Question SAS drive effect on bootup speed?

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

Does anyone have any experience with how much time adding a SAS drive to a system can increase boot time?
My understanding is that it can add a considerable amount, but I don't have any idea what the actual average numbers are.
I have a couple of SAS drives that came bundled with a controller card. I'd like to install in a PC and use occasionally to back up my
family photos.

I know that the bootup time isn't that important, given that this thing will be turned off most of the time - I am just
curious. Thanks!

 

[Tech Junky]

"family photos" it seems extreme to use HDDs let alone pay up for SAS speeds. Must have one of those 200MP phones with a single photo taking up a GB of space.

From dealing with cards it may delay boot up to 30-60 seconds depending on how the BIOS handles the card and the card has it's own BIOS as well.

When I attempted a raid card I never got it working. The intent was to see of it could eek out more speed vs the onboard SATA ports.

They can be great or a nightmare to deal with.

 

[GunsMadeAmericaFree]

"family photos" it seems extreme to use HDDs let alone pay up for SAS speeds. Must have one of those 200MP phones with a single photo taking up a GB of space.

Ah, what can I say - I've never messed with SAS before, so it looked interesting to me, and the price was REALLY low. Logically, I can look at it and say - probably was sort of a waste of time. However, on the other side of it is getting to play with a technology that I've never messed with before. I may end up thinking of it as a nightmare, or I might get it set up, & think of it as a nice backup drive.

 

[Tech Junky]

@GunsMadeAmericaFree

Yeah, it's a bit of a gamble sometimes when you introduce a card into the mix with storage. I'm confident and know how to hack things to make them work and maybe it was the card I opted for or something else but, I didn't jump into it w/o doing the research beforehand. I mean I can take an M2 and turn it into an AP or use a PC as a router or hack my car with some small mods and add 150HP through a software upgrade to the ECU.

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|mode: AP                                                                                                                                                               |
|freq: 5240 MHz, ctr1: 5230 MHz, channel: 48 (width: 40 MHz)                                                                                                            |
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|station flags: (none), preamble: short, slot: long                                                                                                                     |
|power mgt: on,  tx-power: 22 dBm (158.49 mW)

I used a QWA-2600 in a prior build to host as an AP when AC was the fastest option and was forced into an external AP to get the AX speeds but, thinking about reverting back to an internal option and have tested a couple of cards and the above is an Intel AX411 that I picked up for $18 but, the speed is slow due to how they lockdown the AP function. It still works though as a backup option if needed.

A SAS/Raid/HBA can be a project though just like the WIFI AP stuff. The problem with SAS drives though is if it doesn't work you can't use the drives w/o investing more time and money into another card or adapter to put the drives to use.

 

[sdifox]

Boot is mostly a read operation, SAS is not going to help, unless you have 15K RPM drives. Also, why are you not booting off SSD in either sata or nvme? They'll run circles around SAS HDDs

 

[igor_kavinski]

They'll run circles around SAS HDDs

I understand OP's interest in saving his family photos on SAS HDDs that are just lying around. Those are server HDDs built for reliability and 24/7 operation. I would also trust them with important data if I had them.

 

[Tech Junky]

@sdifox

OP is just looking at the additional boot time the SAS Card adds to the POST not actually using them as boot drives.

The system / boot drive could be either of the options you mentioned.

 

[sdifox]

Ah my mistake. SAS card init plus drive spinup does take awhile. I would say my PE R710 takes a good ten min to finish boot and load all startup services including VMs.