need help with a controller

[dl666]

hello

i'm looking for a pci or pci-e 2.0 x1 controller to connect around 30-40 sata hdd.

i'll be using software raid so there's no need for a raid controller.

in my small research i found this one: LSI SAS 3041E-R HBA
is it any good?

according to its specifications it allows for 122 physical devices. Can these 122 devices be hdds? Through only 4 sata connectors? How do you connect all these hdds?

i'm sorry if these questions seem idiotic. Never cared for controllers until now that i need one.
also feel free to suggest other card. It's basically for storage so performance is not an issue.

thx

 

[Draugauth]

You will need to use expanders to reach that 122 physical drives.

4 ports means using HP Expanders if I'm not mistaken.

Hope that helps a little bit. I'm still new to the raid setups myself.

 

[username-taken]

http://www.singular.com.cy/ibm-serv...le-600-mbps-raid-0-1-5-10-50-pci-express.html
8 ports per card.

Or hell... go big. 28 ports per card
http://www.singular.com.cy/raid-52445-sgl-256-sata-sas.html

 

[olavgg]

Be careful, some older LSI cards, like for example SAS 3041E-R HBA supports maximum 2.2TB drives

The safest and cheapest option is IMO IBM m1015

 

[dl666]

thx for the replies.

couple of issues though:
first i was not aware of the 2tb limitation. Is this a hardware limitation or is there a workaround through firmware?

the ServeRAID M5015 is a raid controller. dont need it and not willing to pay for something i wont use.

the IBM m1015 is a pcie 2.0 x8. assuming it would work on a pcie 2.0 x1 (have no idea really) it would not be ideal. There's probably better alternatives.