HP P812 1GB FBWC 24 drive controller @ US$517 on Amazon.

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

RimBlock

Active Member
Sep 18, 2011
837
28
28
Singapore
Hi all,

Just spotted a number of HP P812 SAS controllers with 1GB Flash backed Write Cache new going for US$519 + shipping here.

The controller also has an inbuilt SAS expander so it can natively drive 24 hard drives (8 internal via 2x SFF-8087, 16 ext via 4x SFF-8088).

I have one and it is working just fine in my Intel motherboard. Both internal and external drives are visible and HPs offline ACU (via bootable mem stick) works with no problems. These cards usually retail fro around US$1,400.

Manual here.

RB
 

RimBlock

Active Member
Sep 18, 2011
837
28
28
Singapore
Nice find, and very nicely priced too for what you get.

I see HP also have a P822 that is PCIe Gen3.0
That is probably why there are a few P812s showing up. The P822s have 2GB cache. Most probably have SATA III as well.

Took the chance with mine and now confirmed it works in non-HP equipment, although mine was a bit fussy on PCIe slot it was plugged in to, it is a great card for that sort of money.

Only issue I have found so far is that the HP bootable firmware update disk will not boot on a non HP server so I cannot update the BIOS on mine. Works fine with the BIOS I have though so far.

RB
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
12,511
5,792
113
That is probably why there are a few P812s showing up. The P822s have 2GB cache. Most probably have SATA III as well.

Took the chance with mine and now confirmed it works in non-HP equipment, although mine was a bit fussy on PCIe slot it was plugged in to, it is a great card for that sort of money.

Only issue I have found so far is that the HP bootable firmware update disk will not boot on a non HP server so I cannot update the BIOS on mine. Works fine with the BIOS I have though so far.

RB
Hopefully odditory sees this. I remember years ago when trying to flash the HP SAS expander that there was a key press that got you past that HP server check.
 

odditory

Moderator
Dec 23, 2010
381
59
28
Hopefully odditory sees this. I remember years ago when trying to flash the HP SAS expander that there was a key press that got you past that HP server check.
Shift-ENTER at the first prompt, unless they removed it.

(good memory, Patrick)
 
Last edited:

RimBlock

Active Member
Sep 18, 2011
837
28
28
Singapore
Update: I see this also on ebay, from the same seller. Here's a link:

HP P812 with 1GB BBWC on ebay $475 + 10 shipping OBO.
Rookie slip ;).

Part number 587224-001 listed is for the controller board replacement part and not for the P812 SAS controller which is part number 487204-B21.

Someone is also selling a P812 without cache for US$380 over on EBay here. The third picture shows the controllers part number.

This sale on EBay shows what you get with part number 587224-001

HP parts list for the P812 is here (listing the 587224-001 as the replacement controller board).

Be wary of buying from adverts listing the part number as 587224-001 although some sellers may have just listed the part number incorrectly or are using it to list a controller without cache installed.

The cache module with capacitor (required to copy data from live memory to the flash cache in the event of a power outage) can be had for around US$250 on EBay like here. Just make sure it comes with the flash memory and the capacitor (the black boat shaped part).

I did a lot of research before buying mine and almost fell for the same 'controller board only" listings before realising :).

RB