Inexpensive 4-port HBA?

[Carson Dyle]

I need an inexpensive (<$40) four-port PCIe HBA. It will be used for hard drives only, so SATA II (3 Gb/s) is fine. No hardware RAID. Can have either four SATA connectors or a a single SFF-8087 SAS connector. Should be a current product with 64-bit Windows drivers for current operating systems.

Doesn't need to do much, just needs to be reliable.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I can't think of one that I would recommend for that price. Not at 4 ports. Many of the old 3Gb/s HBAs/RAID cards from LSI do not have compatibility with drives >3TB. Additionally, even on the used market, most of the basic 6Gb/s HBAs are more expensive. At the ~$70 mark some good basic options open up on HBAs using the Marvell 88SE92xx controller. These controllers provide basic functions and are over-subscribed like most budget controllers, but won't be if you're just using hard drives with them (2 PCI-e 2.0 lanes or 1GB/s max theoretical).

The HighPoint Rocket 640L is ~$70 and fits the bill. If I was shopping for a cheap HBA-only solution, that's what I would go for.

 

[Soulkeeper]

I've got a HighPoint Rocket 640L, it works fine.
I've also got one of the older marvel based cards with 2 ports + pata, pretty sure that was in your price range. I want to say I only payed like $35 for it, but my memory could be bad.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Many of the old 3Gb/s HBAs/RAID cards from LSI do not have compatibility with drives >3TB.

I'm also looking at picking up an LSI 9211-8i. Would I be correct in assuming that it is capable of using > 2TB drives?

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I assume you mean the 9211-8i? That is a second generation SAS2 controller that supports 6Gb/s and therefore >3TB drives. If you're looking for used, cross-shop with the IBM M1015 and Dell Perc H310 controllers. All can be flashed to 9211-8i IT firmware (which makes it an HBA instead of a RAID card). On the used market, any of those cards should be available between $75-$100.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I assume you mean the 9211-8i?

Right. Fixed.

 

[Soulkeeper]

I'm also looking at picking up an LSI 9211-8i. Would I be correct in assuming that it is capable of using > 2TB drives?

they list many big drives on the "compatibility report" linked here
http://www.lsi.com/products/host-bus-adapters/pages/lsi-sas-9211-8i.aspx#tab/tab2
Someone I know just got that card, but the price is definitely out of the $40 range ... he payed like $180 and runs 4x ssds on it in software raid.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I can't think of one that I would recommend for that price. Not at 4 ports. Many of the old 3Gb/s HBAs/RAID cards from LSI do not have compatibility with drives >3TB. Additionally, even on the used market, most of the basic 6Gb/s HBAs are more expensive. At the ~$70 mark some good basic options open up on HBAs using the Marvell 88SE92xx controller. These controllers provide basic functions and are over-subscribed like most budget controllers, but won't be if you're just using hard drives with them (2 PCI-e 2.0 lanes or 1GB/s max theoretical).

The HighPoint Rocket 640L is ~$70 and fits the bill. If I was shopping for a cheap HBA-only solution, that's what I would go for.

I picked up one of those Marvell-based ones (Syba) recently for not too much money.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191141579294?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

eBay link is still active.

It works, that is all.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I picked up one of those Marvell-based ones (Syba) recently for not too much money.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191141579294?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

eBay link is still active.

It works, that is all.

I was looking at the SYBA SD-PEX40054 recently. Seems to be one of the few cards in that price range that use x4 PCIe lanes.