New build not getting full bandwidth from SSDs?

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aberrant

New Member
Apr 1, 2020
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3
I'm building a new FreeNAS server that I'm looking to use for 4k video editing (fast copy/streaming of large files). I've got everything built out and I thought I had it spec'd and designed correctly but I'm seconding guessing myself now since I'm not seeing full bandwidth utilization.

Here's my setup:

SuperMicro CSE-216
X9DRi-F Motherboard
2x E5-2630v2
128GB ECC Ram
SAS216A Backplane
1x LSI 9300-8i HBA IT Mode
8x Intel S3700 SSDs

Now it was my understanding that with this backplane I would get full bandwidth to all SSDs. In my case right now I only have 8 SSDs so I figured I would only need a single 9300-8i HBA, is that true?

I have FreeNAS installed and I'm looking at the outputs of each disk with smartctl -a /dev/da* and I see that only 4/8 disks are at full 6 Gb/s, the other 4 are at 3 Gb/s. Am I doing something wrong here? I have 2 SFF-8643 to SFF-8087 cables connected to the first 2 connectors on the backplane that run to the two connectors on my single 9300-8i. Shouldn't all 8 of these disks be at 6 Gb/s?
 

aberrant

New Member
Apr 1, 2020
6
3
3
I think I just figured this out.. 4 of my drives are Dell drives that are apparently locked to 3gb/s. Investigating if it's firmware or not.
 
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