Hi everyone
I’m looking to expand my storage. I have a case capable of 8 bays and I don’t think I’ll exceed that soon (currently at 3 drives).
I bought a m.2 slot with a bunch of sata ports on it but it doesn’t work. I’ve researched and read an HBA is a much better solution anyway.
If I’m going to get the HBA I might as well run all 8 ports on it.
Aside from the clearance on the card in the case, are there any other considerations I need to he aware of? I justbeant to get something that works from the get go. For my uses I have a good amount of apps and I stream media from the server
CPU- i5-10400f 2.90ghz
MOBO - asrock h570m-itx/ac
RAM - gskill f4-3200c16-8gvkb
GPU - Quadro k620 (gm107gl) rev a2
CASE - Jonsbo N3
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The specs of your motherboard says M2_1 slot only works with 11th gen CPU but yours is 10th gen. That could be why the SATA board doesn’t work.
I’ve bought mine off TheArtofServer. You can ask the seller questions and they’ll happily help. Not to shill but the guy is super passionate about the HBA business.
I currently went overboard and got a tri mode LSI which is quite pricey. But it allows me to mix and match SATA, SAS, and U.2/3
Broadcom 9500-8i Tri-Mode is the model.
https://www.ebay.com/str/theartofserver
For sas and sata only I have a LSI 9305-16i for my big server. The 9305 runs quite cooler, but you pay more upfront.
I have mine running in a consumer case and, despite it having a heat sink, I found it was overheating and turning off. Consider your airflow and put a fan near or on it if possible
Same thing happened to me, but with a rosewill case. Luckily there’s a 3d file for my card clip a fan to the heating and keep it cool. Unfortunately ALL the noctuas already in the case weren’t enough. OP be prepared to have a dedicated fan for the card
If you are intending to run software raid then you want something that can be flashed to Initiator Target or IT mode. There is a JBOD function for some RAID cards and you DO NOT want that because it does not send all the same data that software raid wants from the dive. You also do not want to waste money on a card with RAM or Battery Backups since they are really designed for hardware RAID.
A SAS3008 card will really be what you are looking for.
https://www.ebay.com/shop/lsi-sas-3008?_nkw=lsi+sas+3008
With a SAS backplane or expanders you can connect 256 drives.
Thank you for teaching me what “IT” stands for in this case… I always assumed it was “Information Technology” and thought it was weird but never bothered to look it up 🤣
No problem.
I try to explain things as best as I can so everyone can learn. I’ve been using TrueNAS since the FreeNAS 9.2 era so about 13 years now. When I started I had already dealt with a ton of issues and was searching for better than multiple single drives. My first real build was a Dual Xeon X5690 setup in an X8DT6-F so learning this about SAS was really important.
Sadly there are so many acronyms out there (and growing all the time) that is getting hard to just read the news let alone anything else without a little help.
Great thank you
Will thus work for zfs truenas aswell
LSI has really good compatibility with TrueNAS and any Linux system tbh.
I just about pulled the trigger on it and saw my board only has one pcie which us presently occupied. Back to the drawing board!
Then it’s probably time to switch boards. Anything that will expand drive connections will need a PCIe slot. Using an adapter that goes into an m.2 is probably going to have issues. Using USB based devices is asking for trouble.
I think I’ve found a solution. If I get a CPU with integrated graphics I can get rid of my GPU, its only an old quadro k620 so its so super powerful anyway.
I spent hours last night looking up new parts for a new build but I think this is the best option. The whole reason I have an itx is cause I really like the 8 bay case.
If all that fails I’ll get a new board
Yep. I’m using one myself.
Hey, so. If you have an unused m.2 slot, you can get a m.2 to pcie riser adapter, and then put your HBA into that.
Otherwise, yeah, you’ll need an mITX board with another PCIe or an oculink, or that at least supports PCIe bifurcation, which yours does not.
Been a while since I’ve used an HBA, but make sure you get one that allows JBOD or supports being flashed with JBOD firmware. A lot of LSI cards only support traditional RAID.
I’ll look into this. I’m confused with what a raid controller and hba are and which one I need for zfs
If you’re installing an HBA at home, it’s better to immediately install something like a Noctua NF-A4x10 on it. You should also immediately check the type of hardware initialization. If the system boots into EFI and the HBA is old and only supports BIOS, there may be problems. Otherwise, everything works perfectly with almost every device.
Ah, I’m running truenas which uses zfs
