Chenbro 23601

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zicoz

Member
Jan 7, 2011
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First of all this is not the Wiki for this card, just my own toughts and questions. Thanks to DJ_Datte who found the card.

Finally, the card I've been waiting for has been released.

http://www.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_detail.php?sku=187

the LSI SAS2 36 port chipset, with both two external connectors.

Now, to find somewhere to buy it :)
From what I can read in the Intel RES2SV240 Wiki this is supposed to be the best expander card solution out there.

Bottom line: Due to its ability to negotiate a 6G link with SATA-III harddisks, the LSISAS2x36 (which the LSISAS2x24 is binned from) *is* the superior SAS2 expander chip compared to the slightly older PMC8005 found on the HP SAS Expander. Unfortunately the 36-port LSISAS2x36 hasn't yet shown up on a dedicated expander PCIe card, its currently only found integrated with other products as mentioned.
- It has the molex connector from the Intel board.

- It has the 36 ports from the HP board.

- It has 7 internal and 2 external SAS connectors.


My motherboard has 4 PCI-E slots
My motherboard has an onboard 8 port 1068e chip
The Norco 4220 has 7 expansion slots.

Does this mean that I could have 4 of these in my main chassis if I:

Connected 1 to my onboard 1068e ports
Connected 3 to PCI-E HBA cards

Is that correct?

So we would have 3 external JBOD chassis which with the help of Link Aggregation would have 8 ports each and the another who would share it's bandwith with the main chassis?

And since this card has 2 external ports, could we use it to daisy chain "forever"?
 
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odditory

Moderator
Dec 23, 2010
381
59
28
I don't follow your description of how you want to hook it up but it looks like it'll be a solid card when its released this quarter (Q211). And you aren't going to be able to do any dual linking with the 1068e chip since its an older SAS-1 chip. Daisy chaining may also not necessarily work correctly with SAS-1 host adapters - its hit and miss depending on which hardware you're mixing, compatibility has however gotten better with SAS-2 spec'd products.

The two external connectors are nice and makes daisy chaining easier but at the cost of not having two internal ports for dual-linking in a 24-bay chassis like the Norco. However the practical advantages of dual linking in day-to-day use are debatable and in my mind overrated except for benchmarks.

If they don't price it above $300 then its a winner. However my sense is they'll price it $350-$475 somewhere because LSI wants a decent amount of money for their newer expander chips, hopefully I'm wrong.
 
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zicoz

Member
Jan 7, 2011
140
0
16
What I was thinking originally was something like this:



That way I'd have 3 chassis with dual linking, and one without. But if there is no real point in dual linking, then I guess one can have 5 chassis with 4 ports each.



Off course it would be cheaper to just daisy-chain them all from 1 Chenbro, but for some reason I start getting anxious when thinking about having more then 20 disks connected to each set of 4 SATA ports, even though there is probably no reason for those feelings.



I would prefer not having to daisy chain before I have to because I'm out of other options, and with the posibilty of having 100 drives I'd probably never need to. :)
 
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