Another vote for the 3Ware card - I'm running the 9650SE-16ML version here (that's the 16-port card, 12-port is 9650SE-12ML). These use the modern multi-lane connectors instead of the old bulky Infiniband ones.mcbamse said:I'm looking for a 12 port SATA controller with a PCI E x8 or x16 slot.
The card should work without raid configuration and show 12 disks connected.
Terry_Kennedy said:This card has a BBU option (supposedly 72 hours). If you install that, you get the benefits of delayed write caching, even when exporting single disks (which is different than exporting JBOD disks - the latter disables all of the cool controller features).
sub_mesa said:If he wants bare disks (dumb hba) then he doesn't need a full fledged RAID controller.
Probably closest to his demands are these HBA cards:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-USAS-L8i.cfm
http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-USAS2-L8i.cfm?TYP=E
These are UIO or inverted PCI-express x8. The 6Gbps controller is PCIe 2.0 meaning 4GB/s while the original is 2GB/s bandwidth; enough for a software RAID with HDDs for sure. These are 8 ports though, 12 ports is kinda a middle between 8 or 16. Remember: with ZFS or software RAID you can use any SATA port, including that on your motherboard. Those are the fastest SATA ports you can have anyways.
OP is your intent to use the controller with ZFS?
sub_mesa said:If he wants bare disks (dumb hba) then he doesn't need a full fledged RAID controller.
Probably closest to his demands are these HBA cards:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-USAS-L8i.cfm
http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-USAS2-L8i.cfm?TYP=E
These are UIO or inverted PCI-express x8. The 6Gbps controller is PCIe 2.0 meaning 4GB/s while the original is 2GB/s bandwidth; enough for a software RAID with HDDs for sure. These are 8 ports though, 12 ports is kinda a middle between 8 or 16. Remember: with ZFS or software RAID you can use any SATA port, including that on your motherboard. Those are the fastest SATA ports you can have anyways.
OP is your intent to use the controller with ZFS?
sub_mesa said:I would say if he uses ZFS he wants to have bare disks and not put ZFS on a hardware RAID.
phoenix said:But, you can always use the RAID controller as a plain SATA controller, just with a lot of nice management features built-in. Just because it's a hardware RAID controller, does not mean you *HAVE* to create a hardware RAID array.
So add two of these controllers? Still cheaper.mcbamse said:12 port is minimum.
I like the prices of this card, but to few ports.
Matty said:does the raid controller with enabled write cache really out perform a normal sata controller when using zfs? and at what workload (seq or random read/write)
What does the raid controller cache do so different then lets say 4gb of arc cache?
Matty said:does the raid controller with enabled write cache really out perform a normal sata controller when using zfs? and at what workload (seq or random read/write)
What does the raid controller cache do so different then lets say 4gb of arc cache?
sub_mesa said:If he wants bare disks (dumb hba) then he doesn't need a full fledged RAID controller.
Probably closest to his demands are these HBA cards:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-USAS-L8i.cfm
http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-USAS2-L8i.cfm?TYP=E
These are UIO or inverted PCI-express x8. The 6Gbps controller is PCIe 2.0 meaning 4GB/s while the original is 2GB/s bandwidth; enough for a software RAID with HDDs for sure. These are 8 ports though, 12 ports is kinda a middle between 8 or 16. Remember: with ZFS or software RAID you can use any SATA port, including that on your motherboard. Those are the fastest SATA ports you can have anyways.
OP is your intent to use the controller with ZFS?
mcbamse said:and I forgot to mention.
Running XP pro and to be honest do not know what ZFS or HBA is.