ASRock C2750D4I Recommended SATA Ports

[dgibson1]

Hello, this is my first post and let me apologize in advance if I'm covering old territory here. I've search for days, but I've yet to find an answer to my questions. So here goes.....

I've an in process FreeNAS build using the ASRock C2740D4I and I'm looking for recommendations on the SATA ports. I want to use eight of the twelve SATA ports. After reading a review of IXSystems Mini, it appears they are using the two Intel SATA3 and the two Marvell 9172 SATA3 ports in their system. That leads me to believe those are probably rock solid. Fair assumption?

So, I'm left with the four remaining Marvell 9230 SATA3 ports OR the four remaining Intel SATA2 ports. I've read several reports of various issues with the Marvell 9230 ports, but then I've read reports of them being used without issue. While at the same time Intel ports seem to be viewed as the most trouble free. Recommendations on which of those remaining ports would net the best combination of performance and reliability would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[cyberjock]

You are covering old territory, but your confusion is not without merit.

I have a Mini. I'd definitely stick to the Intel's first, then the Marvel ports. If you plan to use SSDs that are SATA3 compatible and will be bottlenecked with SATA2 I'd definitely use the Marvels. In your case though, choosing to use 8 of the 12 pretty much means you WILL be using both, so what you choose to use seems pretty unimportant in the big picture. If the Marvell decides to suddenly cause problems in a future update it's going to be a total disaster to deal with regardless of how you split up the drives between all of the controllers.

 

[beemaster]

I think it is a good idea to use 6 Intel ports for one storage pool and another 2 ports from single marvel controller for another pool.
It's kind of stupid to make pool just of 2 disks but I wouldn't risk to split the pool between Intel and Marvel controllers.

 

[dgibson1]

I based my assessment of the Mini on cyberjock's review and photos, but it appears to me that IXSystems chose to split their four bays between the two Intel SATA3 and the two Marvell 9172 SATA3 ports in their system with no limitations on how they are added to the pool. I would think that if there were issues with that combination they would have chosen differently. I've only really read about folks having issues with the 9230 controller. Cyberjock really touched on the essence of my dilemma....use all SATA3 ports as to avoid limitations if I chose to use SSD's in the future, but at the risk of issues due to Marvell updates OR use a combination of Intel SATA2/3 and Marvell 9172 ports and limit the SSD performance in some bays AND still risk SOME issues with Marvell updates.

I'm struggling with which solution would minimize risk. Right now I really feel like using a combination of Intel SATA2/3 and Marvell 9172 ports, while avoiding the Marvell 9230 controller for now would be my best bet.

 

[ryanallan]

If it's any help, I've tried my 4x4TB WD Red's in both the Intel (SATA 2) and Marvell 9230 (SATA 3) ports (ZFS-2 array).
In both cases I could write to the array at 100MB/s.

I was reading about some issues with the 9230 chipset and thus have permanently switched to the Intel ports (SATA 2).