LSI 9300-16i $129 obo

[mattlach]

Excellent, glad you got it sorted! Kudos to you for creative problem-solving!

Thanks.

Yeah, I've been working with these LSI cards for about a decade now, but its usually pretty far between each time so I forget what I did to solve it last time

Once I get the command line utility to actually find the cards and work, actually erasing/flashing/etc. is the easy part.

 

[mattlach]

Side note:

These puppies get HOT even when idle in an open air situation in a cold New England winter room.

I might add an additional fan over it just to keep it reasonable.

I'm really not kidding about this. The heatsink on mine reaches the pain point (but doesn't create a blister) when touched after a few minutes of even just sitting powered on and idle.

I know these boards are designed for the inside of server chassis which generally are allowed to be pretty loud and have very good airflow.

In my application since it is in a desktop case with more modest (but still decent) airflow, I am going to add a fan to it.

The manual says it requires 200ft per minute linear airflow at a 55C intake temperature (which is quite hot). Converted to the radius of a 92mm fan, I wind up with about 14.31 cfm, which is very modest for a PC fan.

I'm thinking a quiet low speed 92mm slim fan should do the trick. I'll probably just zip tie it on around the board and use PWM control to keep the speed in check.

This one appears to be the closest I could find with a quick search:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZP6KKKZ/

 

[i386]

I'm really not kidding about this. The heatsink on mine reaches the pain point (but doesn't create a blister) when touched after a few minutes of even just sitting powered on and idle.

I think it's the plx switch that generates that heat...

 

[Fritz]

Just upgraded my firmware using MSM had to do each controller individually. Easy Peazy. Click Click it's done.

 

[Markess]

The manual says it requires 200ft per minute linear airflow at a 55C intake temperature (which is quite hot). Converted to the radius of a 92mm fan, I wind up with about 14.31 cfm, which is very modest for a PC fan.

I'm thinking a quiet low speed 92mm slim fan should do the trick. I'll probably just zip tie it on around the board and use PWM control to keep the speed in check.

Its funny, that same airflow requirement is in the manuals for every LSI/Avago/Broadcom (and even Adaptec) adapter I've owned going back to early SAS2 ones. As the cards got more power hungry, the airflow requirement stayed the same & the chips got larger heatsinks.

If the fan covers most of the heatsink, you should be fine. NF-A9x14 pushes ~450LFM in its 92mm airflow cylinder when running full speed, so you've got a bit of headroom.

 

[mattlach]

I think it's the plx switch that generates that heat...

Well, lets see. We are dealing with incomplete information, as the specs are not perfect.

The 9300-16i, is essentially two 9300-8i's on the same card behind a PLX (or equivalent, may not be PLX branded) chip

According to Broadcom's specs for the 9300-8i it uses 13w nominal, and 19w max.

Thus this gives us a range of 26-38W for two of them.

According to Broadcom's specs for the 9300-16i it uses 26.9w nominal. There is no max/transient number.

So, if the specs are accurate, at nominal, the 16i uses only 0.9W more than two 8i's.

That 0.9W can probably be attributed to the PLX chip, but that seems a little bit low.

I don't know. All this really tells us is that we don't have quite enough information to say for sure.

That said, despite covering almost the entirety of the card, that black heatsink is a little small and shallow to cool 26.9W in a passive configuration, which is likely why it gets so hot. You don't need big power to result in heat. Even small power over time will do the trick, unless you have decent cooling.

 

[mattlach]

Just upgraded my firmware using MSM had to do each controller individually. Easy Peazy. Click Click it's done.

Would you mind explaining what this MSM is?

I've been a tech guy and Enterprise IT hardware hobbyist for a couple of decades now, but I've never run across it before.

A google search gives me all sorts of amusing suggestions, everywhere from Mainstream Media to Men who have Sex with Men

I'd be interested in learning more, as while the command line tools is great and convenient when it works, a lot of the time on a lot of systems it just doesn't.

 

[mattlach]

Its funny, that same airflow requirement is in the manuals for every LSI/Avago/Broadcom (and even Adaptec) adapter I've owned going back to early SAS2 ones. As the cards got more power hungry, the airflow requirement stayed the same & the chips got larger heatsinks.

If the fan covers most of the heatsink, you should be fine. NF-A9x14 pushes ~450LFM in its 92mm airflow cylinder when running full speed, so you've got a bit of headroom.

Yeah, I am guessing it's just a rule of thumb, and not a detailed validated spec.

I also feel like their intake temperature of 55C gives most users a bit of a buffer. My rack certainly isnt in a 55C environment.

 

[ano]

MSM = Megaraid Storage Manager

 

[mattlach]

MSM = Megaraid Storage Manager

Ahh, thank you for clarifying!

Interesting. I thought that only worked for actual megaraid enabled card, not for HBA's

Either way, I believe that's windows only, which limits its usefulness. I ahve 4 boxes with LSI controllers in them. None of them have windows on them

 

[ano]

works with linux servers as well, you can connect from win gui

 

[mattlach]

works with linux servers as well, you can connect from win gui

Interesting. How does that work? Does it SSH in on the back end?

Either way, I don't use Windows on any of my clients either. Except one machine, which has a dedicated Windows install just for games. That's pretty much the only thing I use Windows for anymore.

 

[Fritz]

I actually did this from a Linux box. via Remmina.

 

[mattlach]

I actually did this from a Linux box. via Remmina.

So, now I am confused.

Is there actually a linux binary of MSM? All I could find when I googled it was a Windows version.

Or did you use Remmina to RDP from your linux box to a Windows server which was running MSM natively?

 

[Fritz]

As I said, via Remmina, server is running Windows server 2012 R2 with MSM installed. Not sure if there's a Linux version of MSM or not.

 

[mattlach]

Its funny, that same airflow requirement is in the manuals for every LSI/Avago/Broadcom (and even Adaptec) adapter I've owned going back to early SAS2 ones. As the cards got more power hungry, the airflow requirement stayed the same & the chips got larger heatsinks.

If the fan covers most of the heatsink, you should be fine. NF-A9x14 pushes ~450LFM in its 92mm airflow cylinder when running full speed, so you've got a bit of headroom.

And if anyone is curious, this is what an LSI 9300-16i looks like with a Noctua NF-A9x14 HS-PWM zip-tied to it.





It's a little ghetto, but it almost reminds me of an old school video card. And this isn't a beauty contest anyway...



It does block the neighboring slot which is too bad, but that was only a 4x slot I was previously using to hold the Intel SAS Expander, so it isn't strictly necessary.

The port I plugged it in to seems to like a PWM duty cycle of about 45% when idle, which results in about 1200rpm. This takes the controller from heat that is bordering on the pain threshold when touched (though it didn't result in a blister) to a more reasonable lukewarm temp, and is inaudible unless you are shoving your ears inside your case.

 

[myongha]

Hey. Total noob. Trying to build a home server. I read somewhere the LSI 9300-16I already comes in IT mode is that true? Also, if I wanted to update the firmware, is the one Mattlach found the latest? Most importantly could someone walk me through how to do the update? Fritz mentioned something about MSM (steps)?

 

[Fritz]

MSM is MegaRAID Storage Manager. It's free and has an update firmware option. Just click, select firmware file, click update, done.

 

[myongha]

That sounds easy enough (I'll use the one Mattlach provided). Do you know if the thing about the LSI 9300-16i coming only in IT mode is true? Cause I totally purchased from the seller this thread thread started on and they had no idea.

 

[Fritz]

Just checked my firmware package and it contains only IT firmware.