Dell H200 (IBM M1015, LSI9211-8i clone) $60

[chinesestunna]

Hi folks,

While searching for a SAS HBA (IT Mode) and digging through all the LSI SAS2008 cards, I came across this:
Dell PERC H200 Adapter 8 Port 6GB s SAS SATA Controller Card 47MCV 00RR9J 0U039M | eBay

Threw out $50 offer and got countered $60 which I took. The popular cards such as M1015 all seem to be in the $90+ range due to demand so this seemed like a good alternative to those running ZFS, BTRFS etc.

Here's the crossflashing guide I found with files: A Cheaper M1015 - the Dell H200 and a HOWTO Flash - Overclockers Australia Forums
Another crossflashing guide with special directions for UEFI boards: SAS HBA crossflashing or flashing to IT mode, Dell Perc H200 and H310 | techmattr

Hope this helps some folks looking for HBAs

 

[Patrick]

Nice find!

 

[chinesestunna]

Funny enough - another vendor with more reviews and longer history had this listed for $110, I gave same offer got countered with $89, checked today they dropped all BIN prices to $60 as well, free shipping:
U039M Dell PERC H200 6GB s 8 Port SAS SATA RAID Card w Full Height Bracket | eBay

 

[markarr]

I have the external version of the card and it works great.

 

[nickscott18]

Submitted best offer to the original seller at $50, and got countered at $55 - the first seller is a good option for international buyers as he ships to NZ (if he ships here, he should ship almost anywhere).

 

[mattr]

I know I'm bumping an old thread here but I just wanted to share my experience with purchasing these cards. I've purchased 60~70 of these cards (Dell Perc H200, H310 and IBM M1015 on eBay over the last couple years, flashed them and re-sold them. I've never paid more than $45 shipped for one and I got many in the $30 range. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!!! No, seriously if you're willing to wait it out and stalk the auctions you can get them super cheap.

I setup this search to get alerted whenever they showed up on eBay. I went to advanced search and used the OR operator to include the cards I wanted and set the category to computers. eBay's OR operator is wrapping terms in parentheses separated by commas. Example: (h310,h200,m1015)

I also scrolled down and specified US sellers only.

Then I hit search and from the results you can setup alerts by clicking Follow this search:

Whenever a good deal would pop up I'd either jump on it or save it to my watch list. Often times there will be a flood of cards for a week or so where a seller with dump them to auction instead of buy it now and these are the ones to watch out for. I typically see them start at $10~$15 and I'll put a max bid of $40 on them and usually come away with quite a few.

Hope this helps someone.

 

[chinesestunna]

Thanks! Also thanks for putting that insightful guide together that I linked to in the OP, it's amazing how many of you hang out on this forum

 

[mattr]

Thanks! Also thanks for putting that insightful guide together that I linked to in the OP, it's amazing how many of you hang out on this forum

No problem! I don't post here as often as I should but I do spend quite a bit of time reading the great posts/articles. It's a great place to hang out.

 

[chinesestunna]

No problem! I don't post here as often as I should but I do spend quite a bit of time reading the great posts/articles. It's a great place to hang out.

Btw - I followed your video guide when doing my flash and had a couple hiccups, not due to your directions but some things just didn't work with my card such as grabbing SAS address with MegaCli (I was able to do it with SAS2Flsh), I think eventually as I get more experience I'd like to consolidate a guide together with alternative commands/steps for these cards

 

[mattr]

Btw - I followed your video guide when doing my flash and had a couple hiccups, not due to your directions but some things just didn't work with my card such as grabbing SAS address with MegaCli (I was able to do it with SAS2Flsh), I think eventually as I get more experience I'd like to consolidate a guide together with alternative commands/steps for these cards

Were you flashing the H200 from your original post? I mentioned the difference in tools you need to use (h200 vs h310) in my original post on page 2 but I think I forgot to bring it up in the video. That video was kind of a failed experiment. I found it to be more difficult than it was worth but decided to leave it up because it has the updated zip file with the coveted x64,x86,efi legacy sas2flash that allows you to overwrite. Unfortunately I changed too much between zip file versions to just link it in the original post.....

 

[chinesestunna]

Were you flashing the H200 from your original post? I mentioned the difference in tools you need to use (h200 vs h310) in my original post on page 2 but I think I forgot to bring it up in the video. That video was kind of a failed experiment. I found it to be more difficult than it was worth but decided to leave it up because it has the updated zip file with the coveted x64,x86,efi legacy sas2flash that allows you to overwrite. Unfortunately I changed too much between zip file versions to just link it in the original post.....

It was a H200, I didn't even realize there was a page 2 of your post until you just mentioned it. I was a bit confused when the guide sort of just ended with the tape trick

 

[mattr]

It was a H200, I didn't even realize there was a page 2 of your post until you just mentioned it. I was a bit confused when the guide sort of just ended with the tape trick

Yeah it's one of the issues with wordpress. I know there are better themes out there that would let me format the posts better but I just never put in the effort since I don't post often. If I don't use separate pages then the front page of the blog becomes endless.... I plan on redoing a couple of those posts somewhere else and probably just linking from the original article. Or just editing the original article.

 

[Marsh]

Since we are in the sharing mode.
Dell LSI 9217 [ LSI SAS2308 ] , if you are lucky to find one, it is going for $95 shipped now. Used to be $75 shipped.
Credit goes to https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/lsi-9217-8i-dell-80.4122/

Flash LSI 9217 to IT mode, PCI-e Gen3 , 6Gb/s SAS 2.1 compliant , low power
Why play with the older stuff?

 

[mattr]

Since we are in the sharing mode.
Dell LSI 9217 [ LSI SAS2308 ] , if you are lucky to find one, it is going for $95 shipped now. Used to be $75 shipped.
Credit goes to https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/lsi-9217-8i-dell-80.4122/

Flash LSI 9217 to IT mode, PCI-e Gen3 , 6Gb/s SAS 2.1 compliant , low power
Why play with the older stuff?

Yeah if you can get them cheap it makes sense. They aren't very plentiful though and haven't reached the decommission age yet. They will only really benefit you though if you're using expanders or SSDs. But at $75 I'd probably pick up a newer vs old at $50.

 

[chinesestunna]

Since we are in the sharing mode.
Dell LSI 9217 [ LSI SAS2308 ] , if you are lucky to find one, it is going for $95 shipped now. Used to be $75 shipped.
Credit goes to https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/lsi-9217-8i-dell-80.4122/

Flash LSI 9217 to IT mode, PCI-e Gen3 , 6Gb/s SAS 2.1 compliant , low power
Why play with the older stuff?

Deals come and go, we have to respect market conditions at the time. If that deal was still around then yea of course we'd go for the newer model