Question 1

Can this card support hard drives of 3TB? I would like to attach four 3TB drives to it and create a 9TB RAID5.

Accepted Answer

Steve,

I have only used this with 2TB drives, and that through a port extender, driving 5 drives from each port. I used software RAID-6 with Linux md support. I was planning to use 3TB on a future project, but haven't yet. I can't see why it wouldn't work, but have no direct experience.

You might be able to check with the BackBlaze people. I suspect they have tried this combination, and they are very communicative.

Best wishes, Jim.

Question 2

I have 3 3TB (tot 9TB0 wanted to do RAID 5, and not getting more then 1.4TB. Is it some thing I am missing ? Does this card support 3TB X3 drive s?
Based on standard calculation, I should be getting atleast 5 TB !!!
Roger

Accepted Answer

Hi Roger,

I was contacted about your question. I did not have any personal issues using the card, but i found a similar thread to your problem on tomshardware (it wont let me post a link). I don't believe it supports 3TB drives.

I use Adaptec cards for External RAID 5 adapters. Have never had an issue with them. They will run pretty hot, so consider adding extra cooling. Something like the Adaptec 6405 Kit would work for you. Uses a SAS to Sata 4 port cable.

Question 3

I am looking for a method to internally connect multiple SATA hard drives to my motherboard to improve my current configuration of  connecting extra hard drives via USB.  I am not looking to set up a RAID configuration.  Will this card accomplish what I am looking to accomplish?

Accepted Answer

I love the card for what I use it for (adding SATA ports). By my understanding, this card is not a true PCIe to SATA card; it uses a PCI to PCIe bridge chip. If a customer just wanted to add SATA ports, this works great. If they are looking for a true RAID solution, this card may present a bottleneck. As I understand it, here are the limitations of the design. It uses a SiI3124 that supports four SATA 2.0 ports and has a PCI-X interface. Then it uses a bridge to connect the PCI-X interface to a single lane PCIe 1.0 interface. The maximum speeds of the various interfaces are as follows:

SATA 2.0 (x4) = 1200 MB/s
PCI-X 64-bit @ 133MHz = 1064 MB/s
PCIe 1.0 (x1) = 250 MB/s
 
As you can see, the PCIe interface severely limits the bandwidth capabilities of this solution. It would be better if this card used an "x4" or "x8" lane bus and/or use the newer version PCIe 2.0. If a customer were only going to connect one mechanical hard drive (roughly 150 MB/s) then there would not be a problem. However, if they are going to have multiple drives connected in a RAID configuration, then this card could bottleneck their speeds. If they are using this card for a NAS box over a Gigabit Ethernet network (118 MB/s), then the bottleneck may not be a problem.

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