What Freenas compatible SATA card? Dell Poweredge T110 II

[RichTJ99]

Hi,

The Dell server was purchased with Xeon for $230 & I want to use it as a freenas backup box. I have 12GB of ram in it now (came with 4 & I purchased 8GB of ECC for another box which I popped in the T110).

I have 8x 2TB drives & am planning a Raidz1 or Raidz2 but I do not have enough sata ports.

I am looking for a suggestion of a 'plug & play' Sata card which would work well in the dell. Either an 8 port card or a 4 port card & use 4 ports on the T110.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I am looking for a suggestion of a 'plug & play' Sata card which would work well in the dell.

I had no issues with a Rocket 640L in my T110. Note that it doesn't POST with no drives attached, which can lead to confusion.

 

[djdwosk97]

I've been using a Syba SI-PEX 40064 for the past 6 months and haven't had any issues with it (it supports at least 4TB hdd's and has four sata ports).

 

[Dice]

Is there any particular reason that keeps you away from the commonly used IBM 1015/crossflash or 9211-8i?
edit: Are there shenanigans going on with attaching the drives going on?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Is there any particular reason that keeps you away from the commonly used IBM 1015/crossflash or 9211-8i?

In my case, I got the Rocket 640L brand new for about $30 on eBay.

 

[Mirfster]

Is there any particular reason that keeps you away from the commonly used IBM 1015/crossflash or 9211-8i?
edit: Are there shenanigans going on with attaching the drives going on?

More than likely due to:

1. Over-kill for their specific use case
2. They are just wanting SATA ports and not looking to have to get a SFF-8087 (mini-SAS) to SATA fanout cable

But I could always be wrong :)

 

[RichTJ99]

Any objects to a 9211-8i on Ebay? Which cable would be needed for SATA drives?

 

[Ericloewe]

Any objects to a 9211-8i on Ebay? Which cable would be needed for SATA drives?

Not at all, if you find one from a reputable seller.

You'd just need an SFF-8087 forward breakout cable (not a reverse breakout cable).

 

[Mirfster]

If you don't have a sas backplane and are just connecting it to the drives, then a SFF-8087 breakout should be fine. I mentioned a "fanout" earlier and to me they are the same. Some may argue that one have data and power while one has data only.

What Dell Server is it you have (just to be sure if it has a backplane or not)?

 

[RichTJ99]

Hi - it is a T110 II with Xeon