Any reason to avoid SuperMicro -TQ models?

[adamgoldberg]

I'm in the market for one of the SuperMicro 2U 12-drive systems. Generally, I've been looking for ones with the SAS2-BPN backplane (to support large drives), but occasionally I see one come up which is a -TQ model with, for example, 8 drive bays connected via a LSI MegaRAID 9260-4i, and 4 drive bays connected on the motherboard.

Is there any reason why I'd want to avoid these? Any reason why I'd prefer them?

 

[Mirfster]

LSI MegaRAID 9260-4i

I don't use SuperMicro, so I can't really assist with that. But, you for sure do not want a "Hardware Raid Controller" anywhere with FreeNas. You need an HBA or card that can be cross-flashed to IT/JBOD Mode (IBM M1015, LSI 9211, Perc H200, etc)...

 

[depasseg]

-TQ means that each drive is cabled individually, so you need to have enough ports. It's a bit of a hassle to run all the cables and it can affect airflow. My recommendation is to stick with the E16 variant.

And according to this post, the 9260 can't be cross-flashed to IT, which makes it bad, bad, bad.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...SAS-Controller-and-IR-IT-Firmware-and-or-JBOD

 

[adamgoldberg]

You need an HBA or card that can be cross-flashed to IT/JBOD Mode

Yea, I understand. The LSI MegaRAID 9260-4i above was just an example of something for sale, it'd need a different HBA but the question remains the same: any issue with -TQ instead of an expander backplane for a 12-bay system?

 

[adamgoldberg]

It's a bit of a hassle to run all the cables and it can affect airflow.

Yea, but for a used system someone's already run all the cables :).

Speed, reliability, etc, performance-wise, it doesn't matter? (Save the airflow concern, I suppose)

 

[depasseg]

Speed, reliability, etc, performance-wise, it doesn't matter?

No issue in this regard.