What SATA/SAS controller to use?

[X-ZemPt]

Hi all, new to FreeNAS. Thought I would give it a go.
One thing that is troubling me at the moment is setting up a ZFS volume and which controller to use.
Basically I need one that is PCI-E, as 4-8 SATA ports, and is low profile. I have been offered a RocketRAID 2680 from someone, after doing some Googleing on the matter it appears to not have support with FreeNAS/FreeBSD.
I am wanting to try out a ZFS setup and not a tradition RAID5 (I have 4x 2Tb drives).

It is primarily going to be used as a media server running Plex, and is only going to be streaming to 1 or 2 devices at a time.

Any suggestions on decent cards are welcome as well.

X

 

[paleoN]

Did you bother to read the thread directly below yours? [thread=7605]SATA Controllers: Best bang for the buck ?[/thread] It's the controller I've decided to get when I buy one.

 

[X-ZemPt]

I did read that thread, the only suggestion was the ServeRAID M1015. Which does look like a good card. Someone mentioned getting them off eBay for around $50, which I couldn't find any around that price on the Australian eBay. And new they are all $300+ and was ideally looking at spending $200 or less.
Surely not EVERYONE is using a M1015. Other people are bound to be able to recommend other cards.

 

[Stephen J]

http://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118114

I am running the 8 port version. Solid. No issues. FreeNAS saw it with no problem and it has worked flawlessly.
Ran 4 Corsair ForceGT SSDs in a ZRaid 10 (stripe of mirrors) setup, 2 on that card and 2 on a 2011 MB integrated controller and it handled over a GB/sec.

Stephen

 

[hopvision]

Is the 9211-4i not the single SAS x4 version of the 9211-8i (and the m1015 just a rebadged version)?

If you don't need SATA3 or >2TB, the IBM BR10i cards are really cheap, plentiful on eBay and seem just as highly recommended.

 

[survive]

Hi X-ZemPt,

I use a BR10i and it works great. It looks like there are a few on ebay.com.au for ~$100. Only thing is it won't support bigger than a 2.2TB drive. LSI cards are pretty much the way to go with FreeNAS.

-Will

 

[Stephen J]

Is the 9211-4i not the single SAS x4 version of the 9211-8i (and the m1015 just a rebadged version)?.

Yes, it is the single SAS port version of the 8i card. It comes with a breakout cable to connect it to 4 SATA drives. My guess is the m1015 is a rebadged version of the 9211-4i but I don't know. Works great and is cheap.

Stephen