Using Addonics AD4SA6GPX2 ( 6G 4-port SATA PCIe 2X controller) with unRAID


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Just reporting my findings.

 

Addonics AD4SA6GPX2 ( 6G 4-port SATA PCIe 2X controller, Marvell 88SE9230 chipset), $55+$8 shipping at Addonics online store.

 

It supports 4 drives directly as individual drives, or in RAID (RAID 1, 0, 10, SAFE (?) or JBOD - a single large drive), or up to 7 individual drives with use of a 4-drives port multiplier (I did not test this 7-drives functionality).

 

Test platform: Supermicro H8DME-2 mobo, unRAID Pro 6.0-beta2.

 

Pros:

1. Inexpensive hardware RAID.

2. For individual drives, the card is pretty much plug-n-play - insert, connect drives, boot up - it works. I did parity rebuild and parity checks - no problems. I did not do preclear.

3. Hardware RAID - no drivers needed as long as your OS has built-in AHCI inbox driver support (unRAID 6.xxx, apparently, has it)

4. Fast - drives speed tests with jbartlett's diskspeed.sh show no difference from Supermicro SAT2-MV8 cards, which are PCI-X.

 

Cons:

1. In RAID configuration, seems to be not reporting drives temperature (expected).

2. In RAID configuration, seems to be not going to spindown (unexpected). Updated: it does go to spindown.

3. Takes 8-10 seconds to boot, adding to already slow reboot time.

4. To configure RAID, your have to catch the (short) moment of the card black boot screen to hit Ctrl+M. Luckily, configuration itself is very easy, and RAID initialization is instantaneous.

 

Conclusion:

I needed hardware (i.e., no hassle) RAID-0 for faster unRAID cache drive, for that purpose this card fits the bill perfectly.

 

It also works as RAID-0 for parity drive - parity rebuild and parity check worked no problems, so if you need big and fast parity and have drive slots available, go for it.

 

Using it for driving individual drives might be not economical - AFAIK, there are cheaper non-RAID alternatives (read: SYBA).

 

Attached are PDFs showing speed test results.

DiskSpeedTest_Front_2014-12-06-1955.pdf

DiskSpeedTest_Front_2014-12-06-2035.pdf

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