Adding a PCI SATA for more storage

[annwarrest16]

Hi, I wanted to add more storage (prefer SATA) to my FreeNAS setup which is an old Dell Optiplex GX270 and since there is no SATA connector on its motherboard. I needed to get a PCI SATA Controller card to be able to use a SATA HDD. Will I have any problems if I'm going to do this setup?

 

[matthewowen01]

PCI is very slow, can you do pcie or pcix?

 

[annwarrest16]

PCI is very slow, can you do pcie or pcix?

Sadly, No. Do you think this setup is possible if I add a SATA Controller?

 

[sjieke]

It is possible, but keep in mind that there is a possibility that you will have a perfromance hit.
A PCI bus has a maximum throughput of 133MB/s, shared between all devices. So if you also have for example a gigabit network card on the PCI bus, you will have to share those 133MB/s between you're PCI SATA controller and Network card.
Assuming the only thing on the PCI bus will be the SATA controller, then I think adding 2 SATA disks will keep performance descent. You would have about 65MB/s for each disk. Most modern harddisks are able to gain about 80-100MB/s. I think adding more disks on the PCI bus would result in a performance drop.

 

[dingel]

i have this config with 2 pci to data cards and 8 hdd's on the cards and get about 40mb/s what its fine for me.

 

[annwarrest16]

It is possible, but keep in mind that there is a possibility that you will have a perfromance hit.
A PCI bus has a maximum throughput of 133MB/s, shared between all devices. So if you also have for example a gigabit network card on the PCI bus, you will have to share those 133MB/s between you're PCI SATA controller and Network card.
Assuming the only thing on the PCI bus will be the SATA controller, then I think adding 2 SATA disks will keep performance descent. You would have about 65MB/s for each disk. Most modern harddisks are able to gain about 80-100MB/s. I think adding more disks on the PCI bus would result in a performance drop.

Can't really do much unless I just go with IDE. This is just for home use though, mainly video streaming.

i have this config with 2 pci to data cards and 8 hdd's on the cards and get about 40mb/s what its fine for me.

Do you need to do extra configurations? or just put it in and it will just recognize?

 

[matthewowen01]

you can use pci cards, i just wanted to make sure you awar that performance is pretty bad with them and didn't want you to complain about FreeNAS's performance when it's actualy your hardware. if you have any trouble getting it working let us know.

i have this config with 2 pci to data cards and 8 hdd's on the cards and get about 40mb/s what its fine for me.

mb/s or MB/s ?

 

[tmacka88]

whats a good PCI-e SATA adapter then? any suggestions. I'm looking for something with at least 4XSATA II or III if there is something reasonable priced. Also does the PCI-e SATA adapter have to be RAID compliant if I'm going to set up RAID 5 on my freenas or does the freenas sort it all out without the adapter doing anything?

thanks

 

[survive]

Hi tmacka88,

What slots do you have open on your motherboard?

-Will

 

[tmacka88]

I have a pci-e and a pci

 

[survive]

Hi tmacka88,

1x, 4x, 8X or 16x?

-Will

 

[tmacka88]

sorry have 16X pci-e and a pci not sure what version it is.

this is my motherboard
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=G41C-VS

Im even think of just upgrading to a better motherboard that has 6 SATA ports, may be easier?

thanks

 

[matthewowen01]

i have 3 SYBA SY-PEX40008 PCI Express SATA II. works great

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124027

 

[Brand]

I would be very leary of the OptiPlex GX270 series since they were known to have swelling and leaking capacitors. We were replacing the motherboards a few at a time, as they stopped working, then eventually Dell just sent us 300 motherboards at once to take care of the whole mess. We noticed it most with the OptiPlex GX270 but the OptiPlex GX280 and GX620 were also casualties of the faulty capacitors. I believe that there is still a class action lawsuit going on over this. I wouldn't trust any of my data to a GX270, GX280, or GX620. I hope if you do decide to use it that you do not have the same issues we had but consider yourself warned.