SAS drives & controller

mushtafa

mushtafa

mushtafa

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Joined
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I'm looking for some HDDs for a home server build.

Noticed SAS drives are cheap on eBay.

I also noticed there seems to be 3 different speeds of drive.

What do I need to look out for? Will they just plug & play? Are all controllers similar?
 
Largely depends on the RAID or HBA card, some will allow a mixture of SAS and SATA, others don't.

What's your setup, what are you planning to run on it and do with it?

The faster drives will be quicker and have slightly better response times. But generally for NAS usage the slower drives are best for power consumption.
 
Are they cheap enough to make them worthwhile?

The choice of adapter will depend on what you're doing. E.g. are you planning on using something like FreeNAS/Unraid or Windows?

Drive speed choice is also usage dependant. No point buying 15K drives if you're just storing media or holding backups.

You'll then need the correct cables to match the adapter you've chosen.
 
I think the plan will be to use unraid from my little research this week.

Will be used for data backup, Plex server, and if possible a small Minecraft server
 
Take a look at this video about IT mode HBAs. It'll give you a good overview of what's available out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTbKzQZk21w

Also, look at the Unraid guides for lists of adapters that are known to work.

I use a Dell H310 and a Fujitsu D2607 (both flashed to IT mode). They're both LSI SAS2008 based cards. The Fujitsu tends to be cheaper, and in my experience doesn't suffer from the SMBus compatibility issues the Dell does (Google H310 tape mod).
 
bremen1874 said:
Take a look at this video about IT mode HBAs. It'll give you a good overview of what's available out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTbKzQZk21w

Also, look at the Unraid guides for lists of adapters that are known to work.

I use a Dell H310 and a Fujitsu D2607 (both flashed to IT mode). They're both LSI SAS2008 based cards. The Fujitsu tends to be cheaper, and in my experience doesn't suffer from the SMBus compatibility issues the Dell does (Google H310 tape mod).
Click to expand...

Excellent video, thanks a lot. It's a minefield all this server stuff. But is't nice to learn, something new and different to the usual PC stuff
 
Stumbled across a LSI 9200-8i.

I can't find any info on these a all. (Found the 8e version).

I'm guessing they're a fake/copy? Does anyone know?
 
It shouldn't be costing you much over £25 delivered. The D2607-8I I purchased recently cost £23.88 delivered.

If you are buying try to buy something that has already been flashed to IT mode (assuming you aren't wanting the hardware RAID functionality). Reflashing them isn't difficult, but it's far from being a one-click process.
 
Not found any for under £25. The cheap ones have very vague descriptions and not sure if they're right for the job.

Buying one that's already been flashed for IT mode would be nice, but I don't want to pay too much for the privilege. I'd rather muck around for a few hours one evening.

I need a full height card. Feel free to point me in the right direction. I assume eBay is the best/cheapest place?
 
Look for a seller called 'xuanwen-2011' item 124168996493 on eBay. They're selling various pre-flashed SAS2008 based cards.

I purchased my D2607-8I from them very recently and it arrived in about 10 days from somewhere in/near China.
 
bremen1874 said:
Look for a seller called 'xuanwen-2011' item 124168996493 on eBay. They're selling various pre-flashed SAS2008 based cards.

I purchased my D2607-8I from them very recently and it arrived in about 10 days from somewhere in/near China.
Click to expand...

Thank you, I'll have a look later. I dismissed anything from China. Didn't know if the postal service was up and running properly again
 
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