PCIe Sata Cards recommendation

[Abula]

Hi,

Im looking for single PCIe Sata card, I dont need any raid support of any kind as this is for WHS build, but i would like at least 4 or 8 sata ports, money is no issue but i would like to keep it as low as possible while being reliable. The board im planing to build is Zotac Intel Celeron SU2300 1.2GHz Dual-Core Mini ITX Intel Motherboard IONITX-P-E in case it matters.

Thanks for any suggestions,

 

[Gigas-VII]

What form-factor chassis are you expecting to use? Will you have full-height or half-height expansion cards? Will a riser be involved, and / or will the clearances around the card slot be tight?

The issue is the direction in which the SATA ports come out from the controller. Also, instead of going with a SATA controller, you could go with a SAS HBA, which would simplify cabling tremendously (SFF-8087 breakout cables rather than bunches of individual SATA cables). Also, you can get SAS HBA cards used / refurbished for $25-100, or brand new in the $140-200 range. If you want more than 8 SATA ports, you could get a 16-port model for about $400 new, maybe less used.

SAS is backwards compatible with SATA, but it has some advantages in that it can be expanded, externalized, and centrally managed. It's also designed for use with backplanes, which you may or may not care about but it could be something you uses in the future.

 

[Old Hippie]

Here's a nice cheapo 4 port card with a JMicron chipset.

Or this one's got a SI chipset.

They're about all the same and I haven't had a problem any SATA expansion cards with either chipset.

 

[Abula]

Thanks for the replies n suggestions,

What form-factor chassis are you expecting to use? Will you have full-height or half-height expansion cards? Will a riser be involved, and / or will the clearances around the card slot be tight?

Im planning on using a Fractal Design case, still undecided between DEFINE R3 or DEFINE MINI. I would like to use more the R3 as it holds 8hdd, so thats enough for me, but the board only has 3 sata, so i would need at least 5 sata pci sata card (im guessing only comes in 4 or 8), so 8 would be ideal, but in the absence of a 8 sata pcie i would go with 4 and use the Fractal Design mini case and just use 4 sata pcie card and do 6 or 7 drive setup. So in either case i can use full height cards and shouldn't be tight.

The issue is the direction in which the SATA ports come out from the controller. Also, instead of going with a SATA controller, you could go with a SAS HBA, which would simplify cabling tremendously (SFF-8087 breakout cables rather than bunches of individual SATA cables). Also, you can get SAS HBA cards used / refurbished for $25-100, or brand new in the $140-200 range. If you want more than 8 SATA ports, you could get a 16-port model for about $400 new, maybe less used.

SAS is backwards compatible with SATA, but it has some advantages in that it can be expanded, externalized, and centrally managed. It's also designed for use with backplanes, which you may or may not care about but it could be something you uses in the future.

Thanks for the suggestion, didnt really know about this SAS HBA, seems interesting, and worth considering. I would like a new one, to connect 8 sata drives would be ideal, minimum 4, what would you recommend me if i were to go with SAS HBA?

Here's a nice cheapo 4 port card with a JMicron chipset.

Or this one's got a SI chipset.

They're about all the same and I haven't had a problem any SATA expansion cards with either chipset.

Thanks for the suggestion, both seem good alternatives, its really cheaper than i expected, so either probably will be my route if i cant find a 8 port, ideally i would love to have sata III support for drives like the hitachi 5k3000 while i know the drive isnt capped at sata II, i seen some comments about having issues wtih sata II, this is not mandatory, im also considring Samsun F4. But im restricted by the boards 1 PCIe, so if i could get a 8 port would be ideal, but either of you suggestion will be my choice if i cant get 8.

 

[Gigas-VII]

The Define R3 is an amazing chassis. I wish it had been available in the USA at the time when I built my last desktop. I highly recommend it.

Yeah, HBAs are really the way to go. They are inexpensive, powerful, and offer lots of flexibility. They also work fantastically in almost any operating system, so if there's a chance you might change OSes around a few times (between say Linux, BSD, Solaris, 2008R2), you'll still be covered. The only downside is that they don't do hardware RAID but that's actually more of a compliment than an insult these days: software RAID doesn't have compatibility issues between hardware manufacturers (meaning if you change brands of HBA, your RAID is still good).

If you want a really solid 8-port HBA, look for something based around the LSI SAS2008 chipset. This includes the Dell PERC H200, IBM M1015 (not the best choice but workable), and LSI 9211-8i (probably your best choice). You could also go a generation older and check out the LSI SAS1068 chipset cards, like the Intel SASUC8I.

Also, I'd suggest the LSI 9201-16i which costs $400, but has, as I'm sure you guessed from the model name, 16 ports. It's one of the best HBAs out there, but also one of the most expensive.

Something else to note: SAS2 HBAs (anything based on the SAS2008 chipset, for example) can handle SATA6.0Gbps natively.

 

[Abula]

The Define R3 is an amazing chassis. I wish it had been available in the USA at the time when I built my last desktop. I highly recommend it.

Yeah, HBAs are really the way to go. They are inexpensive, powerful, and offer lots of flexibility. They also work fantastically in almost any operating system, so if there's a chance you might change OSes around a few times (between say Linux, BSD, Solaris, 2008R2), you'll still be covered. The only downside is that they don't do hardware RAID but that's actually more of a compliment than an insult these days: software RAID doesn't have compatibility issues between hardware manufacturers (meaning if you change brands of HBA, your RAID is still good).

If you want a really solid 8-port HBA, look for something based around the LSI SAS2008 chipset. This includes the Dell PERC H200, IBM M1015 (not the best choice but workable), and LSI 9211-8i (probably your best choice). You could also go a generation older and check out the LSI SAS1068 chipset cards, like the Intel SASUC8I.

Also, I'd suggest the LSI 9201-16i which costs $400, but has, as I'm sure you guessed from the model name, 16 ports. It's one of the best HBAs out there, but also one of the most expensive.

Something else to note: SAS2 HBAs (anything based on the SAS2008 chipset, for example) can handle SATA6.0Gbps natively.

Thanks for the detail post, appreciate the time you spend with all the links and explanations.

The LSI 9201-16i seems impressive, and probably the best investment for the future, but atm i dont need that much space, probably when i do, ill build on Fractal design XL or the Norco's i seen here very well regarded, but its too much for me atm, this is just going to be a file/backup server but needs to be windows based, im just waiting for WHS V2. Either way i do appreciate you showing it to me, as i now know there is things to grow to, in time.

I think its going to be either the 9211-8i or SASU8i, probably when i decided between Hitachi 5k3000 or Samsung F4, i kinda like a little more the sata 2 out of price, but will see depending on what drives i end up with.

Just a small question that spawn upon your comments,

The only downside is that they don't do hardware RAID but that's actually more of a compliment than an insult these days: software RAID doesn't have compatibility issues between hardware manufacturers (meaning if you change brands of HBA, your RAID is still good).

I seen some ssd reviews, specially Crucial C300 that were tested with LSI controller, out of the boards available didnt do justice to it or didnt really take it to its max. From what i remember i think storagereview used an LSI Sata III card, not sure if they did a raid config. I kinda though they did, but with your comment, made me wonder, what would be good raid 0 sata III card for ssds? (this is more for my destkop not the server).

Thanks again for taking the time in my thread, take care,

 

[Gigas-VII]

RAID0 for SSDs for booting, I assume? You'd be best using an onboard SATA6.0 controller if possible. RAID boot volumes and software RAID do not go together so well in Windows environments. Motherboard-based RAID0 is just as fast as "hardware" RAID0 because there are no real computations to be performed.

One thing to keep in mind, though, is that TRIM does not work from behind RAID of any layer. I'd suggest a single, bigger, faster SSD over an array of smaller, slower ones. If you want real speed, look into PCIe SSDs rather than SATA/SAS.