Recommended 16 Port SATA or SAS Controller for FN 9.x

[Sam van Ratt]

Hello folks
I'm currently planing a new box with 16 HD ports. My current plan would be a HPT2740 (=2*Marvell 9485) controller in JBOD mode, but the controller/chipset is about 4 years old and HPTs Support for changes in the market (SATA4, 16TiB drives, SSHD) is very limited as the past has proven a few times.
It have to be one controller as I only have space for one x16 Slot and the logic should be very simple as ZFS keep track of the functions.
What 16 port controller is stable and includes a good chipset for FreeNAS?
Cheers
Sam

 

[Brosif_My_Nif]

You want this. I have one and it works great. Read through the reviews on Newegg while you're there.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118142

Here is a great list of cards you will see these forums refer to.

http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=10

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[amires]

Go for 2 x M1015, it will be cheaper and you will have more bandwidth per sata port.

Update : Sorry, I didnt read that you only have one available slot, my bad :)

 

[Sam van Ratt]

You want this. I have one and it works great. Read through the reviews on Newegg while you're there.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118142

Here is a great list of cards you will see these forums refer to.

http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=10

Hi Brosif_My_Nif
that's the controller I'm going for. It looks smarter and closer to my needs even when more expensive (and hotter).
Best wishes
Sam

 

[cyberjock]

If you are okay with buying used stuff because it's cheap I can vouch that the 3ware 9650SE-24M8 works perfectly with FreeNAS. It gives you 24 ports and you can buy it for about 300USD on ebay.

 

[Sam van Ratt]

Hi cyberjock,
it would be OK (controllers rarely die), but the hardware would be for nothing (HBA only), what would be a waste and when I have more than 16 Ports it has to be SAS for ext. expanders. The second is the future cvapability for big drives. I already had a few controllers with nasty limitations (JBOD helps a bit) of 2TiB=32Bit, SAS1 only, drive timeouts (SATA3 to 2), which lead me to take cutting edge more likely than old school in my "older days". The price and company (3ware rather than LSI) is great as I have the 9690sa-8i in my Windows Server and it costed more than your by adding three times the channels.
Thanks for the offer and have a nice weekend
Sam

 

[Sam van Ratt]

You want this. I have one and it works great. Read through the reviews on Newegg while you're there.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118142

Hi Brosif_My_Nif
do I have to install the controller or is it supported out of the box. I've one installed but it does not show up any device attached to it. As the firmware is very unverbose it could be the slots, as well as missing drivers in FreeNAS. I installed V9.1.1
Cheers
Sam

 

[Brosif_My_Nif]

I did not have to do anything to make it work. I don't think I even upgraded the firmware. Just plugged it in and it recognised all of my 16 drives. I checked the drives in FreeNAS and it was able to read all the smart data, etc.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[Sam van Ratt]

Hi
thanks for the fast reply; That behaviour is exactly what I looked for. So it must be something with the cabling
Cheers
Sam