HP H240 (SAS3 HBA) 30 GBP from EU seller / 34 USD from US seller

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.
R

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
953
358
63
So... there may be some obvious reason why they are not popular, but the H240 seems to ridiculously cheap compared to LSI/Broadcom SAS3008 based cards although they have similar specs.

Specwise there isn't that much to say, SAS3, two ports (although they appear to be SFF8087 rather than SFF8643) meaning 8 drives (without expander), PCIe 3, is a HBA by default but also supports cacheless RAID. Some of the posts here on the forum, suggests that you do not need to have a HPE server to use it (checkout the links below).

Here is a link that is nice for us europeans (at least a little while longer anyway) at 30 GBP with cheap shipping, I have seen others that are not much more expensive:

HP+H240+HBA+Smart+Host+Bus+Adapter+-+726907-B21 for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for HP+H240+HBA+Smart+Host+Bus+Adapter+-+726907-B21 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com

For the non-europeans here is another link at 34 USD that appears to do free shipping (probably US only):
www.ebay.com

726907-B21 779134-001 750053-001 HP H240 12GB 2-PORTS INT HBA W/ BOTH BRACKET 657379385247 | eBay

PRODUCT TYPE HBA. NUMBER OF PORTS 2. Helpful Links.
www.ebay.com

Here are some other threads on the controller:

The firmware (dated 2019) also appears to be available without a support contract:

HPE Support Center

support.hpe.com support.hpe.com

Of course I have no idea about expander support (meaning if they will support LSI expanders and such), and likewise whether firmware updates can be applied without having an HPE server, but I have ordered some and will probably test the latter.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Samir
R

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
953
358
63
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Samir
K

Kneelbeforezod

Active Member
Sep 4, 2015
529
122
43
45
I put an offer in for 2 and will see what happens. I Have a couple of older HPE cards in my servers currently that Are I T mode sould always swap and see what happens.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir
R

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
953
358
63
doughnet said:
Is it easy to switch it to IT mode? Or is that even necessary?

does it support SSD trim?
Click to expand...
IT mode is an LSI thing, so I would say that is not necessary.
No idea about TRIM support

I suppose a relevant question is how usable is the HBA mode of the controller? is it functionally equivalent to IT mode?
What is a good test for that? whether or not SMART data is available? (I just found a thread on the freenas forum, where they after a bit of work make smart data accessible, so I suppose that is doable).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir
BeTeP

BeTeP

Well-Known Member
Mar 23, 2019
641
422
63
RTM said:
The firmware (dated 2020) also appears to be available without a support contract
Click to expand...
Firmware version 7.00 has been released in May 2019. The one you linked is just a repackaged bundle for ESXi 7.0 - no changes to the firmware itself.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir
S

Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
3,103
1,339
113
48
HSV and SFO
RTM said:
I suppose a relevant question is how usable is the HBA mode of the controller? is it functionally equivalent to IT mode?
Click to expand...
From my understanding of IT mode, its role is to basically turn a hardware raid controller back into an HBA, so I think these should be functionally equivalent (if not better) than a RAID controller in IT mode since they are the genuine thing--a simple initiator/target controller.
 
BeTeP

BeTeP

Well-Known Member
Mar 23, 2019
641
422
63
There is no such thing as
Samir said:
a simple initiator/target controller
Click to expand...
The computer system with HBA is a SCSI initiator. The drives are SCSI targets. The "I/T mode" is an LSI specific (not universal industry wide and vendor neutral like many people seem to think) term used to describe a firmware version where all connected LUNs are passed through to the operating system.
 
R

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
953
358
63
gb00s said:
Depends where you are living. Check the shipping rate of the UK's guy if you are not located in UK. Ridiculous. If you are in Germany check this offer : HP - 779134-001 - h240 HBA board PCIe 3 x8 sasadapter | eBay

Card can be used outside of HPE, but from what I remember you have to do it from WinWin and use the HP bla bla software. Sorry, I do not remember the software to config the card.
Click to expand...
The shipping rate to Germany must be really expensive for that to be cheaper (don't mean to be rude), shipping of one card is 11.55 GBP to Denmark and only a few GBP more if you want extras, I did not expect there to big that big a difference, but I suppose that is just how it goes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gb00s and Samir
S

Samir

Post Liker and Deal Hunter Extraordinaire!
Jul 21, 2017
3,103
1,339
113
48
HSV and SFO
BeTeP said:
The "I/T mode" is an LSI specific (not universal industry wide and vendor neutral like many people seem to think) term used to describe a firmware version where all connected LUNs are passed through to the operating system.
Click to expand...
From my understanding, IT mode is simply crossflashing a regular hba bios onto a raid controller, essentially making a raid controller an hba. And I've seen this done on Dell and other branded cards as well that are probably made by LSI, but not necessarily as theoretically this could work with any controller manufacturer that uses the same chipset for their hba and raid cards and doesn't lock out crossflashing.
 
G

gb00s

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2018
1,072
505
113
Poland
RTM said:
The shipping rate to Germany must be really expensive for that to be cheaper (don't mean to be rude), shipping of one card is 11.55 GBP to Denmark and only a few GBP more if you want extras, I did not expect there to big that big a difference, but I suppose that is just how it goes.
Click to expand...
No, I made a mistake and still had Malta as a shipping destination. I have to apologize. My mistake.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Samir
N

nikalai

Member
Oct 26, 2018
34
6
8
Bargain Hardware (UK) has a great and the same price for H240. I bought one last year. From what i know, HBA mode is not configured by default and i don't have HP servers, just Supermicro ones. So i couldn't flash / configure the card unfortunatelly.

Great guys on Bargain Hardware. :) I bought several things from them and i am not from UK.

LE: I was not planning to use this card with FREENAS / ZFS. click. I prefer H220 instead.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lte and Samir
M

maanval

New Member
Feb 11, 2020
5
5
3
Belgium
Tested this one in a whitebox, it works without any hassle on Debian. However, it will not work with the IBM 46M0997 expander (and it may not be compatible with other SAS/SAS2 expanders either), so don't buy it if that's your intended use case.

nikalai said:
From what i know, HBA mode is not configured by default and i don't have HP servers, just Supermicro ones. So i couldn't flash / configure the card unfortunatelly.
Click to expand...
You don't need an HP server to configure this HBA. You can use Smart Storage Administrator CLI (download, manual) to manage RAID/HBA functionality from the OS. Alternatively, you can create a USB key to boot off of and setup your preferred configuration there.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: tn00364361, rcatank, nikalai and 1 other person
I

int0x2e

Member
Dec 9, 2015
94
71
18
44
Offered 2 @ $25 ea, seller countered with 2 @ $30.
I think that's an okay price so I went for it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sleyk
BeTeP

BeTeP

Well-Known Member
Mar 23, 2019
641
422
63
Sleyk said:
These are good alternate controllers if you cant afford a pricier LSI HBA
Click to expand...
PMC has always made much better RAID controllers than LSI. But LSI's low end models were less expensive than PMC's. Which made them more popular and better supported many years down the road.

Sleyk said:
. These cards are just sooo curious in their choice to use SFF 8087 instead of SFF 8643
Click to expand...
HP redesigns their server chassis only every 2-3 generations. They changed the design when going from G7 to G8 and they were not going to change it again just for SAS3. So for G9 they decided to keep G8 drive cages and passive backplanes (with SFF-8087 connectors) and use custom designed SAS3 controllers with SFF-8087 connectors instead.

There are no performance or compatibility issues with the cards. Just make sure to use quality cables.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Evan, klui, Markess and 3 others
L

lte

Member
Apr 13, 2020
94
40
18
DE
Sleyk said:
I wonder if this was to cut costs for the card?
Click to expand...
Fully agree with @BeTeP on this one, underlying reason are the design cycles of HP/HPE.

Keep in mind, the largest (and IMHO sole) benefit of SFF8643 to SFF8087 is the reduced pcb footprint of the connector, the cables are still more or less shielded the same
 
  • Like
Reactions: klui and Sleyk
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom