[NEWS] Chenboro SAS2 6G Expander Board

I checked my records and I actually ordered on July 24th. The order status has been "Awaiting confirmation by regional warehouse" since July 26th.
 
Provantage shipped mine in a reasonable amount of time considering that I ordered it as soon as it appeared on their site. I wonder what is taking them so long to get the card to everyone else?
 
The cards are manufactured by LSI. Chenbro probably has to have a minimum run amount in order for LSI to retool for their card.
 
BigXor said:
The cards are manufactured by LSI. Chenbro probably has to have a minimum run amount in order for LSI to retool for their card.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that Chenbro, not LSI, makes the card and that LSI just makes the chip. Since the LSI SAS2 chip has been out for awhile now, I'd be surprised if Chenbro is waiting on LSI to send them more chips to finish making some boards.
-Greg
 
grogthegreat said:
Provantage shipped mine in a reasonable amount of time considering that I ordered it as soon as it appeared on their site. I wonder what is taking them so long to get the card to everyone else?
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the Card or the Expander kit (UEK-23061) ? I was referring to the kit when I said September..

Are you others who have others pending, waiting for the card or the kit version?
 
MarkL said:
Are you talking about the Card or the Expander kit (UEK-23061) ? I was referring to the kit when I said September..

Are you others who have others pending, waiting for the card or the kit version?
Click to expand...

I'm waiting for the card only. I ordered with ShopBLT and they've just pushed the ETA back again to October 14 :(
 
MarkL said:
Are you talking about the Card or the Expander kit (UEK-23061) ? I was referring to the kit when I said September..

Are you others who have others pending, waiting for the card or the kit version?
Click to expand...

I was talking about just the card 23601.
 
I rang up the local distributor in Australia, Digicor, they put me onto a reseller. I had the card 5 working days after I ordered it.

A friend of mine ordered from provantage, he has waited 5 weeks.
 
rativiv said:
I rang up the local distributor in Australia, Digicor, they put me onto a reseller. I had the card 5 working days after I ordered it.

A friend of mine ordered from provantage, he has waited 5 weeks.
Click to expand...

Good thought. I just emailed all of Chenbro's distributors who listed an email. Maybe I'll get lucky.
 
I've just changed my mind and ordered a 9201-16i instead. Not only will I not have to wait, I should get better performance too, right?
 
I think this board is worth the wait. There isn't anything at 6Gbps that has this number of ports. For my Norco 4224, this board was the only one I would consider. My only complaint is that it needs some airflow over it despite the fan built into the heatsink. This isn't a big deal but is something to be aware of.
 
I placed an order with a distributor and they told me that the board would be available at the end of September, same as Provantage.

Another distributor said mid-October.
 
I must have been lucky, since I got my card 6 days ago.. and it only took 5 days wait..


maybe the distributor u ordered from is the same one provantage orders from? Maybe try another disty?
 
So I have had a bit of a play with this card now. in particular duallinking

Please bear in mind, I have never played with duallinking before, nor do I really know anything about it, I was hoping some people might help me understand it better.. and if Im on the right track.

When running a single external cable from my 9210-8i (m1015 flashed to it mode) to the chenbro sas expander's external input, the following is shown using lsi's util.

sasexpanderdetection-1cable.png


When running 2 external cables from the 9210-8i to the 2 external connectors on the sas expander (even tho the "Quick Guide" says the 2nd port is Ext. Output to JBOD Unit), the output of the lsi util is shown in the following :

sasexpanderdetection-2cable.png


is that all that needs to be done? does this even do anything? I noticed that I am getting a slightly faster read speed from my 20 disk zpool (2x10vdev) up from 1.17G/s to 1.29G/s but I am unsure if that was due to other circumstances, or actually because of the 2 cables plugged in make a difference..

I noticed in the lsi util program that there is an option to enable multipath. when i toggled it on or off (rebooting in between) i noticed no difference at all.
 
grogthegreat said:
I think this board is worth the wait. There isn't anything at 6Gbps that has this number of ports. For my Norco 4224, this board was the only one I would consider. My only complaint is that it needs some airflow over it despite the fan built into the heatsink. This isn't a big deal but is something to be aware of.
Click to expand...

Hello,

I just bought the expander CK23601 that is a nice piece of hardware .

But, as soon as powered : i noticed that the heatsink fan is very noisy !!!

But i also noticed the huge overheat.

So, i'd like to know if someone has already tried it fanless or used, instead, a chassis fan ?

By the way : anyway to monitor it ?

Thank you.

Sincerely,

XZed
 
I personally think that the fan built into the unit is very quiet. I really don't have a good sense of exactly how quiet it is since I've never actually been able to hear it over the sound of my other fans but I'd say that if it is squealing than something is wrong with the fan.
I did at one point replace the stock fan with a slightly larger better one from an old video card. I was at the time thinking that the card was getting too hot and causing my raid speeds to drop way down under load. It turned out to be a HDD that wasn't dropping out of the array but would only transfer at 5MBps read and write. I ended up putting the stock fan back on.

I've found that both this card and my raid card (LSI 9260-4i) need some air passing over them or they will overheat with stock cooling. They are meant to go into servers with tons of airflow. If you put this card in the bottom of a cramped tower without much airflow in that area you might have problems. Adding a fan near the card can be a little tough due to all the SAS cables coming off of it.

-Grog
 
grogthegreat said:
I've found that both this card and my raid card (LSI 9260-4i) need some air passing over them or they will overheat with stock cooling. They are meant to go into servers with tons of airflow. If you put this card in the bottom of a cramped tower without much airflow in that area you might have problems. Adding a fan near the card can be a little tough due to all the SAS cables coming off of it.

-Grog
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts. I received, this week, the same items (ck23601 + 9260-4i). Indeed, my main headache is airflow. I'm using it in a tower as a desktop computer. My pci-e slots are filled w/ 2 HD6950, 1 9260-4i, 1 CK23601, 1 Infiniband. And i admit i can't imagine how to cool all this huge overheat :/ .... quickly, hot air keeps floating in the bottom part of the tower.

For the CPU part, i know how to create airflow (2 fans on each side of the heatsink), but how/where to place it on the bottom part of a tower to cool it ?

Obviously, i imagine that an aerated latéral door would be nice to extract the heat, but the case door doesn't have holes. I suppose sticking fans behind the door blowing to the motherboard isn't a good idéa...

The pity : i'm using a server case (antec 4u) but can't see cooling benefits...

Thank you.
 
Your best solution if your card is the bottom of a tower like that is to mount a fan in the side panel (door) of the tower pointing straight at the card. This will prevent standing air in that area. Just cut a proper sized hole for the fan and then drill 4 small holes for the screws. I suggest some sort of screen or mesh between the fan and the inside of the side panel to prevent fingers from accidentally going into the fan.
 
Just got an email from Aztec Computers saying that they have some available. If only I just didn't buy my raid card, motherboard, chassis, etc.ugghhh!
 
I finally got mine but I don't need it? Anyone want to buy it? Currently on eBay but will move it to FS/FT shortly.
 
I just got mine today, only took a week and half to get it. Got a good deal for UEK-23601 for only $331.00.

http://www.sparco.com/cgi-bin/wfind2?spn=A5LK705

Here are pics of my Norco 4224 and UEK-23601 that will soon be attached to my 2208.

imag0140j.jpg



imag0144so.jpg



imag0138a.jpg



imag0142l.jpg


Quick Specs:

Norco 2208
OS - Freenas 8.0.1
Board - Supermicro X8SIA-F
CPU - Xenon X3430 2.40GHz
Memory - 8GB ECC soon to be 16GB ECC Registered
Sas Controllers - LSI 9211-8i and 9200-8e
Power Supply - Zippy 500w Redundant

Norco 4224
JBOD
Sas Expander - UEK-23601
Power Suppy - Zippy 800w Redundant
Fans - 3 120mm Deltas and 2 stock rear 80mm Deltas
Fan Controller - Lamptron Touch Silver
 
You are using the 4224 as JBOD? It works well? I want to do the same thing. Very nice! :)

Is the expander directly on the 4224, or is it some kind of metal plate that you bought?

What is the difference between UEK23601 and CK23601?

You are using two SAS controllers, one to each chassi?
 
brutalizer said:
You are using the 4224 as JBOD? It works well? I want to do the same thing. Very nice! :)

Is the expander directly on the 4224, or is it some kind of metal plate that you bought?

What is the difference between UEK23601 and CK23601?

You are using two SAS controllers, one to each chassi?
Click to expand...

It should be fine to setup as a JBOD, I think it would be better this way so that I don't have to plug a USB CD drive into it from the rear.

There is a kit that the chenbro offers like they did on the old expander card. You can purchase it separatly (part# UEK) or together (UEK-23601) or (UEK-22803). The plate will hold the sas expander and allow you to power on the power supply and card from the front of the case. It fits perfectly where the IO frame is located.

The LSI 9211-8i is using IT firmware for controlling the Norco 2208's drives (raidz 2), I am using a CF with a sata adapter for the OS. The 9200-8e with IT firmware is being used for the JBOD (4224) and for a HP LTO5 tape backup system. I will show that later when it comes in this week.
 
Ok, thanks for the info. I am about to buy this card quite soon.

So you screw the card onto the plate, and the plate is screwed onto the norco chassi? And the card's in SFF 8088 connection is easily reachable from behind? Must the plate be tailor made to fit to the norco?

Would it be possible to screw the card onto the norco directly without a plate? If I can use 1-2 screws it should be enough to fasten the card....
 
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The card comes attached to the plate and it can fit into any server chassis and universal. As far as screwing the card into the chassis, I can't answer that for you.
 
Anyone know if the CK23601 is compatible with Adaptec 5405? I know the 5405 is only rated for 3Gbps, but I will likely upgrade in the future so no point in buying outdated expander.
 
I just got my CK23601 and have everything hooked up as expected.

I am not getting a blinking light on LED 1 on the back, but the fan is spinning.

Any ideas?

There is -NO- info anywhere as to the jumper configuration; I know there is an option on the 13601 to chose a different firmware, but have not been brave enough to randomly try different jumper configurations without some guidance..
 
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jen4950 said:
I just got my CK23601 and have everything hooked up as expected.

I am not getting a blinking light on LED 1 on the back, but the fan is spinning.

Any ideas?

There is -NO- info anywhere as to the jumper configuration; I know there is an option on the 13601 to chose a different firmware, but have not been brave enough to randomly try different jumper configurations without some guidance..
Click to expand...

Just FYI- I got a replacement board today, and it was the board.

The new one shows up just fine.
 
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