LSI 9202-16e - seller dropped price from $400 to $200

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dba

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Feb 20, 2012
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Patrick

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Wow!!!!! BTW are you in Vegas? Sent you a note
 

Patrick

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I'm in Vegas for CES - pretty free this evening and tomorrow morning, if you are around.
Will send you a note about tomorrow morning. Trying to do a CES13 piece tonight.
 

zicoz

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So if I'm looking for some 16e cards for my X9SRL-F, this is a "must buy" right?
 

mobilenvidia

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So if I'm looking for some 16e cards for my X9SRL-F, this is a "must buy" right?
Nope the LSI9202-16e is a PCIe 16x card, the X9SRL-F has 16x slots BUT they are 8x electrically :(
You would be wasting your money, not sure how these would react with 8x slot, you will probably only have 8x SAS/SATA ports, other 8x won't be availabe.
 

mobilenvidia

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Just picked one up for $200 and only $20 shipping to NZ, much better.
Now what do I do with it, getting side tracked again.

Wonder if it comes with the 3 heat sinks as in piccy

 

zicoz

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Nope the LSI9202-16e is a PCIe 16x card, the X9SRL-F has 16x slots BUT they are 8x electrically :(
You would be wasting your money, not sure how these would react with 8x slot, you will probably only have 8x SAS/SATA ports, other 8x won't be availabe.
Thanks for the warning. Gonna contact LSi to hear if they can tell me how it works in the 8x slot.
 

dba

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I've tested the 9202 in an x8 slot and it works just great. In this article I was able to get 726K IOPS from the card on x8 with an Intel CPU and MOBO using 16 OCZ SSD drives. Maximum throughput was 3,583MB/Second - far lower than in an x16 slot but still faster than any single-controller x8 card, not to mention that it has 16 ports to play with.

I own six of these cards and all of them have one giant heatsink, not the three smaller heatsinks that others have reported.

Thanks for the warning. Gonna contact LSi to hear if they can tell me how it works in the 8x slot.
 

Aluminum

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Sep 7, 2012
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Nope the LSI9202-16e is a PCIe 16x card, the X9SRL-F has 16x slots BUT they are 8x electrically
You would be wasting your money, not sure how these would react with 8x slot, you will probably only have 8x SAS/SATA ports, other 8x won't be availabe.
Thanks for the warning. Gonna contact LSi to hear if they can tell me how it works in the 8x slot.
PCI express doesn't work that way, it is not dividing up two sets of x8 lanes across the pins, these cards use a bridge chip. Both LSI controllers will be visible, just bottle-necked by the slowest link.

You can't divide up bandwidth lanes without a MUX or bridge, thats how motherboards can switch x16 into dual x8 etc. I believe it is MUX if you want the option, bridge for a fixed configuration.

The slot has "control" pins (bottom part) and the rest are pure bandwidth signaling pins, with a minimum of x1.
Unless a card is really picky (and probably not compliant with the standard) it will work all the way down to x1.

I've tested the 9202 in an x8 slot and it works just great.
QED :)
 

zicoz

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Ok, thank you. I've contacted him to see what he can do with shipping now.

Where did you buy yours to get so much cheaper shipping mobilenvidia.
 

mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200879435713&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160

Is where I got mine, right under quite a few STH members noses, being based in Sacremento.
It was by far the best thing he had.
Been for sale for ages, was for a while wanting $349, then $299, offered $200 and got it.


Thats good that it works in a 8x slot, the PLX chip grabs the 8x lanes and can still make 16x on the controller.
This makes it basically a slower LSI9206-16e.

It's going to be interesting with the heatsinks, as he only had one, the picture shows a June 2011 manufacture date/
Its been shipped, I should have it late next week.
 

azev

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Jan 18, 2013
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Do you know if you can use 8644 to 8087 sas cable to connect this controller to a single expander chip supermicro 836 chassis ?
 

mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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LSI 9202 to external enclosure


LSI9202 to internal expander/ backplane


LSI9202 to internal drives


By the time you populate the 4x sets of Mini SAS HD cables you'll have spent more than the card
 
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zicoz

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I think I saw the external to external cable for like $25 a piece on ebay

edit:
Aparently wants $170 to ship 2 cards to Norway that's the same amount I paid to have a DS24D shipped here with USPS Priority Mail International, so I guess he's looking to make some of that rebnate up in shipping.
 
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dba

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Feb 20, 2012
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Two details of note:

1) These cards use SFF-8844 connectors instead of SFF-8088. It's just a different plug, not a different procotol, but SFF-8644 to SFF-8088 cables do tend to be pricy and are still less available on eBay than other SAS cables.
2) I have been unable to find standard height PCI brackets for these cards - and I have even called the LSI distribution network. Brackets for an SFF-8088 LSI card will not fit unless you break out a metal file and enlarge the opening. Done carefully it works very well but does require patience.

The eBay vendor who has been selling 16-port LSI 9202-16e HBAs for the reasonable but certainly not cheap price of $399 has dropped his ask to $199. I may have had something to do with the price change :)

URL: http://www.ebay.com/itm/110998421834

STH articles with details on the 9202:

http://www.servethehome.com/lsi-9202-16/

http://www.servethehome.com/lsi-920216e-update-5900mb-intel-xeon-e5-server/

http://www.servethehome.com/lsi-sas-9202-16e-hood/