[EUROPE] Intel SAS RAID Expander Card Serial RES2SV240 - 56£/~66€

[JorgeB]

Good deal, these are usually >100€.

 

This is a SAS expander, you need a HBA to use it, e.g., LSI 9211, Dell H310, etc

 

Edited April 24, 2017 by johnnie.black

[JorgeB]

Doh! Forgot the link:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-SAS-RAID-Expander-Card-Serial-RES2SV240-with-5-Free-SAS-Cables-FREE-SHIP-/122457391761?hash=item1c83078291:g:BCUAAOSwopRYen7Q

[CHBMB]

I've just finished some night shifts so a bit spaced out, I have two H310 cards already, adding one or two of these in, what would the drive count possible be then?  

[JorgeB]

It's possible to connect 24 20 disks to the expander if using a single link to the H310, you can then connect 4 more on the other controller port, so 30 24 total on one H310.

 

For better performance you can use dual link to the controller, then you'd be limited to 16 disks on one H310.

Edited April 24, 2017 by johnnie.black

[CHBMB]

Cheers mate, So if I have two H310s and this I can get 30 disks?

[CHBMB]

Trying to get my head around this, if you use dual link, what's the advantage of using this rather than just adding another H310?  

[JorgeB]

6 minutes ago, CHBMB said:

if you use dual link, what's the advantage of using this rather than just adding another H310?

 

When you don't have more free pcie slots.

 

Oh, and i made a mistake above, this expander using single link can use 20 disks + 4 on the controller so 24 total on one H310.

 

Parity checks will be limited to around 100/110MB/s max when using single link, with dual link limit is around 160/180MB/s depending on the board.

Edited April 24, 2017 by johnnie.black

[CHBMB]

I only get around 110Mb/s as it stands.  But not needing another PCI-E slot is a definite advantage.  Thanks so much, you really are the harddrive-guru!

[Squid]

Is this expander compatible with marvel based controllers.   AOC-SAS2LP?

[JorgeB]

1 hour ago, Squid said:

Is this expander compatible with marvel based controllers.   AOC-SAS2LP?

 

I would expect so, I know it works with the SASLP, but I never tested with the SAS2LP, I already have one but it's in use with an LSI and not easy to test, but I just bought one from this seller and will test on the SAS2LP when it arrives, in a week or so. 

[JorgeB]

On 25/04/2017 at 4:34 AM, Squid said:

Is this expander compatible with marvel based controllers.   AOC-SAS2LP?

 

Arrived today so did a quick test, it works but not as well as with an LSI HBA:

 

-dual link doesn't work, it hangs on the SAS2LP bios, it won't detect any devices.

-single link works but with reduced bandwidth compared to the LSI, I was able to get ~1600MB/s, not bad but clearly below the 2200MB/s I get with the LSI

 

Still it can be a valid option if you have the SAS2LP and no more PCIe slots, with 16 disks on the expander plus 4 on the other SAS2LP port you'd get 20 disks total on one SAS2LP and parity checks speed would be a decent 100MB/s (or ~130MB/s with 12+4 for 16 disks total).