Several doubts about a PCIe SATA Controller Card

[Gab]

Hello everybody.

I need to know if I could to attach 6 x 4 Tb 3.5'' drives to this PCIe SATA controller card without loss of performance:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32929475100.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.274263c0YpOaR0

If I am not wrong or missing something, the PCIe version of this card is PCIe 2.0 and PCIe x 4, so that I would hace a total bandwith of 2 Gb/s, and therefore 333.33 Mb/s for each HDD.

I plan to install it in a PCIe 4.0 x4 in the motherboard (Asus ROG X570 Hero), so that the bandwith of the motherboard is not a problem.

The thing is ... Am I missing something or I could to do that??

Thanks in advance.

 

[newtekie1]

It looks like, from what I can gather from the listing, that is uses 3 AsMedia PCI-E to SATA controllers.

It uses 1xASM1062 and 2xASM1093.

The ASM1062 is a PCI-E x2 2.0 to 2xSATA controllers.
The ASM1093, from what I can tell, is a PCI-E x1 2.0 to 2xSATA.
So the card is basically set up as 3 cards in 1, with the SATA ports basically paired off. One pair of SATA ports share 2 PCI-E 2.0 lanes, the other two pairs share have 2 SATA ports sharing 1 PCI-E 2.0 lane each pair.

The drives connected to the ASM1062 controller won't have a problem. They both would be sharing 1000MB/s of bandwidth. You'll never saturate that with two SATA hard drives. Even accessing both drives at once, thats 500MB/s.
The drives connected to the ASM1093 on the other hand will be 2 drives sharing only 500MB/s. Accessing both drives at the same time would mean only 250MB/s per drive. Which in practical use likely won't be a problem either since those drives probably won't be able to do much faster than 250MB/s anyway.

 

[Gab]

Thanks a lot newtekie1 for your time, help and opinion.

=)

 

[TheLostSwede]

It looks like, from what I can gather from the listing, that is uses 3 AsMedia PCI-E to SATA controllers.

It uses 1xASM1062 and 2xASM1093.

The ASM1062 is a PCI-E x2 2.0 to 2xSATA controllers.
The ASM1093, from what I can tell, is a PCI-E x1 2.0 to 2xSATA.
So the card is basically set up as 3 cards in 1, with the SATA ports basically paired off. One pair of SATA ports share 2 PCI-E 2.0 lanes, the other two pairs share have 2 SATA ports sharing 1 PCI-E 2.0 lane each pair.

The drives connected to the ASM1062 controller won't have a problem. They both would be sharing 1000MB/s of bandwidth. You'll never saturate that with two SATA hard drives. Even accessing both drives at once, thats 500MB/s.
The drives connected to the ASM1093 on the other hand will be 2 drives sharing only 500MB/s. Accessing both drives at the same time would mean only 250MB/s per drive. Which in practical use likely won't be a problem either since those drives probably won't be able to do much faster than 250MB/s anyway.

Reading the reviews, it seems to be using Jmicron controllers, which are, well, not that great.

Also, looking at the claimed chip configuration, you've drawn some wrong conclusions. The ASM1062 is a two port chip, with the ASM1093 chips being port multipliers, each takes one SATA port from the ASM1062 and turns it into three SATA ports. In other words, you're sharing the bandwidth of one SATA port for three drives. In other words, the interface to the PC is only PCIe 2.0 x2 and that bandwidth is shared between all six drives.
The OS would only see the ASM1062, as port multipliers are invisible to the host OS.

Regardless, I don't think this is a good card to get and @Gab might want to consider something from a more reliable company.
This might be a better solution

Tarjeta de Matriz SATA/SAS PCI-E X8 6Gb / s Tarjeta Raid controladora de Puertos SAS/SATA Interna de 6 Gbps para LSI 9260-8i / IBM M5015 46M0851 : Amazon.es: Informática

Compra online Tarjeta de Matriz SATA/SAS PCI-E X8 6Gb / s Tarjeta Raid controladora de Puertos SAS/SATA Interna de 6 Gbps para LSI 9260-8i / IBM M5015 46M0851. Envío en 1 día GRATIS con Amazon Prime.

www.amazon.es

It's not that much more money and although it's a x8 card, it should still work in the x4 slot, just at reduced bandwidth.

 

[theonek]

there are cheaper real raid/jbod pci-e cards like lsi, dell etc. So if you want a real performance card, consider it, me myself have an lsi 8port sas which no compromise to performance as it is a x8 pcie ad provides best performance even for ssd's...

 

[Regeneration]

You'll need a proper controller to plug several HDDs and still maintain performance. Look on Amazon or NewEgg for such product.

 

[ERazer]

I use this for my server w/o issues and it does work for window 10

Dell H310 6Gbps SAS HBA w/ LSI 9211-8i P20 IT Mode for ZFS FreeNAS unRAID | eBay

I have fully tested them using all 8 SAS lanes. I've used ZFS for many years. I'm familiar with ZFS on Linux, FreeNAS, and many of the technologies commonly used by other enthusiasts. They have been cross-flashed to Avago / LSI 9211-8i IT (Initiator Target) firmware version P20 (specifically...

www.ebay.com

 

[Jetster]

I picked up a used LSI SAS 9211 8i for like $30

 

[ERazer]

I picked up a used LSI SAS 9211 8i for like $30

yes, you can get for cheap. just giving OP some ideas.

for me i pay xtra cuz im too lazy to properly flash the firmware.

 

[Deleted member 67555]

Highpoint, Vantec and even IOcrest make decent cheap cards.

 

[Gab]

First of all, many thanks to everybody's replies. And apoligies for my english.

This might be a better solution

Tarjeta de Matriz SATA/SAS PCI-E X8 6Gb / s Tarjeta Raid controladora de Puertos SAS/SATA Interna de 6 Gbps para LSI 9260-8i / IBM M5015 46M0851 : Amazon.es: Informática

Compra online Tarjeta de Matriz SATA/SAS PCI-E X8 6Gb / s Tarjeta Raid controladora de Puertos SAS/SATA Interna de 6 Gbps para LSI 9260-8i / IBM M5015 46M0851. Envío en 1 día GRATIS con Amazon Prime.

www.amazon.es

It's not that much more money and although it's a x8 card, it should still work in the x4 slot, just at reduced bandwidth.

SAS is a new world for me (I came from an ASRock Z77 Extreme 11 with a LSI SAS Controller, but this is all). I see dozens of different cards and it's overwhelming.

1) I don't want to create a RAID, only add drives like normal SATA ports. I understand that with that card, Could I do that?
2) I understand that I could connect up to 4 SATA drives by SAS port, with that card ... 8 SATA drives. Theorically it would give me up to 375 MB/s as the vendor says (and enough for HDD drives).
3) the PCIe slot is not a problem, the SAS card would go into a PCIe 4.0 x16 (x8 effective) or into a PCIe 4.0 x16 (x4 effective). Both would give me the necessary bandwith (16 Gb/s or 8 Gb/s).
4) I suppose the card would be fully compatible with Windows 10. But I suppose I need the SAS wires. I have been looking for and I don't know if I need a specific type of wire.

Thanks again to everybody.

 

[Athlonite]

Any RAID capable card will let you run the drives in single mode you don't need to setup a raid array

 

[eidairaman1]

I remember adaptec being the defacto

 

[TheLostSwede]

First of all, many thanks to everybody's replies. And apoligies for my english.



SAS is a new world for me (I came from an ASRock Z77 Extreme 11 with a LSI SAS Controller, but this is all). I see dozens of different cards and it's overwhelming.

1) I don't want to create a RAID, only add drives like normal SATA ports. I understand that with that card, Could I do that?
2) I understand that I could connect up to 4 SATA drives by SAS port, with that card ... 8 SATA drives. Theorically it would give me up to 375 MB/s as the vendor says (and enough for HDD drives).
3) the PCIe slot is not a problem, the SAS card would go into a PCIe 4.0 x16 (x8 effective) or into a PCIe 4.0 x16 (x4 effective). Both would give me the necessary bandwith (16 Gb/s or 8 Gb/s).
4) I suppose the card would be fully compatible with Windows 10. But I suppose I need the SAS wires. I have been looking for and I don't know if I need a specific type of wire.

Thanks again to everybody.

1. Not a problem, it can act like a normal SATA controller, RAID is optional, but you would benefit from it, as the card has local DRAM cache.
2. Yes, for SATA drives per SFF-8087 port.
3. I think you'll be fine putting it in the x4 slot, even if you're using six drives with it, but it's at least easy to test and see if there's a performance difference.
4. You need two of these cables, one SFF-8087 to four SATA. Or something like it.

CABLEDECONN 0.75M Internal SFF8087 Mini SAS 36pin Male W/Latch to SATA 7Pin Female (X4) Forward Breakout Cable (8087 to 4sata 0.75m) : Amazon.es: Informática

CABLEDECONN 0.75M Internal SFF8087 Mini SAS 36pin Male W/Latch to SATA 7Pin Female (X4) Forward Breakout Cable (8087 to 4sata 0.75m) : Amazon.es: Informática

www.amazon.es

 

[Gab]

Thanks a lot TheLostSwede, I'll buy the card with the cables. Altough I bought the other card 3 months ago, I want a better performance.

Have a nice day and better holidays.

 

[Gab]

Hello guys. I'm writing because I'm suffering problems with the SAS card.

a) The card increases the system boot up severely (about 80 seconds more) and no post signs appears in the screen.
b) The card don't recognises any HDD or SSD connected to any port, no matter the cable or port used. All HDD/SSD used were formatted and initializated in another PC.
Windows 10 installed a generic Avago MegaSAS driver (the card didn't recognise any disk at that moment). Then I installed the (I think) the proper driver from Broadcom site:

Support Documents and Downloads

Search technical documentation and downloads including firmware and drivers.

www.broadcom.com

And the device admin. identified the card as 'IBM ServeRAID M5015 SAS/SATA Controller'.

I tried with the two MiniSAS cables I bought and 3 HDD and 1 SSD, no matter the combination, and no matter the PCIe slot, the card don't recognizes anything.

At this point, I'm lost.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Try this.

How to Flash IBM ServeRAID M5014 to LSI 9260-8i Firmware

A guide to cross flashing the IBM ServeRAID M5014 to alternative firmware. The example used was LSI MegaRAID 9260-8i firmware.

www.servethehome.com

Cross-flashing M5015: The latest working LSI-firmware?

First, greetings to all forum-members from passer-by! I just obtained IBM M5015 controller and was scared by terribly long boot-time, so I started looking for some info and found this forum by chance. I have a few questions, but please be patient with me, because I'm complete noob concerning...

forums.servethehome.com

SAS2108 (LSI 9260) based firmware files

LSI 9260 based controller Firmware page. Here all the latest LSI SAS2108 based FW can be found. It includes FW from LSI, IBM, Dell, Oracle, SuperMicro, Fujitsu and Intel. sas2108 How to flash the SAS2108 based cards: Make a bootable DOS USB disk (Google it) Place the above files on the USB Boot t...

forums.laptopvideo2go.com

 

[Gab]

Thanks for your help. It looks like a little nightmare to me and time consuming, therefore I'll try it when I have time. I'll be back with news then.

Thanks again and have a nice day.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Shouldn't be that hard. Flashing firmware these days is pretty easy.