Storage PC

[TechXero]

Hey guys,

 

I have a rather small PC am using as my Primary storage machine / HTPC. config below :

 

- Core i7 3770k CPU

- 32GB HyperX Beast DDR3 RAM (I know it's overkill but nowhere else to use them LoL)

- GTX 650 Ti Boost OC GPU (Maybe Overkill but meh)

- 8 HDDs Saturating all 8 SATA Ports...

 

Here's my situation, I do not want to replace current drives with bigger ones, I rather want to add more drives, but as you can see I have saturated all available SATA ports on the motherboard. I cannot afford to build a whole new system that has a board with more SATA ports. Knowing that there are some PCIe to SATA cards out there, my question is this, which one to get ? I know nothing about them. Very few reviews about them on YouTube. I am looking at no more than $150 / card MAX ! One with 8 SATA ports would do for now. Should be a good one with 6gbps SATAIII mre preferably. 

 

And please no SAS as I am not looking into RAID. I hate RAID and everything related to it. 

 

Thanks in advance for all the replies.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Id get something like a used dell h700, yes they are sas raid cards, but can be ran in jbod mode. You can also use sas expanders if you want to run more drives in the future.

 

 

[James_Lutzke]

https://www.amazon.com/IO-Crest-SI-PEX40071-Controller-Profile/dp/B00ESFEI2E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477849330&sr=8-1&keywords=pcie+sata+card+8+port

[TechXero]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id get something like a used dell h700, yes they are sas raid cards, but can be ran in jbod mode. You can also use sas expanders if you want to run more drives in the future.

 

 

 

I see. But is it good ? Reviews ?

 

Quote

https://www.amazon.com/IO-Crest-SI-PEX40071-Controller-Profile/dp/B00ESFEI2E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1477849330&sr=8-1&keywords=pcie+sata+card+8+port

 

Yeah this one is great just cannot find it where I live. And cannot order online !

[CookieMaster]

Honestly, they are usually the same. Just look at the reviews and see if they have good reviews. 

 

And to be honest, these things can get expensive, I know you said you cant dish out money for an other mobo, but it might end up being cheaper. 

[TechXero]

1 minute ago, CookieMaster said:

Honestly, they are usually the same. Just look at the reviews and see if they have good reviews. 

 

And to be honest, these things can get expensive, I know you said you cant dish out money for an other mobo, but it might end up being cheaper. 

I just need a widely available PCIe to SATA card I can't afford anything right now. So new PC is out... 

[GDRRiley]

I don't get why you hate raid. it is good. Just get a HBA card. 

[TechXero]

9 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

I don't get why you hate raid. it is good. Just get a HBA card. 

No comment. I just hate RAiD let's leave it at that

[leadeater]

On 10/31/2016 at 6:42 AM, TechXero said:

Yeah this one is great just cannot find it where I live. And cannot order online !

This is probably going to be an issue, there are plenty of good options on ebay but if that is not a possibility then it may be an impossibility due to cost or supply.

 

Also what are you currently using to managed the disks? FlexRAID, DriveBender, Storage Spaces, nothing at all (independent disks)?

 

 

[TechXero]

3 hours ago, leadeater said:

This is probably going to be an issue, there are plenty of good options on ebay but if that is not a possibility then it may be an impossibility due to cost or supply.

 

Also what are you currently using to managed the disks? FlexRAID, DriveBender, Storage Spaces, nothing at all (independent disks)?

 

 

@leadeater

 

Nope, as simple as JBOD drives. Nothing complicated. Independent disks. I use this PC to store my movies and game installers and other stuff. I just need a card to add drives. And what would be the best HBA non SAS card for me ? Just gimme best option and I will see if available here.

 

That's the choice I got here where I live.

https://gear-up.me/storage-devices/sata-controller.html

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, TechXero said:

@leadeater

 

Nope, as simple as JBOD drives. Nothing complicated. Independent disks. I use this PC to store my movies and game installers and other stuff. I just need a card to add drives. And what would be the best HBA non SAS card for me ? Just gimme best option and I will see if available here.

 

That's the choice I got here where I live.

https://gear-up.me/storage-devices/sata-controller.html

Well those are very slim picking on that web site I must say. Normally I recommend an IBM M1015/LSI 9240/LSI 9211/LSI 9210 with SAS to 4x SATA cables from ebay since the cards are ~$75US and typically free shipping plus ~$6US each for SFF-8087 to 4x SATA also typically with free shipping.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-LSI-9240-8i-8-port-SAS-SATA-Server-MegaRAID-RAID-Controller-Card-IBM-M1015-/172164059407?hash=item2815c7110f:g:mLAAAOSwMNxXT~0j

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=SAS+to+4x+SATA&_sop=15&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XSFF-8087+to+4x+SATA.TRS0&_nkw=SFF-8087+to+4x+SATA&_sacat=0

 

Just a FYI usually using a SAS HBA is a better option since the cabling is easier and nicer to look at, and sales are much higher so are actually cheaper than a pure multi port SATA card. Just throwing this in since it is my default go to option, if as you said you don't want anything SAS regardless that's fine (or can't anyway since it's ebay).

 

For pure SATA options this is where I'm not that well versed in as I never actually look at them, I can however spot good cards and bad cards based on general experience so I'll list what I can and I'd suggest contacting these guys so see if the can source any of them, first glace they seem like they know what they are doing

https://uae.dtcae.com/

 

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_rr600-overview.htm

https://www.desertcart.ae/products/1913540-highpoint-rocketraid-620-2-sata-port-pci-express-2-0-x1-sata-6gb-s-raid-controller (UAE and has multiple options on the site)

RocketRAID 620 x2 SATA

RocketRAID 640L x4 SATA

[TechXero]

7 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Well those are very slim picking on that web site I must say. Normally I recommend an IBM M1015/LSI 9240/LSI 9211/LSI 9210 with SAS to 4x SATA cables from ebay since the cards are ~$75US and typically free shipping plus ~$6US each for SFF-8087 to 4x SATA also typically with free shipping.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-LSI-9240-8i-8-port-SAS-SATA-Server-MegaRAID-RAID-Controller-Card-IBM-M1015-/172164059407?hash=item2815c7110f:g:mLAAAOSwMNxXT~0j

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=SAS+to+4x+SATA&_sop=15&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XSFF-8087+to+4x+SATA.TRS0&_nkw=SFF-8087+to+4x+SATA&_sacat=0

 

Just a FYI usually using a SAS HBA is a better option since the cabling is easier and nicer to look at, and sales are much higher so are actually cheaper than a pure multi port SATA card. Just throwing this in since it is my default go to option, if as you said you don't want anything SAS regardless that's fine (or can't anyway since it's ebay).

 

For pure SATA options this is where I'm not that well versed in as I never actually look at them, I can however spot good cards and bad cards based on general experience so I'll list what I can and I'd suggest contacting these guys so see if the can source any of them, first glace they seem like they know what they are doing

https://uae.dtcae.com/

 

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_rr600-overview.htm

https://www.desertcart.ae/products/1913540-highpoint-rocketraid-620-2-sata-port-pci-express-2-0-x1-sata-6gb-s-raid-controller (UAE and has multiple options on the site)

RocketRAID 620 x2 SATA

RocketRAID 640L x4 SATA

 wow how did you find dtcae? I usually order everything from them. But they don't have any such cards. Also if you say SAS cards are better even in JBOD. I will take your word for since you are more experienced in those. I can order from Newegg or Amazon just not eBay through my brother. 

 

Also I did see the 640L and it ain't bad. But by doing some research, SAS look to be more interesting since every port = 4 drives. I dunno man this is proving to be more confusing

[Captain_WD]

On 30.10.2016 г. at 7:37 PM, TechXero said:

~snip~

Hi there

 

Just my two cents on this: 

One more option you could consider is getting a simple dock station with a stable connection to your PC and use one or two drives at a time on it while storing all the rest in anti static bags in a drawer. This should be quite an inexpensive solution and should give you the opportunity to use as many drives as you want without sacrificing performance if you use a fast connection such as USB3.0 or other connection that allows 150MB/s+ transfer speeds. This should work fine as long as you don't necessarily need those drives to be internal. 

 

Using desktop drives in enclosures should also work.

 

Let me know if you have questions! 

 

Captain_WD. 

[leadeater]

3 hours ago, TechXero said:

 wow how did you find dtcae? I usually order everything from them. But they don't have any such cards. Also if you say SAS cards are better even in JBOD. I will take your word for since you are more experienced in those. I can order from Newegg or Amazon just not eBay through my brother. 

 

Also I did see the 640L and it ain't bad. But by doing some research, SAS look to be more interesting since every port = 4 drives. I dunno man this is proving to be more confusing

My google foo is very strong .

 

Honestly SAS card vs SATA card for what you want doesn't really matter, cheapest wins. Only plus to the SAS option is you can actually split each SAS port in to more using an expander, a single port plus expander can support anywhere between 64 disks to 256 depending on the card. Problem is a SAS expander costs the same as a SAS HBA, you usually use expanders on much more expensive RAID cards.

 

There are other nice things that SAS has but is only applicable when using SAS disks so I'll leave that useless information out.

[TechXero]

13 minutes ago, leadeater said:

My google foo is very strong .

 

Honestly SAS card vs SATA card for what you want doesn't really matter, cheapest wins. Only plus to the SAS option is you can actually split each SAS port in to more using an expander, a single port plus expander can support anywhere between 64 disks to 256 depending on the card. Problem is a SAS expander costs the same as a SAS HBA, you usually use expanders on much more expensive RAID cards.

 

There are other nice things that SAS has but is only applicable when using SAS disks so I'll leave that useless information out.

 

Thanks man. Your information is invaluable to me. But yeah Dtcae don't have any such cards. Anyway SAS is way to go. Now can you point me to the best and cheapest one on either Amazon or Newegg?

[leadeater]

3 minutes ago, TechXero said:

 

Thanks man. Your information is invaluable to me. But yeah Dtcae don't have any such cards. Anyway SAS is way to go. Now can you point me to the best and cheapest one on either Amazon or Newegg?

1x https://www.amazon.com/SAS9211-8I-8PORT-Int-Sata-Pcie/dp/B002RL8I7M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1478002708&sr=8-2&keywords=IBM+M1015

2x https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Internal-Mini-SAS-Breakout/dp/B012BPLYJC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1478002708&sr=8-3&keywords=IBM+M1015

[TechXero]

50 minutes ago, leadeater said:

1x https://www.amazon.com/SAS9211-8I-8PORT-Int-Sata-Pcie/dp/B002RL8I7M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1478002708&sr=8-2&keywords=IBM+M1015

2x https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Internal-Mini-SAS-Breakout/dp/B012BPLYJC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1478002708&sr=8-3&keywords=IBM+M1015

 

Isn't there one that comes with cables included? Buying separate isn't practical 

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

These cards are almost always sold without cables because they are often paired with SAS drives rather than SATA ones.  So yeah, you'll most likely need to buy separate. 

I did just that myself when I bought my NAS' 9211-8i card. 

[paddy-stone]

Ok, forgive me if this is not to your taste. But I'm assuming if you have no SATA ports left to use, then you'll also be in the market for a new HDD soon too?

If so, why not get something like a WD mycloud NAS, they are pretty cheap at just over or around the same cost as it would be for the HDD alone, at elast for the 3TB option anyway usually.

I am not trying to offend anyone, and there probably are usage cases for storing data locally, but personally I can't see why. It makes much more sense (to me at least) to store most data on a NAS/server. This way the data can be shared across devices if you need to, make backups of your OS and any data that you want to store locally also.

I started making the change a few years ago. And now on my main computer system only have an SSD for OS and programs, everything else is stored on my NAS/server and backed up to a WD mycloud device and USB 3.0 drive in case of device failures. All data is stored on the NAS, with the majority of it also getting backed up (mirrored)to the WD mycloud... there is some data that I don't bother to back up as it's easy enough to replace. And in turn the data that is backed up to the USB 3.0 drive is again whittled down to the most important, this drive is only really in case of a major disaster where the NAS and wd mycloud both failed/get nuked somehow, and the backup schedule is not as frequent as between the NAS and mycloud.

When I install a new OS now it is pretty simple to get stuff I need like programs,bookmarks, drivers by just mapping the network drive or creating a shortcut to it and accessing the drive to drag and drop anything I need or installing via the network etc.... no more searching for that drive that happens to have such and such.

 

Anyway, I know it's not for everyone and it can get expensive, but IMO not much more expensive than the drives themselves if you just get a little HP proliant g8 or something, that particular server has 4 bays, dual core CPU and is pretty handy for the price. I bought mine when it was just £165 and had a cashback offer from HP of £55, so the unit cost me £110 is all, then added another 4GB of ECC RAM which was around £25 at the time... then the drives, but you could just add them when needed if you decided to go that route. That's what I do anyway as you can just add the drive to Freenas without problem. I do believe you can add disks that already contain data also, but haven't done that yet myself.

[TechXero]

4 hours ago, paddy-stone said:

Ok, forgive me if this is not to your taste. But I'm assuming if you have no SATA ports left to use, then you'll also be in the market for a new HDD soon too?

If so, why not get something like a WD mycloud NAS, they are pretty cheap at just over or around the same cost as it would be for the HDD alone, at elast for the 3TB option anyway usually.

I am not trying to offend anyone, and there probably are usage cases for storing data locally, but personally I can't see why. It makes much more sense (to me at least) to store most data on a NAS/server. This way the data can be shared across devices if you need to, make backups of your OS and any data that you want to store locally also.

I started making the change a few years ago. And now on my main computer system only have an SSD for OS and programs, everything else is stored on my NAS/server and backed up to a WD mycloud device and USB 3.0 drive in case of device failures. All data is stored on the NAS, with the majority of it also getting backed up (mirrored)to the WD mycloud... there is some data that I don't bother to back up as it's easy enough to replace. And in turn the data that is backed up to the USB 3.0 drive is again whittled down to the most important, this drive is only really in case of a major disaster where the NAS and wd mycloud both failed/get nuked somehow, and the backup schedule is not as frequent as between the NAS and mycloud.

When I install a new OS now it is pretty simple to get stuff I need like programs,bookmarks, drivers by just mapping the network drive or creating a shortcut to it and accessing the drive to drag and drop anything I need or installing via the network etc.... no more searching for that drive that happens to have such and such.

 

Anyway, I know it's not for everyone and it can get expensive, but IMO not much more expensive than the drives themselves if you just get a little HP proliant g8 or something, that particular server has 4 bays, dual core CPU and is pretty handy for the price. I bought mine when it was just £165 and had a cashback offer from HP of £55, so the unit cost me £110 is all, then added another 4GB of ECC RAM which was around £25 at the time... then the drives, but you could just add them when needed if you decided to go that route. That's what I do anyway as you can just add the drive to Freenas without problem. I do believe you can add disks that already contain data also, but haven't done that yet myself.

Ok, although your input is valid, I must say that I do not have the connection (1mbps up) nor do I like external storage. I have lost too many drives that way in the past, that's why I swore never to go external ever again. As for RAiD same issue, lost too many arrays than I can count just due to the quality today. I am kinda like Ryan Shrout from PCPer LoL !

[paddy-stone]

2 hours ago, TechXero said:

Ok, although your input is valid, I must say that I do not have the connection (1mbps up) nor do I like external storage. I have lost too many drives that way in the past, that's why I swore never to go external ever again. As for RAiD same issue, lost too many arrays than I can count just due to the quality today. I am kinda like Ryan Shrout from PCPer LoL !

The 1 Mbps up is for transferring via WAN (internet), you'd be transferring via LAN(home network), I don't know for sure what you have obviously, but you would most likely be using Gigabit networking in this day and age I would think. At worst it would be 10/100 which was the norm when I was at college over 20 years ago.

It's not external storage as such, it's more like storage on another PC that just has a certain usage case (low power too) that you can access from anywhere on your home network and pretty much any device that has wifi/ethernet.

 

Anyway, no worries if you're not interested, I just wanted to throw that out there as an option

 

[TechXero]

2 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

The 1 Mbps up is for transferring via WAN (internet), you'd be transferring via LAN(home network), I don't know for sure what you have obviously, but you would most likely be using Gigabit networking in this day and age I would think. At worst it would be 10/100 which was the norm when I was at college over 20 years ago.

It's not external storage as such, it's more like storage on another PC that just has a certain usage case (low power too) that you can access from anywhere on your home network and pretty much any device that has wifi/ethernet.

 

Anyway, no worries if you're not interested, I just wanted to throw that out there as an option

 

Yep, I know. I do not need to access files outside my home. Plus I prefer customizability of storage PC. Thanks though, your input has been noted for future reference

[paddy-stone]

1 minute ago, TechXero said:

Yep, I know. I do not need to access files outside my home. Plus I prefer customizability of storage PC. Thanks though, your input has been noted for future reference

No worries, hope you get your problem sorted