As the title says, I need two SATA connections (possibly also an m.2 or msata, for OS SSD) in my Ubuntu Server build. I put FreeNAS as a tag too, as I am not sure which OS I'll end up with. I'd like it to be compatible with both Linux and BSD, but Linux is probably higher up the list. It is a Server/NAS on the AsRock C70M1 board with PCIe 2.0, 16x (as 4x)
I've looked around ebay, and there are very cheap cards, and very expensive cards. Some have RAID, some don't. I don't need any hardware RAID capability.
Try to avoid this one if you can. It works completely fine in both Windows/Linux but I used it once with dd and the drive connected to it was acting very weird and dd would fail, whereas when I connected to the drive to my motherboard it worked. Seems to work fine if I dded to a drive on the adaptor but not if I dded from a drive on the device.
I just bought a LSI 9211-8i HBA. With proper cables(mine came with them) you can support up to 8 sata drives over one PCIE 8x port. Got mine with cables 95$ shipped to house. Cables run about 15 bucks each so I didn't do to bad. Also you have the qaulity of LSI and it has great support in Freenas. Not sure if you are wanting to use ZFS but if your gonna use ZFS you will want a card like this and run it in IT mode so ZFS has direct access to disks.
Thanks for the suggestion @sanfordvdev. That is an inviting card I must say, especially considering the price you got it for. It is too expensive when I only need two ports though. I could look at it as an investment for future projects, I just don't have that kind of money ATM.
you can get them on ebay for 55 used. Then one set of cables for like 10 on amazon and probably ebay. Keep your eye out and it may be the better investment especially for long haul.
Only problem is I need it shipped to Denmark. I looked at amazon.co.uk, $161 incl. shipping. I could buy it on ebay from the U.S or Hong Kong. However, if I want to be lawful, or if it gets caught in the customs duty, it will run up quickly. $55 + maybe $10 shipping + (Danish) VAT of 25% of the cost including shipping + (Danish) post office inspection fee of ~$25 :( I'll continue looking for a used one shipped from within the EU.
Ok I got another question. If I find a card with a chip-set that people report works in FreeBSD, can I be reasonably sure it will also work in FreeNAS and Linux?
Thanks. Yeah also, two seconds after hitting Reply I thought "You know what, you can probably look that up. Checking cross referencing the chipsets". Asking here is just if anybody coincidentally had experience with something that works and is reasonably priced.