Suggest a storage/RAID card

[DocYoda]

Hi

 

I am setting up a new system with an R9 3900X and crosshair hero 8 (wifi) mobo. The mobo has only 8 slots and I have 12 drives. I intend to just get a storage card to accomodate the other 4 or more drives. As of now it will be just JBOD and setup RAID later. Probably RAID 5/6, or RAID 10 later. Probably 5-6 drives for the controller. Any recommendations? Thank you

 

[kkpatel87]

Just now, DocYoda said:

Hi

 

I am setting up a new system with an R9 3900X and crosshair hero 8 (wifi) mobo. The mobo has only 8 slots and I have 12 drives. I intend to just get a storage card to accomodate the other 4 or more drives. As of now it will be just JBOD and setup RAID later. Probably RAID 5/6, or RAID 10 later. Probably 5-6 drives for the controller. Any recommendations? Thank you

 

Assuming just SATA3, than any LSI 9211-8i + cable should work fine flashed with IT firmware.

[DocYoda]

3 minutes ago, kkpatel87 said:

Assuming just SATA3, than any LSI 9211-8i + cable should work fine flashed with IT firmware.

Yup just SATA3.. no intention for SAS. Is Pci-e 2.0 be enough or a pci-e 3.0 be much better for future proofing?

[LIGISTX]

4 minutes ago, kkpatel87 said:

Assuming just SATA3, than any LSI 9211-8i + cable should work fine flashed with IT firmware.

This. Solid card, and can be found used on amazon for very affordable prices. Flash it to IT mode and away you go.

 

Also... "RAID 5 is dead". With that many drives, use RAID 6, unless they are like 1TB or smaller. Basically, the time it takes to rebuild a "large" drive and the load it induces on the other drives during the rebuild task, added to the statistical probability of getting an error while rebuilding, you want RAID 6.

[Vishera]

AMD has a raid controller built-in to their chipsets,I suggest checking it out.

Tutorial:

 

[LIGISTX]

https://smile.amazon.com/3P0R3-Controller-PCI-mini-SAS-PowerEdge/dp/B00ZSXK1YO/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=Dell+H310&qid=1571451556&sr=8-5

 

That is what I use in my server, it can do 8 SATA drives with two SAS to 4x SATA cables. And if you wanted to run all the drives off the HBA (host bus adapter) you can get a SAS expander like I have in my sig as well. I have this card flashed to IT mode, its worked rock solid for a few years now. Many folks are using them for freenas, so they have a solid amount of support as far as internet people being able to help. 

[Windows7ge]

What is the intended operating system?

[DocYoda]

10 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

https://smile.amazon.com/3P0R3-Controller-PCI-mini-SAS-PowerEdge/dp/B00ZSXK1YO/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=Dell+H310&qid=1571451556&sr=8-5

 

That is what I use in my server, it can do 8 SATA drives with two SAS to 4x SATA cables. And if you wanted to run all the drives off the HBA (host bus adapter) you can get a SAS expander like I have in my sig as well. I have this card flashed to IT mode, its worked rock solid for a few years now. Many folks are using them for freenas, so they have a solid amount of support as far as internet people being able to help. 

https://www.amazon.com/LSI-Logic-9207-8i-Controller-LSI00301/dp/B0085FT2JC/ref=pd_sbs_147_t_1/138-5956782-2572813?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0085FT2JC&pd_rd_r=1e84f00c-d788-4105-a869-d0fa5c553450&pd_rd_w=wd14A&pd_rd_wg=wsmiQ&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=PFJVECTDGMWKEYEMJ4HV&psc=1&refRID=PFJVECTDGMWKEYEMJ4HV

 

Would it be better to run all drives in this controller and not use the mobos controller?

Any forums on the use of IT mode? 

 

Ty

 

 

[DocYoda]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

What is the intended operating system?

Windows 10 Pro

 

[Vishera]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

What is the intended operating system?

Don't tell me you are going to suggest software Raid...

[Vishera]

1 minute ago, DocYoda said:

https://www.amazon.com/LSI-Logic-9207-8i-Controller-LSI00301/dp/B0085FT2JC/ref=pd_sbs_147_t_1/138-5956782-2572813?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0085FT2JC&pd_rd_r=1e84f00c-d788-4105-a869-d0fa5c553450&pd_rd_w=wd14A&pd_rd_wg=wsmiQ&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=PFJVECTDGMWKEYEMJ4HV&psc=1&refRID=PFJVECTDGMWKEYEMJ4HV

 

Would it be better to run all drives in this controller and not use the mobos controller?

Any forums on the use of IT mode? 

 

Ty

 

 

Did you see my comment:

17 minutes ago, Vishera said:

AMD has a raid controller built-in to their chipsets,I suggest checking it out.

Tutorial:

 

 

[DocYoda]

2 minutes ago, Vishera said:

Did you see my comment:

 

Oh sorry. I missed that. I think the X570 board that I have only has 8 ports. I dont think if the port can be expanded. I have 12 HDDs as of the moment

 

[Bacon soup]

9 minutes ago, Vishera said:

Don't tell me you are going to suggest software Raid...

software raid can go across different chipsets. Ive been using it for years

[LIGISTX]

29 minutes ago, Vishera said:

Did you see my comment:

 

I did, his issue is needed more ports. So he could get a "dumb" sata card which just provides more sata ports, but they are sorta meh. The actual LSI chipset option is a much more robust piece of hardware.

 

Also, yes, software raid is the way to go. It obviously depends on the application, but thats what ZFS is..... its software RAID. And that is an enterprise solution. I run ZFS obviously as I have a FreeNAS box, and its probably the best option out there tbh. It has some downfalls such as difficult expandability and high hardware requirements, but it is EXTREMELY robust. ZFS will work as hard as possible to keep your data safe, like, crazy hard. lol. Anyways, yes, that is a fantastic option but can't really deploy that under windows 10. The OP would need a dedicated box for this, which....... would actually be a good idea, but that would require a different approach than he is currently looking for.

[Vishera]

2 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

The actual LSI chipset option is a much more robust piece of hardware.

Yeah,I think that's a better solution.

2 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

Also, yes, software raid is the way to go.

It depends on the situation.

[Windows7ge]

31 minutes ago, Vishera said:

Don't tell me you are going to suggest software Raid...

I take it you have had bad experiences with it? Do share.

 

33 minutes ago, DocYoda said:

Windows 10 Pro

 

Windows 10 supports Storage Spaces (a software RAID-like solution) but I have been told the performance of parity (RAID5/6) isn't phenominal. I have been told it has improved though. Depending on how much performance you're looking for that is an option.

 

I was kind of hoping you'd say Linux. I would have suggested ZFS or BTRFS. If you need to use RAID5/6 on Windows 10 A hardware controller will probably yield the best performance. I do belive the LSI 9211-8i supports this as recommended above but for hardware RAID purposes you won't want to flash it to IT mode.

[LIGISTX]

39 minutes ago, DocYoda said:

https://www.amazon.com/LSI-Logic-9207-8i-Controller-LSI00301/dp/B0085FT2JC/ref=pd_sbs_147_t_1/138-5956782-2572813?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0085FT2JC&pd_rd_r=1e84f00c-d788-4105-a869-d0fa5c553450&pd_rd_w=wd14A&pd_rd_wg=wsmiQ&pf_rd_p=5cfcfe89-300f-47d2-b1ad-a4e27203a02a&pf_rd_r=PFJVECTDGMWKEYEMJ4HV&psc=1&refRID=PFJVECTDGMWKEYEMJ4HV

 

Would it be better to run all drives in this controller and not use the mobos controller?

Any forums on the use of IT mode? 

 

Ty

 

 

If you just google the model number and IT mode, you will get lots of results.

 

If you run it in IT mode, it works as a "dumb" passthrough card, so you can plug some into mobo and some into it, the drives will work identically. Whats nice about this solution though, it opens you up for something like FreeNAS in the future as that card + a SAS expander would be the start of a nice little homelab/NAS solution. 

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, Windows7ge said:

Windows 10 supports Storage Spaces (a software RAID-like solution) but I have been told the performance of parity (RAID5/6) isn't phenominal. I have been told it has improved though. Depending on how much performance you're looking for that is an option.

Still better in every way than crap motherboard raid which is software anyway, usually not very well written/stable. RAID 5/6 on anything without write-back cache or dedicated journal is terrible. Motherboard RAID should only ever be used for a 2 disk mirror, if you just have to use that and not something else.

[Windows7ge]

9 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Still better in every way than crap motherboard raid which is software anyway, usually not very well written/stable. RAID 5/6 on anything without write-back cache or dedicated journal is terrible. Motherboard RAID should only ever be used for a 2 disk mirror, if you just have to use that and not something else.

With this many disks I would honestly just build a second box, put Linux on it and use ZFS or BTRFS. I'm not against hardware RAID except for its short comings in my own applications so I try to keep it an option for others so long as it's a good RAID controller.

 

But oh lordy, god in heaven forbid I ask OP his OS and someone flies at me like a crazy cat devil with accusations as to my intentions.

 

God I love the Internet, lol.