Firstly, I'd like to say that I've read a good part of the recommendations/wikis. I've been planning my NAS build for a year, and have been reading about software choices, ZFS, hardware, etc... on and off whenever I have few minutes off of work.
Anyways, point of my post is to ask for recommendation/discuss about controllers OTHER than the all time-favorite M1015/LSI 9211-8i . Why?
1. Call me cheapskate if you want, these cards are recommended with 50$, 75$ price tags, maybe times changed, maybe demand for these cards went up and therefore I cannot find them at those prices at all, more like 100$ to 150$ a piece. At those price I'm starting to think other cards with more ports is more attractive.
2. Yea they're nice, but they're also old, maybe time for a little refresh on a hardware recommendation? Perhaps something more often stocked rather than having to go through ebay?
3. What if you want to consolidate? Yes they're nice but you'd need 3 of them to fill a Norco 4224 (yes, I'm looking at that case, and complaining about 25-75$x3 difference in controller cost, cheapskate, I know). Maybe something with more ports, takes up less PCIe slots, and the combined cost might actually be cheaper than buying 3 of those.
4. Entirely speculation but maybe if we take some demand off of the popular M1015 card, maybe their prices would drop? It seems to me anybody who wants to do a home NAS is pointed straight to that controller, be it FreeNAS, NAS4Free, unRaid, or DIY ZFS.
Why don't I do my homework instead of asking for recommendation/suggestion?
1. These hardware are out of production. Aside from widely supported hardware (M1015), it's hard to find information on others aside from their manual/white paper, and that's a lot of dry reading that I don't even know where to begin because manufacturers and vendors mostly do not list deprecated products.
2. Even reading their manual/white paper isn't going to help much. Much of what we're doing here is not standard practice, larger than home but smaller than businesses, and that's the void where manuals fail to meet and only experience fills the gap. Experiences I don't have.
3. Even more so on non-standard practice, cross-flashing the M1015 to IT mode is a fine example of that. Perhaps some other RAID controller can be cross-flash as well, something with more ports, cheaper combined cost, perhaps?
So please, recommend one, don't recommend one, what you're using and how is that working out for you, can you pull SMART info through said cards or not, including but not limited to, are all welcome.
Thanks.
Anyways, point of my post is to ask for recommendation/discuss about controllers OTHER than the all time-favorite M1015/LSI 9211-8i . Why?
1. Call me cheapskate if you want, these cards are recommended with 50$, 75$ price tags, maybe times changed, maybe demand for these cards went up and therefore I cannot find them at those prices at all, more like 100$ to 150$ a piece. At those price I'm starting to think other cards with more ports is more attractive.
2. Yea they're nice, but they're also old, maybe time for a little refresh on a hardware recommendation? Perhaps something more often stocked rather than having to go through ebay?
3. What if you want to consolidate? Yes they're nice but you'd need 3 of them to fill a Norco 4224 (yes, I'm looking at that case, and complaining about 25-75$x3 difference in controller cost, cheapskate, I know). Maybe something with more ports, takes up less PCIe slots, and the combined cost might actually be cheaper than buying 3 of those.
4. Entirely speculation but maybe if we take some demand off of the popular M1015 card, maybe their prices would drop? It seems to me anybody who wants to do a home NAS is pointed straight to that controller, be it FreeNAS, NAS4Free, unRaid, or DIY ZFS.
Why don't I do my homework instead of asking for recommendation/suggestion?
1. These hardware are out of production. Aside from widely supported hardware (M1015), it's hard to find information on others aside from their manual/white paper, and that's a lot of dry reading that I don't even know where to begin because manufacturers and vendors mostly do not list deprecated products.
2. Even reading their manual/white paper isn't going to help much. Much of what we're doing here is not standard practice, larger than home but smaller than businesses, and that's the void where manuals fail to meet and only experience fills the gap. Experiences I don't have.
3. Even more so on non-standard practice, cross-flashing the M1015 to IT mode is a fine example of that. Perhaps some other RAID controller can be cross-flash as well, something with more ports, cheaper combined cost, perhaps?
So please, recommend one, don't recommend one, what you're using and how is that working out for you, can you pull SMART info through said cards or not, including but not limited to, are all welcome.
Thanks.