lsi 9201-16i OR 9300-16i for SSD?

Ok so now that my machine is up and running... and I have 3x 8i cards in it... I'm out of pci-e slots and want to get my 10gb nic back in...

thus I need a 16i card (well 2 really)... but for now 1 will do...

for SSD... will the 9201-16i @ 6gb be sufficient?
I am running them individually so each cable splits to 4x sata cables....
in addition
running server 2019 and stablebit drive pool

thus the "duplication" is of full files and not a true raid striping....

can get the card on ebay for $125... else the 9300 is $200...

thoughts? thx...

 

What model ssds? What's your use case?

 

use case is simple...
a file server at home to store family photos, family data, movies, etc...

I have 2 storage pools in stablebit drivepool..

ssd and sata...
sata is slower stuff that I don't mind.. plex movies, data
ssd is family photos and stuff that I move around for DSLR copy over, edits, etc...

crucial ct525mx300ssd1
Crucial MX300 - Solid State Drive | Crucial.com

 

If speed is not an issue, the 9201 makes sense as it's cheaper. A 9300 @ 200 is a really good price, I would be cautious for counterfeits.

The 9201 is a pcie 2.0 hba while the 9300 is pcie 3.0, you would want to ensure your mb can handle the pcie 3.0.

Lastly, sas expanders are a cheaper alternative to getting another hba.

The Intel res2sv240 is known to be pretty reliable and uses molex for power, so no need for a pcie slot. Not sure what's a good price for them these days but see: E91267 E91267-202 E91267-203 INTEL RAID EXPANDER STORAGE CONTROLLER | eBay

 

so how does that work? i take 1 of my 8i and feed them into this card to get 16i out? so i simply gain only 8 ports and lose a pci-e 1x?

could never understand them

 

Everything you'd need to know: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/intel-res2sv240-24-port-sas2-expander-wiki.148/

 

some good information.. still has me confused...
but think I get it more..
what was confusing me was the fact that it looked like you had to plug into a PCIe slot AND provide power..

so I'm ok to now say.. you use EITHER?
so I could get a
Intel RES2CV240 36-Ports - and just mount it inside the case and no worries? just plug a power cable to it?

 

Rescv240 is molex only while the res2sv240 is either pcie or molex power ( yes, you use either for power).

The rescv240, from a quick check on the bay, is $200 obo. It also appears that the res2sv240 can be daisy chain but I am not aware what the performance trade offs would be.

2x res2sv240 appears to be less than the rescv240 but in the price range of a 9201. The rescv240 is maybe closer in price to a 9300.

Bear in mind that both the 920-16i and 9300-16i use more power, produce more heat and require more cooling than most 8i hbas (considerations for your setup).

Finally, unless you are looking at a couple 10gb clients and sas3 drives in the future, the 9300 now doesn't make sense.

 

I forget the model numbers but I'm running 2x hp 8i cards and 1x dell 8i card plus 6 onboard ports for 30 drives.

my case, when fully filled will be using
3x 6x2.5 icy docks = 18 drives
4x 2.5 built into case = 4
5x3 bays in corsair 750d = 15 drives

so I'm looking at 18+4+15 = 37 drives

so my hp hba id get to keep 4i as other goes to expander = 4
36 port expander lose 4i from hp hba = 32
6 onboard = 6
42 drives in that situation...

does that seem right?

sorry I'm totally clueless on this!!! tried reading, lookin at diagrams and just gets me more confused... hah

just wish I had SAS backplanes... then would be golden...

oh found an HP 12gb 36 port expander that I'm thinking of getting. while it doesn't have a molex connector..i would replace one of my current hba with this so it gets pcie power...

 

Man that's a lot of non-enterprise drives to have in one basket if they are all ct525mx300ssd1!

I am curious as to why you didn't go with 3.5 drives? Also, how many clients do you have and what network speeds are they on? What Motherboard are you using?

What model is your icy dock bays?

 

lol well that isn't all of them.. it is a habosh of stuff.. but ill lay it out for you.. is it overkill? yes... can I do this cheaper... probably.. but I'm setting myself up for the future...

so...

no they are not all...
so I have in
3.5
3x 4tb
8x 2tb
6x 1tb

in
2.5
slew of 128, 180, 256, 500, 512gb SSD

I'm the techy where my friends are not.
Had a friend want his NAS upgraded from 3x4tb to 4x8tb... so I did it for him and he gave me the 4tb.
(this is a good one)... bought a supermicro dual xeon on ebay with 128gb ram and 8x2tb drives... bought for $118 to my door - no idea why no one else on ebay wanted it. bought it... swapped cpus, memory with my lesser machine and sold the supermicro on craigslist for $350... LOL
1tb... been swapping out friends hard drives for bigger ones or ssd... and swapping friends smaller ssd to bigger and they all give me the old stuff....

free is free... LOL

well I have a 6 port 10gb switch (old style.. connector is called cx4) and I have
esxi, plex, this file server, freenas, gaming rig

Case: Corsair 750D with 5x3 bay cages
Mobo - Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI - ( bud upgraded so im not gonna bite a free handout) GA-Z170XP-SLI (rev. 1.0) | Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global
CPU - intel i5-6600k ( free with mobo )
Heat Sink - Cooler Master
Memory - 4 x 8gb 1Rx8 PC4-2133P-UA1-10 ( free with mobo )

​

work great
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M0BIPYC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

so to add to that...
I cant wait till my friends start needing their 1tb ssd drives upgraded!!!! LOL...

anywho... the beauty..
running windows server 2019
StableBit Drive Pool
*** 256gb NVME is an SSD Cache to the SATA Pool

while I get that stablebit is not a true raid. I call it a file level type raid.
I have 2 pools..
SSD Pool, SATA Pool

Sata pool gets all family data, plex movies, etc.
SSD Pool gets family photos (DSLR raw files are big), family videos, software installers/iso's that I use in my VMLab

the beauty is if you have 10 drives in a pool.. you can granularly go to a folder and say.. I want 10 copies... or another and say 4 copies...

if machine dies, put a drive in another machine and pull your files off...

I had freenas setup but I don't know what I'm doing with it and if it goes down and I loose family stuff.. I'm in big trouble!!!!!

so this solution works for me. been using it for YEARS!!! but had less drives. but I figure spend the $ on HBA, expanders, etc and when this setup is finally complete (almost there)... it will just run for a long time. If I get a larger drive, I will remove the smallest from the pool and add the new drive and just keep doing that freeing up space.

also on my plex server, I just bought PlayOn and I have DirecTV Now (renamed to AT&T Live) and am now DVRing my own shows, removing commercials and placing in plex. Need some storage for that... SATA pool for that too

 

yeah I got a 9300 8i that I got in a box of junk from craigslist... gonna hit ebay with it....

 

Not familiar with stablebit but ZFS on FreeNAS is a well respected file system.

For your use case, having 37+ drives seem complex and unnecessary but, from what I read, probably good for stablebit. Even if you got gear free, you seem competent enough to flip it for sale on a decent profit then get what you really need.

The 3-2-1 backup rule should be followed. This is one of the best ways of guaranteeing the safety of your data, not filesystems or separating your data across different pools or other methods that bring "peace of mind". Think about this, what happens to all your data if something were to go wrong with your PSU in that case holding 37+ drives??

I think more hbas is not necessarily the way to go. You have four hbas already, not even using all four !

My thinking is, use ssds for hot storage (smaller size), use spinning drives for backing up the ssds and other less used data. Consider using spinning drives for offline backups of the ssds + spinning drives containing other data.

See where this takes you in terms of hba/disks/systems.

Some people will say consolidate your systems into one. However, I don't ascribe to that view.

 

fyi 3 hbas...

if psu dies.. I can move any drive into any other system and get files off.. that is what I like about it..

yeah much to think on how to do it... but ive locked myself down on how..

guess ill buy the hp 36 port so I can go down from 3hba to 1hba and 1 extender giving me back 1 pcie slot for my 10gb nic...

thx for all your responses.. your the only one that has been contributing! appreciate it a lot...