Ordered LSI 9300-8i but received generic equivalent. Reliable, or return it?

Stilez

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The 3008 HBAs are quite expensive here, so I ordfered one from China/Hong Kong. Knowing the way things are, with grey market and other backstreet/fake products, I was careful - I skipped over anyone selling generic SAS-3 cards and ordered one that was specifically said to be a branded LSI card. It just arrived and - it's a generic SAS3008 card.

Now, I'm in a bit of a quandary what to do. The price difference in the UK vs overseas is £100 or more, so I would want to buy from overseas anyhow (even after import, it's a lot cheaper). I've bought good equipment successfully from overseas before, so this isn't a case of "get what you pay for", it'#s this specific case I'm not sure what's best.

The card may well be good for all I know - generic 3008 SAS cards are common, and it's quite possible the generic ones also tend to be fine. If I keep it and it's good, I'm happy. If I send it back, I have to source another, and it'll also take a few weeks to arrive which is annoying having already waited. But it hasn't been through any company's QA other than perhaps the manufacturers, so I haven't got any assurance on quality. Then again other generic cards have worked well, so there's perhaps no reason to worry?

Basically, I don't know what to do. Return is safe, but may be overkill.

Does anyone else have experience of generic LSI HBA equivalents, specifically their actual quality in use (compared to branded), and share their experience and thoughts on it?
 
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generic SAS3008 card

LSI SAS 3008 cards are fine for FreeNAS. Just make sure to flash it with the right IT firmware.

When you say it is generic, what do you mean? It's a real LSI 3008 chipset but branded differently (HP/Dell/Whatever) or that you think the chipset is reverse-engineered and recreated by a third-party?

Cheers,
Matt
 

Stilez

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[QUOTE="MatthewSteinhoff, post: 506248, member: 56730]When you say it is generic, what do you mean?[/QUOTE]
it's a 3008 card, but not branded. So LSI cards actually say "LSI" on the PCB itself. This one doesn't. It's quite possibly made in the same factory, or by a factory using the reference design, or something, but it's not actually been sold by LSI (Avago/Broadcom) themselves. It's generic in the same sense as a generic medicine. But yes it does seem to be HBA/IT mode not IR - the boot config only lists SAS topology, no cache, no slot for battery, no raid options etc.
 
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I wouldn't hesitate to use that card. Test it to be sure but it sounds fine.

Cheers,
Matt
 

HoneyBadger

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Very likely what's referred to as a "third shift" card - it's being made by the same factory, just under the table where the profits will not go to the actual owner of the IP.

If this is for a home solution, flash some official LSI firmware on it and test it thoroughly under load before you commit any data of value.

If it's for a business, send it back and pay the additional cost for a genuine model.
 
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