Need help with SAS expander

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bloeff

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Dec 1, 2010
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Hi guys,

My proposed configuration is a P9X79 WS motherboard, LSI 9260-8i raid controller, and Intel RES2CV240 expander card (recommended by LSI). The LSI seems to be the highest end compatible raid card. I've got the motherboard, but haven't purchased the controller or expander. Does anyone have experience with SAS expanders? This particular one is not PCI - it just has mounting holes. I really don't want to spend thousands of dollars for an enclosure. I've got plenty of old PC cases, power supplies, drives, multiple bay drive enclosures, and SAS cables. I'm assuming all the card needs is a power supply. Can I just drill holes in a chassis, screw the thing down, and run a cable from the expander to the controller, and cables from the expander to the drives?? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks,
Bruce
 
Solution
Hjgrove
How many drives are you proposing to use in this configuration?
If its less 8 then your motherboard supports raid 0,1,5 and 10 for up 6 hard drives and 0,1 for 8 hard drives.
But of course this may not be the best option for you.
For the mounting of the RAID expander card, if you still have some mounting holes spare from placing your motherboard then you may be able to screw it in there (Should be same screws needed to fit for the Intel card), but the CEB form factor boards are pretty big in size so you may have no room left.
You should then just be able to drill some holes into the chassis of the case and then screw it into place, or if you are having this configuration across multiple cases then you could place it in another chassis...
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bloeff

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Dec 1, 2010
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The Intel RES2CV240. Of course, all the Intel documentation directs you to spend thousands of dollars on their products. I was just wondering if I coud do the build myself with the materials I mentioned.

Thanks,
Bruce
 
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Hjgrove

Hjgrove

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Dec 8, 2013
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How many drives are you proposing to use in this configuration?
If its less 8 then your motherboard supports raid 0,1,5 and 10 for up 6 hard drives and 0,1 for 8 hard drives.
But of course this may not be the best option for you.
For the mounting of the RAID expander card, if you still have some mounting holes spare from placing your motherboard then you may be able to screw it in there (Should be same screws needed to fit for the Intel card), but the CEB form factor boards are pretty big in size so you may have no room left.
You should then just be able to drill some holes into the chassis of the case and then screw it into place, or if you are having this configuration across multiple cases then you could place it in another chassis (explained later) and screw it into the empty motherboard screw slots.
The power for the RAID expander card is a simple 4 pin Molex connector and the RAID controller doesn't need any external power and receives enough from the PCI-E lane.
Then you need to place your drives in the chassis, depending on how many you are planning to use, you may want to use two or more cases to house your drives, each case having its own independent PSU and then a 1-3 meter SATA cable connecting each of the drives to the RAID expander and then another cable from the expander to the controller.
Hope this helps!
 
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Solution
choucove

choucove

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The big question that I have is how many hard drives are you needing to run in a SINGLE array? You said that you just want to use one of your existing available cases, but haven't stated the type of hard drive configuration or intended usage that you are wanting to have for this system. A single dual-port SAS card can support up to eight SATA/SAS hard drives alone, and unless you need a single array with greater than that number of hard drives, it may be more cost effective to go with multiple RAID controllers (not to mention greater overall performance) than going with a SAS expander.
 
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