BUILD Budget Controller / HBA / port expander?

[TheBlueDalek]

Hi All

One of the SATA ports on my motherboard has given up and am now in need to adding a controller of some kind to my system. I am currently running the following:

FreeNAS 8.3.0 x64
Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4
AMD A4-3400 X2 2.7GHz
16GB DDR3 1333MHz (4 x 4GB)
HP NC360T Dual Giga NIC
1 x 40GB HD
4 x 3TB HD (RaidZ)
Lian Li PC-P80B

I installed the FreeNAS OS on the 40GB drive as I did not have any spare USB / flash drives around at the time... and I already had it, so no additional cost.

My Array is currently offline so as to prevent any potential data loss while one of the drives is out of comission. It's only media (backups are handled by a different server), so I can live without it until I get this fixed (although, my wife would argue this!).

I'm also going to take this opportunity to add some more drives to increase storage.

I've been looking for an M1015, but prices seem to have escalated to the neighborhood of $115 + shipping.

I've read some of the various posts, as well as the hardware compatibility listing... and I'll admit... I'm still kinda confused. Unless I am mistaken, a straight up HBA card should be all I need? What about a port expander? I've tried searching to see if my Motherboard supports a port expander, but have not been able to confirm. Eventually, I would like to be able to fill my case with a full 11 drives (12 -1 for OS), so since I am making changes, I figured I would explore the best, most cost effective option now.

Would a straight up HBA card not be cheaper than a RAID controller such as the m1015? If so, what one would be best? What about a SATA port expander? Does my MB support one?

Buy one m1015 and use the remaining SATA ports on the MB?

Bite the bullet and buy a pair of m1015's?

Buy an m1015 and a port expander?

Buy a port expander (if MB supports)?

Any help and / or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Z300M]

Hi All

One of the SATA ports on my motherboard has given up and am now in need to adding a controller of some kind to my system. I am currently running the following:

FreeNAS 8.3.0 x64
Gigabyte GA-A75-UD4
AMD A4-3400 X2 2.7GHz
16GB DDR3 1333MHz (4 x 4GB)
HP NC360T Dual Giga NIC
1 x 40GB HD
4 x 3TB HD (RaidZ)
Lian Li PC-P80B

I installed the FreeNAS OS on the 40GB drive as I did not have any spare USB / flash drives around at the time... and I already had it, so no additional cost.

My Array is currently offline so as to prevent any potential data loss while one of the drives is out of comission. It's only media (backups are handled by a different server), so I can live without it until I get this fixed (although, my wife would argue this!).

I'm also going to take this opportunity to add some more drives to increase storage.

I've been looking for an M1015, but prices seem to have escalated to the neighborhood of $115 + shipping.

I've read some of the various posts, as well as the hardware compatibility listing... and I'll admit... I'm still kinda confused. Unless I am mistaken, a straight up HBA card should be all I need? What about a port expander? I've tried searching to see if my Motherboard supports a port expander, but have not been able to confirm. Eventually, I would like to be able to fill my case with a full 11 drives (12 -1 for OS), so since I am making changes, I figured I would explore the best, most cost effective option now.

Would a straight up HBA card not be cheaper than a RAID controller such as the m1015? If so, what one would be best? What about a SATA port expander? Does my MB support one?

Buy one m1015 and use the remaining SATA ports on the MB?

Bite the bullet and buy a pair of m1015's?

Buy an m1015 and a port expander?

Buy a port expander (if MB supports)?

Any help and / or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

I've seen 1015 cards on eBay recently for US$90 or so with free shipping but without the bracket; brackets go for $10 or so with free shipping. The M1015 is definitely supported by FreeNAS, whereas some other brand of HBA might not be. And updates for the M1015 firmware are still appearing from time to time.

There doesn't seem to be much point in using an SATA port for a hard drive to house the OS. A USB stick works fine, and the SanDisk Cruzer Fit protrudes only a few mm so is reasonably immune to mechanical damage.