BUILD Poweredge 2950 raid controller

[Intruder11]

I have read some of the discussion on the 2950 I an kind of lost. I get I need to remover the daughterboard and put a new controller board in. The last thread I read was about 2years old. What card should I buy. I will be starting with 4 2tb drives and want to put in 6tb or larger later. So what card should I use I have seen 3listed. Which one is the best and easiest to change the firmwear on. Where can I find the firmware and what do I flash it with???? To me it looks like the LSI 9211-8i would be the best.
Thank you in advance for the help

 

[Intruder11]

Sorry for the quick add in or would it be better to go with the M1015
Help please

 

[danb35]

The 9211-8i would be the easiest to reflash. The M1015 is also very well-documented, though perhaps not quite as easy. I understand the H200 is a little trickier, though again it's pretty well-documented.

 

[Intruder11]

From what I have seen thought the LSI 9211-8i would be the easier of the three. Is there a card out there that will let me go above 6gb per drive that will work on ther 2950? I am asking because this is a starter NAS for me. I hope to get a better one in a few years. I am building this because in the last 3 months I have 2 hard drives go out and of course the second drive was the back up for the first and I lost everything. Not complaining just trying to do the smart thing and have a back up that I can swap drives if one goes out. I will probably used raid 5 or 6
Thank you

 

[danb35]

Any of the SAS2008-, 2308-, or 3008-based cards will let you use any disk size you want. If you want SAS3 bandwidth (not that you'll ever use it on spinning rust), look for a 3008-based card (which should be something in the 9300 series).

 

[Intruder11]

Thanks.
Yes I am spinning on rust because I am disabled and on a fixed income. Lol. I will look ad some of the other cards. Just don’t want to buy something that will not run on the 2950 not be able to move it to a new machine. I found a lsi 9211-8i for around 50. Would like better card for the same or cheaper price.

 

[danb35]

Yes I am spinning on rust because I am disabled and on a fixed income.

Hell, most of us have our storage on spinning rust--nothing at all wrong with that. But if that's where your storage is, you really don't need SAS3 bandwidth.

 

[Intruder11]

Ok. Sorry for keep bothering you. Where can I find the firmware and the crossover firmware and the loader to burn it to the lsi 9211

 

[danb35]

You don’t need to do anything special to the 9211; it’s just a matter of flashing the most current firmware (20.00.07, I believe). You can find it at broadcom.com