Good PCI x16 to SATA III controller card ??

digitaldreams

digitaldreams

digitaldreams

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Upgraded my son's ssd yet struggling to reach the quoted 500Mb/s due to the age of his SATA 2 motherboard.

Read and write speed was limited to around 250Mb/s so I added in an old ASUS U3S6 Marvel controller card (made for the motherboard). Read speed increased to 365Mb/s yet write dropped to 200Mb/s !. I suspect the card isn't using the full pcix16 bandwidth as it only has a short connector to go into the PCIx16 slot.

Any one know of a 'good' FULL BANDWIDTH PCI x16 to SATA 3 controller card ?, only one SATA 3 port needed. Currently running Windows 7 but hoping for 10 soon so drivers for both would be good (if only win10 drivers then we'll upgrade win7 while plugged into the motherboard, then fit the new card in win10).

Noticed a few cards on EBay etc yet many only have the short PCI connector so expect the full 500Mb/s won't be achieved with these.

Thanks in advance !
 
digitaldreams said:
FULL BANDWIDTH PCI x16
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You don't need x16 for this. Even server adapters are usually only x4 or x8.

Your limitation isn't going to be the x1 connector, not with a single drive connected anyway.

You're almost certainly better of leaving it connected to the motherboard's native SATA2 port. It may be slower in benchmarks but will still perform well enough.

Also, the U3S6 is an x4 card. Far more bandwidth than it needs for your single drive.
 
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bremen1874 said:
You don't need x16 for this. Even server adapters are usually only x4 or x8.

Your limitation isn't going to be the x1 connector, not with a single drive connected anyway.

You're almost certainly better of leaving it connected to the motherboard's native SATA2 port. It may be slower in benchmarks but will still perform well enough.

Also, the U3S6 is an x4 card. Far more bandwidth than it needs for your single drive.
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I've read reviews of my ASUS card and it's clear that the controller is limited to x1 even though using an x4 connector. Reviewers also noted other cards WERE faster. I have seen myself that using this card DROPS write speed yet increases read speed, there must be better cards out there....
 
I’m sure there are better cards out there. Most cheap ‘consumer’ cards are limited by the chipsets not the number of lanes on the PCIe connector. Looking for a x16 adapter isn’t going to get you anywhere.
 
bremen1874 said:
I’m sure there are better cards out there. Most cheap ‘consumer’ cards are limited by the chipsets not the number of lanes on the PCIe connector. Looking for a x16 adapter isn’t going to get you anywhere.
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Yup, need a benchmark of various cards or something !. One with a later x2 or x4 controller might have more chance than our ASUS....
 
If motherboard is ancient enought to not support 2009 released SATA3, then that PC won't be needing its bandwidth over SATA2 with CPU being much bigger bottleneck in most things.
 
EsaT said:
If motherboard is ancient enought to not support 2009 released SATA3, then that PC won't be needing its bandwidth over SATA2 with CPU being much bigger bottleneck in most things.
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My thoughts exactly!

Stick to sata2, you'll still get 90%of the benefits of having an SSD due to the reduced latency and increased IO for random read and writing. The raw throughput isn't generally what makes most of the difference.

If you insist on getting sata3, then perhaps use a HBA card with a Sas to SATA breakout cable
 
no idea what said:
My thoughts exactly!

Stick to sata2, you'll still get 90%of the benefits of having an SSD due to the reduced latency and increased IO for random read and writing. The raw throughput isn't generally what makes most of the difference.

If you insist on getting sata3, then perhaps use a HBA card with a Sas to SATA breakout cable
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HBA card ?
 
Host Bus Adapter. Usually taken to mean a SATA or SAS adapter card that doesn't support hardware RAID. Basically what you were looking for in your opening post.

There are many cheap SAS cards that originally came out of servers. SAS cards will work with SATA drives with suitable cables. You do need to be careful because some 'server' cards are fussy about what you plug them into and they also tend to run hot (they expect to be installed in a server with high airflow). If you are going to repurpose a server card you do need to do your research.

I run a Dell H310 which is quite a common card to repurpose. It does suffer from running hot and being fussy and also needs reflashing to disable the RAID functionality (a multistep process at the command line).
 
bremen1874 said:
Host Bus Adapter. Usually taken to mean a SATA or SAS adapter card that doesn't support hardware RAID. Basically what you were looking for in your opening post.

There are many cheap SAS cards that originally came out of servers. SAS cards will work with SATA drives with suitable cables. You do need to be careful because some 'server' cards are fussy about what you plug them into and they also tend to run hot (they expect to be installed in a server with high airflow). If you are going to repurpose a server card you do need to do your research.

I run a Dell H310 which is quite a common card to repurpose. It does suffer from running hot and being fussy and also needs reflashing to disable the RAID functionality (a multistep process at the command line).
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Thanks !. Ordered a second hand LSI00202 Megaraid 9260-8i on the cheap and single cable. This could be fun :), hoping I can just plug in and go without messy setup.
 
bremen1874 said:
If it isn't already done you'll want to reflash the firmware to put it into IT mode (assuming there's firmware available).
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'IT' ?. What would the effect be if it wasn't ?. I hope to boot the pc without the drive connected (C: running off the motherboard initially) then I can try the management software, look at firmware updates etc.
 
If it isn't in IT mode it'll be running as a RAID adapter.

If it's a RAID adapter you can't just add individual drives and have the system see them. You'd have to create single drive arrays instead which would work, but is a **** and clumsy way of doing things.
 
bremen1874 said:
If it isn't in IT mode it'll be running as a RAID adapter.

If it's a RAID adapter you can't just add individual drives and have the system see them. You'd have to create single drive arrays instead which would work, but is a **** and clumsy way of doing things.
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Looks like I've baught a card that can't be flashed into IT more, only £18 lost...

---------
"devnullius said:

2108 family (9260 / 9261 / 9280 / 9281 / 9282)
Used $250 - $700.
Budget 9260: IBM ServeRAID M5014
http://www.servethehome.com/lsi-sas-2108-raid-controller-information-listing/
JBOD / Passthrough are mentioned but double-check your device first!!

2208 family (think LSI 9265 / 9266 / 9267 / 927x / 9285 / 9286)
Used $300 - $700
Better cards (=newer, better RAID - not better for FreeNAS)
http://www.servethehome.com/lsi-sas-2208-raid-controller-information-listing/
JBOD / Passthrough are mentioned but double-check your device first!!
-----------
'Those can't be flashed to IT mode, so avoid them'
 
The list here should give you a starting point

https://wiki.unraid.net/Hardware_Compatibility#PCI_SATA_Controllers

If a card is suitable for Unraid it should also be okay for what you're wanting.

It's still worth repeating that you probably won't see any worthwhile benefit outside of benchmarks. I started with SSDs as soon as the 64GB drives were even remotely affordable (10 years ago?). The performance upgrade was massive compared to mechanical drives. The improvements since then (to my current Samsung 970 NVMe drive) haven't been that noticeable in normal day-to-day use.
 
bremen1874 said:
The list here should give you a starting point

https://wiki.unraid.net/Hardware_Compatibility#PCI_SATA_Controllers

If a card is suitable for Unraid it should also be okay for what you're wanting.

It's still worth repeating that you probably won't see any worthwhile benefit outside of benchmarks. I started with SSDs as soon as the 64GB drives were even remotely affordable (10 years ago?). The performance upgrade was massive compared to mechanical drives. The improvements since then (to my current Samsung 970 NVMe drive) haven't been that noticeable in normal day-to-day use.
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Thanks for the list !, frustrating to see many similar models to the one I baught but not the exact number. Maybe that list is simply out of date now.

Yes beginning to think the same, might give up but will have a play with the "IBM M5015 / LSI00202 Megaraid SAS 9260-8i" before bining. My son complained of the delay loading in game sections but at least the ASUS card has increased the read speed of his new drive above that of his old one.
 
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