PCEi to Sata, on my Truenas Nas

High-Performance Computing Workstations & Servers
1

Built my first home server using Truenas.

Being a nube to NAS, i used a lot of AI chat to work through process.

System is current working fine without issue.

But one topic of concern came up a few times, regarding adding extra sata connections via a PCIE card.

I was first bought a StarTech 6 port non raid card, 6P6G-PCIE-SATA-CARD (ASM1166). With this card, none of the drives were seen in the nas or the Mobo bios.

I returned it and got 4port pcie x4, x8, x16 Marvell9215 controller. I put in the x1 slot and everything is working fine without issue.

However, AI, keeps telling me this card will fail and it is unavoidable due to glitch in the cards controller.

AI recommends, various version of LSI IT mode cards, older ones that runner cooler but have some inherent issues and newer versions that it says run very hot and need extra cooling.

Using the current marvel card in the x1 slot is great for me, as it keeps the other two full length PCIE lanes open for future expansion.

Is the current marvel card an issue waiting to happen? Or is perfectly fine? If it not fine what option(s) should i consider?

Any other comments, suggestions on my build are all welcome, as this a learning for me.

I had DDR4 already in hand from prior PC builds, which is why i went that route.

Specs below, much appreciated in advance!

ASROCK Mobo B760M Pro-A-D4 wifi, micro atx with four native sata ports.

Vengance LPX DDR4, 2x16gb

NVME boot drive.

NVME app drive

8 x 4tb Seagate Nas HHDs, for on mobo sata, and four on the marvel pcei card sata ports, in a single pool.

I514400 with integrated UD730 graphics.

Fractal Design Node 804, dual chamber case with 5 fans, three (one intake, two outtake) in the HDD side, two (one intake, and one outtake) in the Mobo side.

Corsair RMe series RM750e PSU

2

I’d try to replace the boot nvme with a pcie to sata solution and boot off a crappy sata ssd.

Most homelab OS don’t really need a fancy boot drive…it runs mostly from mem once loaded

Pretty sure wendell has some vids on using m.2 to pcie adapters. As for pcie to sata…don’t have much experience there but presumably someone else can advise

3

Hi,
I have not much to say about specific PCIE→SATA card you are using. Quick google does say there might be some bugs in the firmware, but I don’t have personal experience with it.

What I could suggest to mitigate this failure anxiety is to get two cheap pciex1→2x sata add-in cards instead of your 4-SATA card, if you are not looking into buying more serious hardware. The rationale is - I assumed (and correct me if i’m wrong) that you are likely running some RAID that has at least 2 drives fault tolerance.

Thus if one of the cheap cards fail, you still have working raid and can at least save your files, power it off safely and replace them with something more serious/replace crappy card with the same new one.
While loosing 4 drives is definitely going to be pita (not because you will loose you data, it’s just everything will stop working at once)

And commenting on the havocx’s post - a valid option too. Depends if you can get a sata boot drive for cheap or not. otherwise you end up with less drives than before, if there is nowhere to stick an nvme into.

Regarding future expansion - you would still have x16 slot for GPU, while 2 slots being occupied by crappy sata cards. LAN card you don’t really need (already 2.5 Gig in you motherboard). what else? anything more serious (idk a second gpu in this x4, physical x16 slot) would require investment that will be sufficiently big to change these add-in cards and not notice.

Hope this helps without confusing further. I’m myself a noob in all that.

4

Wasn’t the Realtek RTL9101 the new magic controller for plain old SATA? When it was released the products based on it tended to be M.2-to-SATA adapters but it is still standard PCIe and could go in a PCIe card.

5

i am surprised the Asmedia 116x didn’t work for you.

They have been decent controllers for decent power and price with ASPM support.

6port m.2 should set you back about 15bucks.

Should just work.

LSI wise, 9500 is good and actually supports ASPM as well.

Expensive ish though, but pretty good and cool.

Cheapest i have had it for in EU is 150€, so about 10x the asmedia.

6

Good to know.

The rational was that the mobo has two nvme slot so i might as well use them. Also, i was initially planning on two additional hdd on the mobo side of the case in the two floor mount positions that are available. As hdd was the financial pain point of build i stuck with 8hdd instead of 10. So the hdd floor mount spots on the mobo side the case did end up staying open. I am not 100% sure the ssd will fit there, but i am sure it could be made to work somehow.

I will consider the boot swap if i need the nvme fore something but will check out Wendells vids in the topic.

Much appreciated!

7

This is simple and yet brilliant!

Yes i left out that i am using raid 6. Two redundent drives. So your plan is a good one. Lets see what others have to say before i make a change.

Thanks!

8

Maybe i had a bad Asmedia? Dont know!

They are cheap, so maybe worth revisiting. I dont rule out noob user error when it wasnt working. From a PC build perspective, i also thought it was odd that it didnt work. It gave me anxiety that perhaps i overspent on hdd and was going to end with four useless hdd on hand, lol.

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Beyond my knowledge level.