Heads Up Cheap 4port SAS controllers

Stanza · 11th June 2010, 12:19 PM

Looking thru the
Supermicro AOC-USAS-L8i UIO 8 port sas/sata card
thread

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/sh...d.php?t=759278

Someone posted a link to an ebay seller listing
Dell P/N: 0HN359 SAS 5 PCIE Adapter Card USC-51 MY412

Looking at these card they appeared to be cut down / similar versions of the Dell SAS 5/e (8port external) controllers..... except with 4 internal ports.

Think of a PERC 5/i without RAID or Memory or Battery and reduced to 4 ports instead of 8.

So a 4port internal SAS HBA

Looking up specs they appear to be LSI 1068 chipset

Being a cheap bastard I thought they might be worth a try seeing as they were listed as BUY NOW for $9.99...

Well my 2 arrived yesterday, placed one in my HP ML350 G4 server in the 8x PCI-E slot....but alas loud beeping upon turning it on.

Decided I was worth a shot to try the PERC 5/i trick of covering pins 5 & 6 with tape and tried again.

Fired right up and recognised the 4 attached drives

Installed Opensolaris and it recognised the card as a LSI 1068 SAS HBA
ZFS was happy.

so far all seems fine.

Tried also in an ASUS P6T Deluxe, with the tape trick... didn't seem to work as yet. But I know the PERC 5/i's also have trouble in certain motherboards.... so more testing required on this board.

Looking at the PCI-E pins these are slightly different to a PERC 5/i in that pins 1,2,3 are joined together.... where the PERC 5/i has pins 1,2,3 seperate

Click to view full size!

I didn't upgrade any firmware (looks like the ones I received are the 1st A00 gen versions) but looks like they can be upgraded to firmware A04 as thats available on the Dell site.

Upgrade the Firmware HOWTO
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/sh...9&postcount=88

Now I am wondering if they will work with say a Chenbro or HP SAS expander ??

(Confirmed by user Chello_Wien to be working on Chenbro)

Cheap way to get a bucket load of SAS / SATA ports..

So here are the links if anyone else is a cheapo bastard like myself and wants to grab a bargin

Cards I got (no cable, no Mounting Bracket) $9.99 USD + $7 shipping
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Same card with short SAS to SAS cable $12.99 USD + $6.50 shipping
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Dell-P-N-0HN3...item335dc66be9

Same card with Mounting Bracket $17.50 USD + $7 Shipping
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Dell-0HN359-S...item4aa1b69492

Mine arrived within a week of buying, Nice Seller good communication.

Known Working Motherboards / Systems
Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H
Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4H
Gigabyte GA-M61SME-S2
Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD3
Gigabyte GA-MA78LM-S2
Gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H (needs tape / pin mod)
Gigabyte P35-DS3 - no tape mod
Gigabyte GA-970A-D3
Asrock P67 Extreme 6 B3
Asus M4A785-M
Asus P5K-E/Wifi (P35 chipset) (needs tape / pin mod)
Asus P5W DH Deluxe (needs tape / pin mod)
Asus P5Q-Pro (P45 chipset) (needs tape / pin mod)
Asus P5KPL 1600 - no tape mod
Asus P5NSLI -no tape mod
Asus M2N32-SLI-DELUXE (needs tape / pin mod)
Asus p5ld2 (needs tape / pin mod)
Asus Striker Extreame (needs tape / pin mod)
Biostar TA760G M2+
Intel S5520hcr server board - no tape mod
Intel S5000VSA server board - no tape mod
Intel S5000PSLSATA Dual Xeon board - No tape mod
HP Proliant ML350 G4 (needs tape / pin mod)
HP Proliant ML350 G4p (needs tape / pin mod)
HP Proliant ML350 G5 (needs tape / pin mod)

Know Working SAS Expanders
Chenbro CK13601

Original PERC 5/i thread at Overclockers.net for possibly more supported / confirmed working motherboards
http://www.overclock.net/raid-contro...card-tips.html

Know PCI slot brackets that fit
HP Netraid 1SI scsi controller (fits perfectly)

..

Jazz · 11th June 2010, 4:35 PM

Yeah, I've been eyeballing these for a while, but with an Asus P6T, I've been waiting for working confirmation, and your news with the Deluxe isn't helping

rowan194 · 11th June 2010, 4:53 PM

For an SAS noob - the one with cables provided shows 2 connectors, but they're actually 2 ports per connector, right? So you'd need some sort of adaptor or SAS compatible backplane to be able to plug them into a SATA drive?

noobmastery · 11th June 2010, 4:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rowan194

For an SAS noob - the one with cables provided shows 2 connectors, but they're actually 2 ports per connector, right? So you'd need some sort of adaptor or SAS compatible backplane to be able to plug them into a SATA drive?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/SFF-8484-SAS-...item255a121c89
Something like that would be what you need

cyrax83 · 11th June 2010, 5:08 PM

i know zilch about SAS, but what would be the point of getting that with SAS-->SATA cable, over say getting a $10 PCI sata extender ?

Stanza · 11th June 2010, 5:13 PM

I bought these

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Thrawn · 11th June 2010, 5:22 PM

I bought one as well and mine arrived yesterday. Haven't had a chance to use it yet. Going to go in an Asus m4a77td board. Intended for use in a mdadm setup.

No RAID-5 support on the card and you can only realistically put in only one card per server due to the usual lack of 'long' PCI-e ports.

Snuffy22 · 11th June 2010, 6:22 PM

also useful SFF 8484 to SFF 8087
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/New-Mini-SAS-...item439e32574a

Snuffy22 · 11th June 2010, 6:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stanza

Decided I was worth a shot to try the PERC 5/i trick of covering pins 5 & 6 with tape and tried again.

Fired right up and recognised the 4 attached drives

question about covering the pins, did you need to cover pins 5 & 6 on both sides of the card or just the front?

Sledge · 11th June 2010, 6:47 PM

I don't get it... what are they? and what do they do?
I'm about to upgrade PC and have seen something about SAS on a board, but have no idea about them...

Jazz · 11th June 2010, 6:56 PM

This particular card just lets you add more SATA ports to your system, being PCIe x4 its a good solution.

Stanza · 11th June 2010, 8:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snuffy22

question about covering the pins, did you need to cover pins 5 & 6 on both sides of the card or just the front?

yes just the front side,

ie Heatsink Side counting pins from the left.

Snuffy22 · 11th June 2010, 8:06 PM

cool cool, same as this

http://www.overclock.net/attachments...s-img_8499.jpg

Stanza · 11th June 2010, 8:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jazz

This particular card just lets you add more SATA ports to your system, being PCIe x4 its a good solution.

Not quite right, but close

it lets you Add SAS ports to your existing motherboard...
And if my suspicions are correct....yet to try it for sure
you could connect to a SAS backplane with say an internal expander

something like say this one
http://www.supermicro.com/products/a.../CSE-M28E2.cfm

Daisy chain up too 12 of them to add up to say 96 drives
which is a bit better than the 4 port sil3124 type PCI sata controllers and a little faster

Stanza · 11th June 2010, 8:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snuffy22

cool cool, same as this

http://www.overclock.net/attachments...s-img_8499.jpg

correct, please note these cards are slightly different, in that the 1st 3 pins on the left are joined together...tho you can see about 1/4mm of the pins down bottom above that 1/4 inch it's one big flat pad.

So on this card it's actually pins 3,4 physically....try and take a photo later to show you

11th June 2010, 4:35 PM	#2
Jazz Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Out west Queensland, 4465 Posts: 1,119	Yeah, I've been eyeballing these for a while, but with an Asus P6T, I've been waiting for working confirmation, and your news with the Deluxe isn't helping __________________ 3930K \| Rampage IV Formula \| 16Gb Mushkin 2133mhz \| Gigabyte 7970 Crossfire \| Corsair HX1050 \| Creative X-Fi Titanium\| Switch 810 \|

11th June 2010, 5:08 PM	#5
cyrax83 Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: hurstville, sydney Posts: 4,387	i know zilch about SAS, but what would be the point of getting that with SAS-->SATA cable, over say getting a $10 PCI sata extender ? __________________ Check out my movie site - www.mymovierant.com

11th June 2010, 6:47 PM	#10
Sledge Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Adelaide Posts: 3,121	I don't get it... what are they? and what do they do? I'm about to upgrade PC and have seen something about SAS on a board, but have no idea about them... __________________ http://sledge1.mybrute.com OCAU Clan

11th June 2010, 6:56 PM	#11
Jazz Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Out west Queensland, 4465 Posts: 1,119	This particular card just lets you add more SATA ports to your system, being PCIe x4 its a good solution. __________________ 3930K \| Rampage IV Formula \| 16Gb Mushkin 2133mhz \| Gigabyte 7970 Crossfire \| Corsair HX1050 \| Creative X-Fi Titanium\| Switch 810 \|

11th June 2010, 4:53 PM	#3
rowan194 Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 1,872	For an SAS noob - the one with cables provided shows 2 connectors, but they're actually 2 ports per connector, right? So you'd need some sort of adaptor or SAS compatible backplane to be able to plug them into a SATA drive?

11th June 2010, 5:22 PM	#7
Thrawn Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Posts: 931	I bought one as well and mine arrived yesterday. Haven't had a chance to use it yet. Going to go in an Asus m4a77td board. Intended for use in a mdadm setup. No RAID-5 support on the card and you can only realistically put in only one card per server due to the usual lack of 'long' PCI-e ports.

11th June 2010, 6:22 PM	#8
Snuffy22 Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Brisbane Posts: 624	also useful SFF 8484 to SFF 8087 http://cgi.ebay.com.au/New-Mini-SAS-...item439e32574a

11th June 2010, 8:06 PM	#13
Snuffy22 Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Brisbane Posts: 624	cool cool, same as this http://www.overclock.net/attachments...s-img_8499.jpg