HBA or Raid Card for jbod

8uhbbhu8 · October 17, 2017

Hey so i'm looking for either an HBA card or a Raid card that I can use in my home storage server. I will be using software raid so jbod ability is a must. Right now all I have is 4 sata drives in it but over time I plan to upgrade quite a bit so I would like something I will be able to use in the future. I want a minimum or 4 ports if its a sata based card or 2 ports is it sas based (as (from what i've learned of them so far) each sas port can easily handle up to 4 sata connections at a time and upgrading to 8 drives is in the near future). I don't mind learning a bit about flashing cards if there are Raid cards that can support jbod with a bios flash. Budget is no more then $100 and I will be looking on ebay for these to try and find something used for hopefully quite a bit less. Does anyone have suggestions I should consider? I will most likely be using freenas as my OS if that helps.

scottyseng · October 17, 2017

1 hour ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

-snip-

I would get an HBA card if you're running software RAID.

I would say look up used Dell or HP rebranded LSI HBA cards. I paid $50 for mine. I would also say to get SAS 6Gb/s cards at least (and know you need to buy the needed SAS to SATA breakout cable for your needs).

The LSI SAS2008-8i would work for you.

8uhbbhu8 · October 18, 2017

18 hours ago, scottyseng said:

I would get an HBA card if you're running software RAID.

I would say look up used Dell or HP rebranded LSI HBA cards. I paid $50 for mine. I would also say to get SAS 6Gb/s cards at least (and know you need to buy the needed SAS to SATA breakout cable for your needs).

The LSI SAS2008-8i would work for you.

Ok. What do you think of this card?

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Gigabyte-GC-RLE086-RH-LSI-1068E-HBA-card-8-port-SAS-data-cable/263109839080?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

mariushm · October 18, 2017

For just 8 sata ports in total, it may be cheaper to just buy a motherboard with 8 sata ports from the start.

I suggested two such motherboards yesterday I think to someone else.

80$ : ASRock A88M-G/3.1 : https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-Motherboard-Micro-DDR3-A88M-G/dp/B01AIZW928/ ( 8 sata 3 and a m.2 connector , low height chipset heatsink, 2 pci-e x16 , one x16 and one x4, one pci-e x1, one PCI slot )

113$ : ASRock FM2A88M Pro3+ : https://www.amazon.com/ASRock-MicroATX-Motherboard-FM2A88M-PRO3/dp/B00O1WETUK/

FM2 processors are cheap, you can even buy them on eBay , for example i see an A4-4000 (2x3.2ghz 65w tdp) for 21$ on eBay which is 43$ new on Newegg , or A4-5300 (2x3.4ghz) for $19 ... they have integrated graphics so you can use pci-e x16 slot at a later time to put an extra sata controller.

Add a DDR3 stick and you have your nas box.

scottyseng · October 18, 2017

1 hour ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

Ok. What do you think of this card?

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Gigabyte-GC-RLE086-RH-LSI-1068E-HBA-card-8-port-SAS-data-cable/263109839080?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

That's SAS 1 (3Gb/s). I would get SAS 2 (6Gb/s) at least these days.

8uhbbhu8 · October 18, 2017

18 hours ago, scottyseng said:

That's SAS 1 (3Gb/s). I would get SAS 2 (6Gb/s) at least these days.

hmmmm it is too! Ok time for more searching

scottyseng · October 19, 2017

3 hours ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

hmmmm it is too! Ok time for more searching

Haha, yeah, it should be in the $50-80 USD mark.

If it's too cheap, it's more than likely SAS1.

8uhbbhu8 · October 19, 2017

On 10/17/2017 at 3:15 AM, scottyseng said:

I would get an HBA card if you're running software RAID.

I would say look up used Dell or HP rebranded LSI HBA cards. I paid $50 for mine. I would also say to get SAS 6Gb/s cards at least (and know you need to buy the needed SAS to SATA breakout cable for your needs).

The LSI SAS2008-8i would work for you.

Well I seem to have found what I need

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/LSI-SAS-9210-8i-8-port-6Gb-s-PCIe-HBA-RAID-SATA-Controller-card/272234382678?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/LSI-SAS2008-8I-SATA-9211-8i-6Gbps-8-Ports-HBA-PCI-E-RAID-Controller-Card/192237563802?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/LSI-SAS-9210-8i-8-port-6Gb-s-PCIe-HBA-RAID-SATA-Controller-card-9211-8I/142122751462?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

Thanks for the help Now I just need to wait till I get paid tomorrow so I can buy one