Probox 8-bay & eSATA card

[wildwestgoh]

Hi all,

I am planning on extend my little home server's storage and found this review:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6128/mediasonic-probox-8bay-35-usb-30-esata-das-review

The solution is cheap extends of my needs and I searched high and low for a compatible eSATA card. Asked the manufacturer of Mediasonic, Syba (eSATA card), and getting mixed answers.
Mediasonic recommend SIL3132, saw a post somewhere (google search, can't remember the exact link) SIL3132 can see all 8 drives, but not tested with both eSATA ports (has 2 eSATA ports).
But, SybaUSA claims that its SIL3132 cards can't support more than 4 drives for each eSATA port.

Now, I got confused, searched for alternatives and met Marvell, some stated only able to support up to 5 drives per eSATA port? But the unit that I planned has only 1 eSATA port for the 8-bay.

Does anyone here has experience with this H82-SU3S2?
I don't need any RAID configuration, just need to have all 8 drives appear in my little server. My little server runs Windows Home server 2011.

Thank you all for your attention.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The review explains it.

The JMicron JMB321 is a single chip which integrates 6 SATAII 3 Gbps PHYs along with a host microprocessor. The firmware can configure it either as a 1-to-5 port SATAII port multiplier or 5-to-1 port SATAII selector. The Mediasonic Probox contains two of these JMB321 chips, using them in port multiplier mode. These two chips are used in cascaded configuration, with the output of the second one being routed either to the eSATA port or the JMS539 depending on the selected interface

So they plug the expander into another expander for INFINITE POWAH.

What's important is that whichever SATA controller you use has multiplier support (the SIL3132 does. Most modern Intel ones do too, although it depends on the drivers sometimes.) If Mediasonic recommends the 3132s, then that'll probably work fine.

I have used port multipliers with almost complete success - I came to two conclusions: 1) some HDDs just don't like them 2) wonky port multipliers are very hard to diagnose. But they work.

My experience with eSATA is more uniformly negative - the connectors were very touchy, and small bumps (cats) would disconnect the arrays. My advice would be to stick with the USB3 connection.

Well, actually, my advice would be to get a case with a lot of hard drive bays (see sig server.) But that's not really helpful. :awe:

 

[wildwestgoh]

Just got reply from Hotway (another company?) for the same unit H82-SU3S2.
And according to him, it can connect to both the SIL3132 eSATA port without issue, I guess the Probox's JMB321 already does the Port Multiplier? Kinda understand a bit now.

Next question would be if I want to make full use of the 6Gbps capability from the Probox, SIL3132 only capable of 3Gbps and cannot pass through SMART info (which is critical for me; monitoring health). I have heard Marvell does well with it, does anyone uses any Marvell chip with this Probox?

Thank you again for replies, really appreciated.

p/s: My room has no other things to disturb the cable behind those chassis, so I won't be worry about it disconnecting.
I am kinda cheapskate and can't go for big daddy stuff (multi-bay server chassis) so I will stick to DAS for the moment, plus need to import all those parts, yes, even USB3 hub is bought from Amazon.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Anandtech review says the enclosure is sata-2 only. (3gbps)

Multipliers are not fast. See also: the benchmarks in the review you linked.

Fast, good, affordable: pick two.

 

[wildwestgoh]

So you meant to say buy the 2 cards and let you know the result?
USD60 including shipping... *opps* let me think about it...

 

[dave_the_nerd]

So you meant to say buy the 2 cards and let you know the result?
USD60 including shipping... *opps* let me think about it...

No, one card.

"Pick two" in this context is a (slightly rude) idiomatic expression meaning, "You can have two of those three things in one product, but not all three."

See graph:

Using an eSATA card with the enclosure you're talking about, it will work and it will be relatively affordable, but the enclosure is limited to 3Gbps SATA speeds, and the multiplier tech will limit you to even less than that. (The Anandtech Review you cited has SSD being bottlenecked to less than half of their normal speed.)

So you can have good and affordable, but not fast.

 

[master_shake_]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rackable-SE...262?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2350472176

i used this for my wndows home server 2011 build works great with 16 2tb drives in RAID 6 i got 500Mb reads and writes.

yes its only 3gbps.

little loud though on startup.

and the card only supports up to 2tb drives.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rackable-SE...262?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2350472176

i used this for my wndows home server 2011 build works great with 16 2tb drives in RAID 6 i got 500Mb reads and writes.

yes its only 3gbps.

little loud though on startup.

and the card only supports up to 2tb drives.

SAS is sexy. :wub:

 

[master_shake_]

SAS is sexy. :wub:

sure is.

i upgraded to a 9260-4i and an intel 20 port expander with a norco 4224.

 

[wildwestgoh]

Wow nice cheap Rackable, but not available locally and may not ship here as well, shame.

So, I'll just go for the SIL3132 then, with non-RAID, I think I will not hit the 3Gbps ceiling anytime soon, max speed for each hard disk is not even reaches 100MB/s (Eco green drives).

Thank you all for your kind replies and suggestion, learnt few bit more about external storage.