Where are all the good SATA cards?

[Elixer]

Looking around, all I see is Asmedia & Marvel controllers for SATA cards, and they all seem to suffer various issues based on reviews/forum posts (slow speeds, drives dropping, basic stability issues especially with SSDs).

I am thinking a SAS/SATA card should be more reliable, something along the lines of a LSI SAS9211-8I, flash that to IT firmware, and use that, but, it seems this card runs really, really hot out of a rack environment.
The case has good airflow, but, during summer months, it still will get hot.
While I did see some mods to stick a fan on that card, space is a issue on bigger fans.

Anyone know of any other good cards(PCIe x4/x8) that can be used to get full SATA 6Gb/sec speed & is reliable?

Moved (back) to Memory and Storage, from its lonely exile in General Hardware. Folks, please consider this yet another Festivus Miracle!

Perknose
Forum Director

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I have two SATA cards with Marvell chips. They were cheap. They've been up basically 24/7 for ~2 years w/o issue, and performance is fine for platter drives.

*shrug*

If you're trying to build an SSD array, then yeah, you'll need a server-grade card.

 

[mikeymikec]

I have two SATA cards with Marvell chips. They were cheap. They've been up basically 24/7 for ~2 years w/o issue, and performance is fine for platter drives.

*shrug*

If you're trying to build an SSD array, then yeah, you'll need a server-grade card.

What he said. The market is likely to be polarised between two extremes: The first that doesn't have a viable SATA/AHCI onboard solution, and the latter that needs more than what a decent on-board solution can provide.

For anyone else reading the thread who belongs to the first camp, I haven't had a problem with the cheap AHCI cards as long as I used a modern version of Windows (7 or later) and the standard AHCI driver; the latest AHCI drivers that the manufacturer provided for the cards were a bit flaky at the time. I used one with an SSD in an older system (though since I understand that TRIM works even with a modern version of Windows without AHCI being enabled, I don't know for a fact if this is true though - e.g. an official-ish source or thoroughly documented evidence and benchmarks).

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I have two SATA cards with Marvell chips. They were cheap. They've been up basically 24/7 for ~2 years w/o issue, and performance is fine for platter drives.

*shrug*

If you're trying to build an SSD array, then yeah, you'll need a server-grade card.

Third'ed.

With regards to cheap SATA cards, I've had best experience with Asmedia-based ones. Just make sure their firmware is up to date.

 

[mxnerd]

All enterprise grade controller chips seem always very hot.

You either have to attach a heatsink or use a fan to cool down the controller chip if you are worried.

 

[cbn]

LSI SAS9211-8I

Any other known good controllers available Surplus?

 

[mxnerd]

$100 new, from Hong Kong though.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LSI-SAS-921...s-SATA-SAS-Host-Bus-Adapter-Hot-/380703631558

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Any other known good controllers available Surplus?

I've been reasonably satisfied with two models.

I had spent almost $400 back in 2007 on a 3COM 9650 4p, and was already deciding when SATA-III became available on mainboards that it was a route and road too expensive and too cumbersome. For flexibility, I no longer configure my mainboard controller for RAID mode. My server with 4x 2TB-HDDs and a 250GB SSD uses AHCI mode exclusively.

But these cards offer either RAID 0,1,10 or JBOD as well as AHCI:

SuperMicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8

You'll see where some people are using the SuperMicro card in servers and in various ways. Some users replaced the heatsink with a better one, but I don't think it's necessary. The controller chip is Marvell. This one is fitted to my server replacement-in-progress.

StarTech PEXSAT34RH 4 port RAID 0/1/10

I've been using the PEXSAT34RH -- two of them -- in my existing WHS-2011 server. They provide the RAID configurations cited generally. Both this and the SuperMicro will configure with windows native drivers as AHCI, but the Marvell chips also have their own drivers.

The only problem with the PEXSAT34RH becomes evident when cabling LED activity lights -- either with the single controller activity light, or the drive-specific pins. The manufacture of the controller had this mistake: that the LED light is "on" with no activity, and off when there isn't any. But if used for drives in hot-swap bays equipped with their own activity lights, it is not a relevant issue.

Startech RB3509M 4 port [looks and specs like the PEX]

You will see that this model, which I've never tried firsthand, looks exactly like the PEXSAT34RH. It wasn't available when I purchased the PEX, and in that interim, I'd reported the LED problem in several email exchanges with StarTech.

I only offer this information as personal experience with these products. I've never had a problem with them -- the two PEX units in the server work with an SSD boot drive, 4x 2TB Seagate NAS drives in a virtual drive-pool disk with StableBit, and I will be doing pretty much the same thing with the SuperMicro card in the replacement server.

If you want high-performance "hardware" RAID, you'll pay for it. For hot-swap backup disks, you can find a PCIEx1 controller -- probably with a Marvell chip -- also good for that purpose. These I've listed work either way, but require between x2 and x8 PCIE lanes, Startech and SuperMicro respectively.

 

[PingSpike]

I've had trouble finding anything like this as well. What I want is a pci-e 2.0+ 4x card that has 6-8 jbod ports. What seems to exist is a bunch of expensive and/or old RAID controllers that need to have IT mode flashed and seem like overkill and asmedia and marvel based boards with not enough ports. I just wanted 6 spinning rust disks to run flat out.

Marvel has some pci-e 2.0 2x cards with 4 ports, which I guess would be just barely good enough if I used port multipliers to get to 6 ports. I'm not sure I want to use port multipliers at all though.

 

[mxnerd]

I've been reasonably satisfied with two models.

SuperMicro AOC-SAS2LP-MV8

StarTech PEXSAT34RH 4 port RAID 0/1/10

Startech RB3509M 4 port [looks and specs like the PEX]

SuperMicro looks good it's a x8 and very good price. StarTechs only PCIe x2 however.

OP seems wants to flash IT (Initiator Target) firmware to the LSI controller and make it a plain non-RAID SATA controller.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Hell, I'm still ticking along with old SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8s with the OPROM removed.
Supports > 3TB drives and everything (it's running my He8 drives in both servers).

 

[Elixer]

Any other known good controllers available Surplus?

Seems that the IBM/lenovo m1015 & the Dell PERC H310 are all clone cards that can be flashed/cross flashed to IT mode, the same with the LSI 9211-8i.
Some more info on those https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/perc-h310-lsi-9211-8i-50.4540/

I have seen prices for these cards range from $45 - $260 (some used/refurbs and some new)

Third'ed.

With regards to cheap SATA cards, I've had best experience with Asmedia-based ones. Just make sure their firmware is up to date.

The Asmedia chipset that is having issues is the 106x. It just drops SSDs for no reason, spent quite a few hours trying different drivers, and it makes no difference at all. Heck, even tried linux, and the suckers still dropped. While the Asmedia seems to work OK for HDs, they do suffer a speed penalty there as well.
Sticking the same SSD on the native chipset ports never has a issue.

What the guy is trying to do is hook up 6 SSDs and probably 2 spinners in addition to the 4 he already has on the mobo native ports.

The problem with the Startech ones are, they are only PCIe x2, that isn't enough to have all ports run at full speed. Dunno what chipset they are using, but, I am bettering either Asmedia or Marvel.

SuperMicro looks good it's a x8 and very good price. StarTechs only PCIe x2 however.

OP seems wants to flash IT (Initiator Target) firmware to the LSI controller and make it a plain non-RAID SATA controller.

The Supermicro one is another clone of the LSI card.
And yeah, that is what I need, non-RAID SATA controller.

 

[rchunter]

Yeah, definitely LSI>Marvell... Just need to make sure there's plenty of airflow. If you're not using a real server chassis it's a bit tougher to make it work.

A lot of those supermicro controllers use the marvell chipset...I know SAS2LP does...

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Yeah, definitely LSI>Marvell... Just need to make sure there's plenty of airflow. If you're not using a real server chassis it's a bit tougher to make it work.
A lot of those supermicro controllers use the marvell chipset...I know SAS2LP does...

Interesting aside - one of my VPs is now the CEO of Marvell
http://fortune.com/2016/06/20/marvell-technology-matthew-murphy-ceo-president/

 

[mxnerd]

I would prefer LSI over Marvell / Asmedia any time if the price is right.

It's supported across all OSes, including VM platforms like ESXi.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

The Asmedia chipset that is having issues is the 106x. It just drops SSDs for no reason, spent quite a few hours trying different drivers, and it makes no difference at all. Heck, even tried linux, and the suckers still dropped. While the Asmedia seems to work OK for HDs, they do suffer a speed penalty there as well.
Sticking the same SSD on the native chipset ports never has a issue.

Sounds like a firmware issue. If the controller is integrated on the mainboard, there is not much you can do unfortunately, since the firmware is usually bundled with BIOS updates. Otherwise try and update that sucker...

A long shot, but have you tried a different cable? Some older ones can have issues at SATA3 speeds.

Also, just for the record, Asmedia SATA controllers do not like ATAPI devices (e.g. optical drives).

What the guy is trying to do is hook up 6 SSDs and probably 2 spinners in addition to the 4 he already has on the mobo native ports.

The problem with the Startech ones are, they are only PCIe x2, that isn't enough to have all ports run at full speed. Dunno what chipset they are using, but, I am bettering either Asmedia or Marvel.

If its PCIe 2.0 x2, it is very likely using the Marvell 9230.

 

[jkauff]

Also, just for the record, Asmedia SATA controllers do not like ATAPI devices (e.g. optical drives).

I've been running two optical drives off an Asmedia 1060 series controller for quite some time with zero issues. Might have been true with earlier chipsets, I don't know.

 

[dtgoodwin]

I've always wondered why Intel hasn't made a stand alone SATA controller with 4-6 ports. The market wouldn't be huge, but it would certainly fill a big gap.

 

[mxnerd]

I've always wondered why Intel hasn't made a stand alone SATA controller with 4-6 ports. The market wouldn't be huge, but it would certainly fill a big gap.

They do. You just don't want to buy it, because it's a lot more expensive than China/Taiwan vendors that use Marvell/Asmedia chips.

 

[Elixer]

Doesn't intel's NICs also fall into the same category? It is more expensive than either Asmedia or Marvell, but, people still buy them.
I don't recall seeing a intel SATA card anyplace, they do make SAS/SATA cards though, but, that isn't quite the same as a pure SATA card.

 

[mxnerd]

Doesn't intel's NICs also fall into the same category? It is more expensive than either Asmedia or Marvell, but, people still buy them.
I don't recall seeing a intel SATA card anyplace, they do make SAS/SATA cards though, but, that isn't quite the same as a pure SATA card.

What I meant is average home users don't buy them. Power users & business do buy them.

And you are right, the cards that Intel offers are SAS/SATA raid cards, not simple SATA controllers.

 

[master_shake_]

marvell chipsets blarraharharhgfasjk!

get a real HBA please.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-HV52W-...134578?hash=item4b13c39f32:g:R~sAAOSwol5YypTr

flash it to it mode and it's better than any of the "sata" cards you can buy.

 

[mxnerd]

marvell chipsets blarraharharhgfasjk!

get a real HBA please.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-HV52W-...134578?hash=item4b13c39f32:g:R~sAAOSwol5YypTr

flash it to it mode and it's better than any of the "sata" cards you can buy.

used / refurbished DELL PERC controllers always good choice.

 

[PliotronX]

used / refurbished DELL PERC controllers always good choice.

I agree although if you happen to get one of the hardware raid percs, most of the time it has to be crossflashed to LSI/avago because the firmware interface won't initialize in non-Dell motherboards. I have to use an old optiplex from a recycle pile for this . The LSI firmware also performs better.

 

[Red Squirrel]

It definitely seems hard to find high density sata cards. A lot of them are raid cards, I don't need or want all that since I do my own raid in software. I just want a card where I can plug like 24+ drives and they just show up as normal without needing to configure anything on the card itself, not sure why it's so hard! When I built my 24 bay server it proved hard and I had to resort to buying used IBM cards on ebay and flashing to IT firmware. (don't recall exact model)

I wonder if the chipsets that manage all the sata stuff are available off the shelf and have decent datasheets. Could make an interesting project to make a high density sata card. Something that plugs into a PCI-e 16x slot and takes like 32 drives and presents them to the system as if they were plugged in the motherboard would be pretty awesome. I don't know why that is not already something easy to buy, given the availability of 24+ bay chassis. It could either take some SAS connectors, or individual sata connectors.