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sATA controller. Help me chose


asheenlevrai

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Hi :)

 

I have already posted a question here and received extensive and valuable advice mostly from @IG-88 (Thank yo so much once again).

However, the thread has become a little complex and I rather post a shorter question here while I re-read all of it carefully.

 

I have now collected funds in order to build my 1st XPenology rig ASAP. My needs are quite low: I need an 8 bay machine that will be use mainly to receive backups from other Synology NASes. Now I would like this machine to last as long as possible before I am forced to upgrade it.

 

I was thinking about repurposing an old z87 motherboard that I have with an i7-4770s and 4GB of DDR3 1333. The thing is it only has 6 sATA 6Gbps ports so I would need 2 extra sATA ports from an AIC. This MB has 1 PCIe x16 port (for dGPU traditionally) and 1 full length PCIe x4 port (other onboard PCIe x1 ports become unusable when this one is used).

 

In my region, I can easily get my hands on an affordable PCIe2.0 x1 sATA controller (HIGHPOINT Rocket 620), but AFAIU this might create problems due to bandwidth limitations.

If a different controller would be better, I would need advice to find the best/most affordable model.

 

Now if the price increases too much (like more than $100-150), it may make more sens for me (for reasons that I will not explain here) to go for a completely new system with an AMD APU* and a motherboard having 8 sATA ports. But I guess that would be kind of a waste, right?

 

So my questions are:

 - Is the HIGHPOINT Rocket 620 OK?

 - if not, what would be the most affordable alternative (assuming I can get my hands on them in my region)?

 

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

Best,

-a-

 

* Or maybe a CPU if the system can boot without any GPU

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2 hours ago, asheenlevrai said:

If a different controller would be better, I would need advice to find the best/most affordable model.

i'd suggest a jmb585 based card in the pcie 16x slot (that has pcie 3.0, the other slots seem to be 2.0)

https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/35882-new-sataahci-cards-with-more-then-4-ports-and-no-sata-multiplexer/

 

2 hours ago, asheenlevrai said:

a motherboard having 8 sATA ports. But I guess that would be kind of a waste, right?

i guess so, not much choice for >6  onboard, maybe a used system is a option

 

2 hours ago, asheenlevrai said:

 - Is the HIGHPOINT Rocket 620 OK?

88SE9128, sees extremly old silicon, if anything then use 88se9235 two pcie 2.0 lanes and 4 ports, if you just want to use two atm there is no bandwidth problem at all (pci4 4x slot with pcie 2.0 on you board)

 

2 hours ago, asheenlevrai said:

 - if not, what would be the most affordable alternative (assuming I can get my hands on them in my region)?

if you use 3617 as base you could also use a lsi sas controller that has 8 ports and with its 8 lanes (16x slot) you could even add some ssd's if you want

 

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3 hours ago, IG-88 said:

i'd suggest a jmb585 based card in the pcie 16x slot (that has pcie 3.0, the other slots seem to be 2.0)

https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/35882-new-sataahci-cards-with-more-then-4-ports-and-no-sata-multiplexer/

Thanks :)

I found the following affordable cards based on jmb585:

(for reference, in my region the Highpoint Rocket 620 was $47)

 - PCIe3.0 x4, 5x sATA ports 6Gbps ($57)

 - PCIe3.0 x4, 3x sATA ports 6Gbps, 2x M.2 key B slots 2280, 2260, 2242, 2230 ($60)

 - PCIe3.0 x4, 5x sATA ports 6Gbps ($80)

 - PCIe3.0 x4, 3x sATA ports 6Gbps, 1x M.2 key B slot 2242, 2230 ($83)

 

I believe (or want to believe 😅) I will never use more than 8 HDDs on this rig, so I guess the cheapest one should be OK (6 drives on the MB, 2 on the AIC. Or would it be wiser to do 4 on the MB and 4 on the AIC?).

Now for $3 more I get 2x M.2 sATA slots. I don't see how they could be useful (Cacheing? With sATA M.2 drives? On a backup rig?) but... it's only $3, though. There are some M.2->anything adapters out there, but again, I don't see how this could be useful.

 

 

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i guess so, not much choice for >6  onboard, maybe a used system is a option

 

Unfortunately all my current systems have only 6 sATA ports onboard except some recent X570 MBs

 

Quote

 

88SE9128, sees extremly old silicon, if anything then use 88se9235 two pcie 2.0 lanes and 4 ports, if you just want to use two atm there is no bandwidth problem at all (pci4 4x slot with pcie 2.0 on you board)

 

if you use 3617 as base you could also use a lsi sas controller that has 8 ports and with its 8 lanes (16x slot) you could even add some ssd's if you want

 

 

AFAIU, the theoretical maximum bandwidth for 1 sATA drive is 6Gbps or 0.75GBps (HDDs will never come even close to this). Thus for 2 drives it would be 12Gbps or 1.5GBps.

According to Wikipedia:

 - PCIe3.0 x4 is 3.938GBps

 - PCIe2.0 x4 is 2GBps

 

I guess that if I only use 2 drives on the AIC, I could put the PCIe3.0 x4 AIC (jmb585) into the PCIe2.0 x4 port of my MB, right? I don't know why I would want to save the PCIe3.0 x16 port, but whatever... Probably OCD or something 😅

 

Thanks again for your feedback.

Best,

-a-

 

Edited by asheenlevrai
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57 minutes ago, asheenlevrai said:

I found the following affordable cards based on jmb585:

(for reference, in my region the Highpoint Rocket 620 was $47)

 - PCIe3.0 x4, 5x sATA ports 6Gbps ($57)

 - PCIe3.0 x4, 3x sATA ports 6Gbps, 2x M.2 key B slots 2280, 2260, 2242, 2230 ($60)

 - PCIe3.0 x4, 5x sATA ports 6Gbps ($80)

 - PCIe3.0 x4, 3x sATA ports 6Gbps, 1x M.2 key B slot 2242, 2230 ($83)

the m.2 slots on these cars are exclusive sata so there is no gain in having m.2 as it would just have the sata limits as a normal 2.5" drive

you can get jmb585 cards cheaper when buying over amazon from china or use aliexpress

or just look for a 88se9230/88se9235 card (that is not pcie 1x layout) should be the same price as your highpoint card

 

 

57 minutes ago, asheenlevrai said:

(6 drives on the MB, 2 on the AIC. Or would it be wiser to do 4 on the MB and 4 on the AIC?).

chipset onboard is usually ok, and if there a re bandwidth limits on a added card (like pcie 2.0 and low pcie lane count) the a better to have less drives on that added card

 

57 minutes ago, asheenlevrai said:

Now for $3 more I get 2x M.2 sATA slots

no use at all as its already dead, can be a thing if there is no other choice (like a intel nuc) but adding them on purpose? no, i won't

 

57 minutes ago, asheenlevrai said:

AFAIU, the theoretical maximum bandwidth for 1 sATA drive is 6Gbps or 0.75GBps (HDDs will never come even close to this). Thus for 2 drives it would be 12Gbps or 1.5GBps.

According to Wikipedia:

 - PCIe3.0 x4 is 3.938GBps

 - PCIe2.0 x4 is 2GBps

i go with 1 lane pcie 2.0 is 500 MByte/s and for two non ssd drives thats barely ok, some drives can exeed 250MB/s

~1000MByte/s for one lane pcie 3.0

 

its most often the chip that limits, the card can be "wider", some vendors go for looks (16x card looks so powefull) or it can be for the standard as there is not really a pcie 2x slot or card, its 1x or 4x (but there are some two lane layout cards too)

so look for the chips (lane and pcie standard) 88se9215 has just one lane pcie 2.0 and four sata ports - not so good if you have more then a pcie 1x slot (and more lanes), but if you just use two ports then its still 250MB/s per port

if it has to be marvell i'd suggest a 88se92xx chip, less problems to expect (there are some funny stories around 88se9128 about problems, you might check them before goung with that old chip)

 

i'd go with a jmb585 card, can be full used in the 16x slot and will also work in the 4x slot (pcie 2.0) with half bandwidth (still good for 3-4 hdd's)

the unused port might and with a 10G nic next, at least thats what it is in my system

 

 

 

 

Edited by IG-88
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10 hours ago, IG-88 said:

the m.2 slots on these cars are exclusive sata so there is no gain in having m.2 as it would just have the sata limits as a normal 2.5" drive

you can get jmb585 cards cheaper when buying over amazon from china or use aliexpress

You're right. On amazon I can find the 1st two cards listed in my previous post for €20 including shipping!

Shipped from china, though so delivery will take a while. But that's a huge price difference indeed.

Quote

or just look for a 88se9230/88se9235 card (that is not pcie 1x layout) should be the same price as your highpoint card

I guess there's no point in not going for jmb585 cards since they are so cheap

 

Quote

 

 

chipset onboard is usually ok, and if there a re bandwidth limits on a added card (like pcie 2.0 and low pcie lane count) the a better to have less drives on that added card

OK :) Tx

 

Quote

 

no use at all as its already dead, can be a thing if there is no other choice (like a intel nuc) but adding them on purpose? no, i won't

 

i go with 1 lane pcie 2.0 is 500 MByte/s and for two non ssd drives thats barely ok, some drives can exeed 250MB/s

~1000MByte/s for one lane pcie 3.0

 

its most often the chip that limits, the card can be "wider", some vendors go for looks (16x card looks so powefull) or it can be for the standard as there is not really a pcie 2x slot or card, its 1x or 4x (but there are some two lane layout cards too)

so look for the chips (lane and pcie standard) 88se9215 has just one lane pcie 2.0 and four sata ports - not so good if you have more then a pcie 1x slot (and more lanes), but if you just use two ports then its still 250MB/s per port

if it has to be marvell i'd suggest a 88se92xx chip, less problems to expect (there are some funny stories around 88se9128 about problems, you might check them before goung with that old chip)

 

i'd go with a jmb585 card, can be full used in the 16x slot and will also work in the 4x slot (pcie 2.0) with half bandwidth (still good for 3-4 hdd's)

I'll do that :)

 

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the unused port might and with a 10G nic next, at least thats what it is in my system

Maybe in the future, indeed. For now, the rest of our network isn't capable of 10GbE

 

Thanks you SO much :D

Best,

-a-

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Edited by asheenlevrai
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