Adaptec 78165 (8x internal, 16x external) w/ flash backup - $215 OBO

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TedB

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Dec 2, 2016
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I ordered one few days ago, it's already in EU on it's way to me :) so should be delivered hopefully next week ,then within few days I can publish a set of our standard tests with comaprison to archive tests on LSI SAS 3008 HBA mode if anybody is interested.
 

Cybertron

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Oct 4, 2016
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I ordered one few days ago, it's already in EU on it's way to me :) so should be delivered hopefully next week ,then within few days I can publish a set of our standard tests with comaprison to archive tests on LSI SAS 3008 HBA mode if anybody is interested.
Yeah I would be. I also purchased the bracket and it arrived pretty quickly. $10, shipping included for CONUS. I have tested my unit in an RM31616 chassis, and fans at full blast put the temp at 46c, and no fans at all put it at 57c. The site states that 100c is the limit, albeit quite high. But it does list this card at 55c without the memory module, and 50c with. Not sure how those numbers were achieved, but thats what the site says. I also updated the firmware on mine to 7.5 from 7.2, and while it did change from "IT Mode" to "RAID (RAW)" it does still seem to be in HBA mode and new drives just show up right away once plugged in to my backplane (Windows 2012 R2).
 

Chomes

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Jun 22, 2016
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Yeah I would be. I also purchased the bracket and it arrived pretty quickly. $10, shipping included for CONUS. I have tested my unit in an RM31616 chassis, and fans at full blast put the temp at 46c, and no fans at all put it at 57c. The site states that 100c is the limit, albeit quite high. But it does list this card at 55c without the memory module, and 50c with. Not sure how those numbers were achieved, but thats what the site says. I also updated the firmware on mine to 7.5 from 7.2, and while it did change from "IT Mode" to "RAID (RAW)" it does still seem to be in HBA mode and new drives just show up right away once plugged in to my backplane (Windows 2012 R2).
Did you purchase an extra bracket in low or high profile? If it is high profile where have you find it?

Thanks.
 

jerryxlol

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Nov 27, 2016
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Thanks !, Its pretty nice to hear that Microsemi offers brackets even for oem hardware :)) I will write them as soon as i get home.
 

BR2459

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May 22, 2017
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Hey guys. I picked up the Adaptec ASR-78165 and put it in my ProLiant DL320s G1 but it's not seeing any of the drives. Does anyone have a similar setup? Any recomendations? I have a genuine adaptec mini-SAS connector to the backplane but in the RAID BIOS no drives are detected.
 

TedB

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Dec 2, 2016
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I wonder why do you see this controller model as attractive ?

Here are performance test results using LSI SAS 3008 and Adaptec 78165. In both cases just simple HBA functionality (no raid on hardware controller) configured. The test conditions are same for both controllers, not looking into test methodology the difference is clear between the two.
 

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abq

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May 23, 2015
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Attractive for price, 24 ports, and decent performance. I just wish I could find a cheap 16i/8e version!
 

nthu9280

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Feb 3, 2016
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I wonder why do you see this controller model as attractive ?

Here are performance test results using LSI SAS 3008 and Adaptec 78165. In both cases just simple HBA functionality (no raid on hardware controller) configured. The test conditions are same for both controllers, not looking into test methodology the difference is clear between the two.
IMHO the comparison is a bit skewed toward LSI.

LSI 3008 is a 12gbps and Adaptec 7 series is 6gbps. I think a better comparison would be with a LSI 2308 (D1 stepping) both are PCIe gen3 and 6 gbps. To get 16 ports, LSI 9206-16e puts 2 x 2308. Not sure if there is an equivalent 24 port offering from LSI.

Would be good to see LSI 3008 vs Adaptec 8 series / HBA-1000 comparison as both are 12 gbps.
 

SycoPath

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Oct 8, 2014
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I wonder why do you see this controller model as attractive ?

Here are performance test results using LSI SAS 3008 and Adaptec 78165. In both cases just simple HBA functionality (no raid on hardware controller) configured. The test conditions are same for both controllers, not looking into test methodology the difference is clear between the two.
Keep in mind, not everyone wants maximum possible performance. Sometimes people have other goals, such as saving a PCI slot, or low cost. In my case, I have a large array of spinning disks that will probably never get even close to 1500MB/s of usage that is only connected via gigabit ethernet to most of the house anyway, so it's a moot point. It's cheap, has enough performance, it's very flexible and expandable (I'm kind of tired of having to flash IT mode firmware on LSI controllers. Adaptec got it right, just turn it on in software) so it meets my goals nicely.
 
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frogtech

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Jan 4, 2016
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It's especially an amazing adapter for expansion limited systems like C6100, C6220, S6500 chassis system, and more. The only con really I can think of with using this adapter is cable cost depending on what you are doing with it. To use it in any of the systems mentioned above would require replacement cabling internally and the external miniSAS-HD to more traditional disk shelf connectors aren't cheap.
 

nthu9280

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If you are looking for 8643 - 8087 cables, check out Kalleyomalley
Search for AXXCBL
HDMS are the straight ones

HR / MR are the 90° ones
Those are Intel OEM new (set of 2). They accept $12 + shipping.
So works out to ~$10 each.

Unfortunately they don't carry the 8644 variants (ext HD ones) and those seem to be really expensive.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 

TedB

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Dec 2, 2016
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@nthu9280 I would love to purchase Adaptec 8 series controllers for less than 100 usd. If you have a source can you share ? I promise I will post results. My comparison is for storage adapters in similar price range.

@abq from that point of view I agree (port/lane capacity), this is a very reasonable choice, especially that it has external and internal ports on one controller.

@SycoPath not judging, just asking as I'm curious. My perspective is bit skewed as performance is our main focus point. You have mentioned that Adaptec got it right and you are able to turn on IT mode in software. However my belief is that when you turn the HBA/JBOD mode in software on Adaptec controller, then MS Windows Server still sees these drives as BusType = "RAID", MediaType = "Unspecified" and that means it's not possible to create tired storage spaces. Same issue is with LSI SAS3108/2108 based controllers (raid chipsets) which don't allow direct disk access. Do you have any knowledge how to change this on Adaptec so drives are directly passed to OS as BusType = "SAS" or "SATA" and appropriate MediaType = "HDD" or "SSD" ?
 
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frogtech

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I don't think he was indicating he knew a source just that he would like to see a comparison between two truly related product classes.

Sent from my LG-H811 using Tapatalk
 

TedB

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Dec 2, 2016
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@frogtech I wish I had a comparable test in our test database with LSI SAS2308 to publish :( However willing to test and publish results if able to source Adaptec 8 series controllers in similar price to LSI SAS 3008 / Adaptec 78165.
 

SycoPath

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Oct 8, 2014
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@SycoPath not judging, just asking as I'm curious. My perspective is bit skewed as performance is our main focus point. You have mentioned that Adaptec got it right and you are able to turn on IT mode in software. However my belief is that when you turn the HBA/JBOD mode in software on Adaptec controller, then MS Windows Server still sees these drives as BusType = "RAID", MediaType = "Unspecified" and that means it's not possible to create tired storage spaces. Same issue is with LSI SAS3108/2108 based controllers (raid chipsets) which don't allow direct disk access. Do you have any knowledge how to change this on Adaptec so drives are directly passed to OS as BusType = "SAS" or "SATA" and appropriate MediaType = "HDD" or "SSD" ?
Well, considering this will be the first Adaptec controller I've ever owned, and that it just arrived yesterday, and that I'm waiting for cables and a high profile bracket to be delivered I can't do any testing yet, sorry. I'm also not using Windows for my card either. I'm using ESXi with the controller being passed directly to a VM with FreeNAS installed. Off the hip, this sounds to me more like a driver limitation in Windows than a hardware limitation. Once I get everything together I can try passing this to a Win2012 Server VM I have running and see how it behaves. Truthfully, I'm not even sure that this will work well in FreeNAS yet, as I don't have it installed. I ended up paying $50 w/free shipping for mine with a SuperCap and Flash Cache. I found an eBay listing with 391/392 sold, 1 left with a Best offer, figured why not try a low ball. I was surprised when it accepted, but pretty darn happy about it. So I bought some cables and plan to give MicroSemi a call Monday and order a high bracket.

I'm in the middle of consolidating a few servers to try and save myself some $$ on power and battling with a motherboard that doesn't want to play nice over at X9DRH-7F CPU Temp Sensor "Not Present"