LSI card recommendation, 2 ports

Hi,

I had an LSI 9200-i8 in IT MODE that just blew on me. I need to replace it but can’t find one available at a decent price anywhere. Any other recommendations? I’m running a X570D4U-2L2T so it can be a PCIE 3.0 even.

Anyways let me know if you guys have anything to recommend and also would appreciate if you could include a link to a FLASHING procedure to turn it into IT MODE unless that is already done.

Thanks

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like one of these?

I like that guy’s shop + YT channel, but am the wrong side of the pond…

Or the faster version with bracket

Yes something like that. Except, they are seller refurbished and that makes me worry a bit. Also, do you have any idea if these run hot and if a 40 mm blowing air on the heatsink will be enough?

Well, you are welcome to buy a brand new one, but I guess it’d be like 4 times the price?

A 40mm fan would be fine as active cooling, [if your case does not channel air over it.]

You are right, it will be be more expensive new and you still have to figure out how to flash it to IT MODE.

It’s a 2U case, that is why I am taking no chances and place a 40 mm… There is some air flow but it is limited.

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I like the 9400 8i or 16i since you get pcie support on them
(not sure what you consider decent price, but getting a card that can do nvme later is nice imo)

Thanks for the recommendation. It is a bit out of the price range I am willing to pay but I am also curious… Does it run very hot? Too hot for a 2U case?

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Id have to look, I dont really ever hit my storage all that hard and my 4u case has good airflow. Im at work right now but if i remember when I get home ill look.

I’m thinking of switching to a 4U case eventually for my application server but will keep keep the 2U for network related stuff like OPNSense so nothing very hot would run in there.

Thanks let me know if you remember :slight_smile:

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Those run extremely hot, you must have a good strong fan on them, a dinky 40mm noctua isn’t going to cut it. You need something like this though I don’t have a specific recommendation.

I have a broadcom 9405w-16i, and I can say that raid/HBA hardware is made by malicious fuckwits. It works, but there’s not even a cli accessible temperature sensor. All it has is an led that lights up while it’s baking itself to death, and I’m not even sure if it’s visible from the back outside the case. These tri-mode cards also likely require proprietary (meaning unnecessarily expensive) cables and adapters to work with nvme.

The only things that run cool are the ancient “refurbished” cards, which usually still need a dinky 40mm fan as mentioned. The “art of server” seller is a solid guy. Comparing HBA IT mode SAS controllers | 2020 Edition - YouTube

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Hey Log,

Thanks for the info… So I guess my only recourse is a LSI 9210-8i and to slap a 40 mm on it…

Would these be fine too with a 40 mm fan on them?

Yeah, that uses the same LSI chip, and will make the same amount of heat as other 9200 generation cards.

Thanks a lot for the help Log!

Yeah Cables are expensive for sure $100 ish a pop

I may get my head ripped off for asking this but… I have to… I know LSI cards are popular for servers with multiple disks… But for home use, would a PCI-E SATA card but good enough? Just want to have your thoughts on this, especially if you tried it before.

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I mean it would be fine you just cant do disk shelves with pcie sata card.

You can also get an External card and just loop it back in with an adapter
image
Some shit like this i have used and works fine
(or just run the cable through the pcie slot to save money

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I would stay away from cheaper sata adaptors, even if they are new. But they are light on PCIe panes

I like StarTech; they do good cheap junk, but not so sure about longevity

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I am considering using the motherboard’s SATA ports temporarily… But the thing is I am not even sure if PROXMOX will recognize the disk since before they were connected through my LSI 9200-8I ?..

I may have to bite the bullet and buy a used Dell H200…

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Use those first for sure if you dont have a jbod or something you are connecting to. What file system are you using?

Onboard is fine especially for home use. You dont have a cheap board either, I am running the same one(but x470 version) using both onboard and an 9400

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Two disks are using ZFS on two 3 TB hard drives (NAS DRIVES, mirrored) and 1 is an SSD for VMs I need to be snappier.

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