[mythtv-users] Another take on large-capacity disk enclosures

[f-myth-users at media.mit.edu]

    > Date: Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:27:45 -0500
    > From: Nick F <nikos.f at gmail.com>

    > On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 4:23 PM, <f-myth-users at media.mit.edu> wrote:

    > > Steve Adeff's message of last week got me looking around, and I've
    > > come across a solution that might be good for people who need up to
    > > 20 disks cheaply (as we might soon for an ongoing project):
    > >
    > > 1x NORCO RPC-4020 4U Rackmount Server Case ($289)
    > > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219021
    > >
    > > 2x SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 64-bit PCI-X133MHz SATA Controller Card ($99)
    > > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009
    > >
    > > Just to add a datapoint.  I've been using this Supermicro 8-port SATA card
    > for a few months now.  I have it plugged into a standard PCI port.  If you
    > are hitting multiple hard drives, you can notice the speed decrease - but it
    > works fine for me (and by fine I mean my backend can stream a blu-ray from a
    > drive through this card to the network - with no speed issues).

    > If I was to buy today - I'd get this card though:
    > http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SASLP-MV8.cfm and
    > plug it into the unused PCI-e x16 card in my backend (which is unused since
    > it runs headless and the built in intel video is more than good enough).  My
    > intel board has 6xSATAII ports on the board, plus the additional 8, in a CM
    > Stacker case works out as a nice 'consumer grade' solution for me.

Steve just mentioned this card (the AOC-SASLP-MV8) to me in private mail.

It sounds great, EXCEPT for this page I just found:

http://hera.hardocp.com/showthread.php?p=1034048415

This is page 10 of a 14-page thread which I have -not- read all of.
It points to having to recompile a driver under Debian distros to actually
use the card (http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.scsi/49940/focus=49957)
and then talks about 1000x reduction in performance even so.  Maybe these
problems have been ironed out in the last couple of months; reading the
rest of the thread may say.  (But most of the thread are Windows users.)

Page 14 of that thread also points out at that one variant can't cope
with Seagate non-enterprise 1.5T drives, but can cope with others. (*)

Also, the card plus cables are about 50% more expensive than the
AOC-SAT2-MV8 per port.  For the sorts of performance you and I
need, it sounds like the older card is (a) cheaper and (b) much,
-much- less hassle to get working.  People who need high performance
(e.g., PCIe instead of PCI) and don't have server motherboards (hence
can't use PXI-I) may want to look at this card and figure out whether
it works reliably in their distro yet.  Reports appreciated!

(*) (I don't plan to use recent Seagates; they used to be my favorite
until the 7200.11 firmware fiasco and their mishandling of it, plus
the apparently extremely high hardware failure rate of their recent
drives.  Fortunately the last Seagate I've bought was a .9 or .10;
I've switched to WD's for the moment.)