanes with (marvell 9182). Marvell 9182 is ok with only one ssd connected to it.
 
kosmic, in IT mode there is no RAID on the card, if you want RAID flash it to IR !

My M1015 and 9240 boot fine on Asrock X58 Extreme III and MSI Big Bang XPower X58.

Despite me having those LSI cards I put my SSD on the Intel SATA2 because overall performance is better on it. I put HDDs on the Marvell SATA3.
 
I suggested IT because Deimos said "I'm not worried so much about raid". Reading fast I thought he said "I don't care for RAID" lol!

I always believed FastPath was needed for high demand RAID array. No so much for just a SSD with OS. I guess I wil have to do my own testing. :)
 
kosmic said:
Flash it to IT mode (target) and use your mobo to manage RAID if need be. At least, you will be connected to pcie 8x instead of pcie 1x (marvell 9128) or two pcie lanes with (marvell 9182). Marvell 9182 is ok with only one ssd connected to it.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll give it a go, I'll most likely have to flash the card in another system so I'll do it on my work PC on Monday.
 
Deimos said:
Can anyone recommend an HBA for my aging X58 system. I tried to install an LSI 9211 but my motherboard refused to boot.
Click to expand...

Did you cover pin B5 and B6? Every X58 board i've tried with a SAS2 controller needed it doing and worked perfectly after that, i've got a crossflashed M1015 running happily in my x58a-ud3r. Sandybridge onwards seems to be ok.
 
bmh.01 said:
Did you cover pin B5 and B6? Every X58 board i've tried with a SAS2 controller needed it doing and worked perfectly after that, i've got a crossflashed M1015 running happily in my x58a-ud3r. Sandybridge onwards seems to be ok.
Click to expand...

No, I didn't even think of that.

I'll give it a try, so far it has been nothing but wierdness.

I installed the card and it detected and worked but Windows gave a BSOD on boot but the next boot was fine, it was working long enough for me to update the FW, after that I couldn't get the card to detect AND boot windows, it was one or the other.

What do you use to cover the pins? I may have to duck in to the hardware store and pick up some masking tape.
 
I had this problem too until I found the "cover the pins" trick. I used a very small piece of electrical tape. I also wrapped the tape ever-so-slightly to the other side (but without covering the pins on the other side) to make sure it stayed in place while inserting the card into the slot. The adhesive on electrical tape isn't strong enough otherwise. I'm using a M1115 in a P6T Deluxe v1 x58 board. Flashed it to an LSI firmware right after.
 
I borrowed my wife's nail polish which did the trick nicely. Card seems to be working now, just need cables and another Samsung 840 Pro to set up a 2 disk stripe. Hopefully I get some decent performance out of this thing.
 
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