port multipliers?

[donburkard]

This may sound like a dumb question but if my mb(ecs a740gm-m) only has 6 sata ports how do i add more to take advantage of all 16 drives capable?  Im assuming i just use port multipliers. i have an addonics 5X1 pm now.

http://www.addonics.com/products/host_controller/extpm.asp

This will work right? as long as i get the right card with it.

[Rob_Esc]

Not meaning to hijack, but you're currently running an unRaid server using this MB?  Any problems with the AMD SB700 southbridge or the Atheros LAN?  I read another thread about this MB, but seemed it was never really confirmed that it worked okay.

 

Concerning your external PM device, I would think you could run this from a PCI eSata card with one (or multiple) connections.  Many members here are using some sort of controller card to gain extra drives.  I'm not a hardware guru by any means, but this:

http://www.addonics.com/products/host_controller/ad2sap-e.asp

looks like it would work.  It uses sil3114 controller, which wiki says is compatible. 

 

Since the external device is already PM capable, a really inexpensive way would be to run an adapter cable from one of your internal SATA ports out the back of the box and connect it to the 5X1 box.  (AAESAPSA15C cable for $9)

 

Don't bank on my recommendation, though.  Let's see what one of the experts might say.

[erikatcuse]

You could get a PCIE sata card  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816103058 this one has 4 ports.

 

and then add 2 PCI 4 port sata cards as well.

 

A quick search for pcie 8 port comes up with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118061&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Hard+Drive+Controllers+/+RAID+Cards-_-LSI-_-16118061

 

So their are many options for you...also if you have esata connection you could use that as well.

 

12 Port but a bit expensive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118061&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Hard+Drive+Controllers+/+RAID+Cards-_-LSI-_-16118061

 

 

Using ebay here's an esata 8 bay with card http://cgi.ebay.com/8-BAY-3g-s-e-SATA-PORT-MULTIPLIER-ENCLOSURE-PCI-X-CARD_W0QQitemZ300219621472QQihZ020QQcategoryZ3757QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

 

 

Here's a recent post on PCIE cards

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1736.0

 

and then one about PCI vs PCIE  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1700.0

 

I would also check the wiki to see what others are using for compatible hardware.

 

Erik

 

 

[WeeboTech]

Before you buy ANY card in hope of using a port multiplier, make sure you know what chip set is on the card.(or motherboard)

There's no guarantee they all will work.

 

I've tested out a SIL on tbe ABIT AB9 PRO and the JMICRON on tbe AB9 PRO with a special external box.

I had success.

 

See this thread

 

AMS DS-DS3RPRO (port multiplier) w ABIT AB9 PRO

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1750.0

 

Someone on the board is going to test out a rosewill 2 port PCIe card with the SIL bios.

Stay tuned to see how that works first.

 

[donburkard]

So why is my mb no good. anyone else have any comments. i also have an extra asus

 

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=101&l3=300&l4=0&model=1163&modelmenu=1

 

Would this work any better?

 

[Rob_Esc]

Not saying it won't work, but after reading this thread:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1667.0

 

I was unconvinced.  fotd never confirmed it.  I've been spending a lot of time browsing this (and other) forums looking for a good, low cost MB.

[jimwhite]

How low is low?  Factory re-certified Abit AB9Pro's are on EBay for $49....

 

 

[WeeboTech]

I presented a partial confirmation. I'm not ready to take the plunge into 5 drives on a port multiplier yet..

Unless I can find some extra free-lance work.

[RobJ]

Not sure if this is the best place to post, but selected this thread for the topic title.  I thought I remembered a thread dedicated to all things PM, but couldn't find it.

 

Here's a recent post from the SageTV forum with some interesting discussion of port multiplier support: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?p=289225#post289225.

 

Other unRAID forum threads concerning port multipliers:

  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1475.0

  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1746.0

  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1871.0

[Jon]

I received an 5-bay external enclosure with 5-port multiplier and a 2-port PM-capable PCIe card yesterday.  It will probably be a few days before I get time to get it all installed, but I'll make sure to post my experiences with it once I do.  I have 5x500GB drives from my old server to populate it with from my old Windows media NAS.

[Jon]

Just wanted to report that after setting the jumper on the SATA adapter to "no RAID", unRAID booted and detected all five drives via the 3276 port multiplier.  It's currently clearing the drives and looks like it is going to take forever.  Other than, it looks as though it works :]

[WeeboTech]

What is the throughput rated at. i.e XX,XXXKB/s.

 

I still wonder if staggering the drives amoung different controllers would help this situation.

 

I.E.

Motherboard Drive

Port Multiplier Drive

Other motherboard controller drive

Port Multiplier Drive

[Jon]

What is the throughput rated at. i.e XX,XXXKB/s.

 

I still wonder if staggering the drives amoung different controllers would help this situation.

 

I.E.

Motherboard Drive

Port Multiplier Drive

Other motherboard controller drive

Port Multiplier Drive

 

I'll have to let you know about transfer rate tomorrow.  I postponed the drive clearing since it was going to take forever (gotta have our nightly flics!).  I'm going to begin clearing them when we turn in for the night, so they should be done in the morning.  I'll run NASPT against it and see what I get (I have 9 drives now, so I'll run it on a couple from each controller - maybe the IDE too).

 

As far as staggering drives goes, I can't say as I don't know how it works at that level (if you're speaking of parity check/rebuild times).  I also don't write to user shares, so that wouldn't affect me either.  Be interesting to know though

[Jon]

I completed a single file copy to and from using Intel's NAS Performance Test.  Result was 10,877KB/s for a 4GB file.  This was to a 500GB Seagate 16MB cache drive.  Read rate was 21,642KB/s, which seems very low in comparison to direct file copy using Windows Explorer.  I'll have to run another test when I get a chance to compare it to the 1TB drives.

 

This was all performed from an x86 Vista Ultimate system that has not had any of the known issues with slow network transfers.

[WeeboTech]

  Result was 10,877KB/s for a 4GB file.

I'm assuming this was writes.

I can say this much, even with my 8GB of ram, the overall average is only slighty above this.

What I found is.. I can burst at 20-50MB/s, but when the cache starts to flush, the transfer halts.

All other work on the machine pauses.

 

By doing an rsync with --bwlimit I was able to get steady throughput without any pauses somewhere between 10-13MB/s on the parity protected drives.

[Jon]

Yes, sorry - it was for a write. 

 

I'm currently copying some directories using mc from a drive on the motherboard's ICH9 controller to a drive on the new card.  I'm sustaining an average of around 11MB/s there.  The directories are full of TV episodes at about 350MB each.  Peaks are in the low 20s, but it typically stays between 9MB/s and 13MB/s.  I also encounter the low transfers during a cache flush - it'll bottom out around 2-4MB/s there.

 

I do quite a bit of transferring each day and I can't really say that I notice a hit with the new controller and drives.  I've only had it up a day, but I've moved around 500GB of data and it seems to moving along nicely so far.

 

I guess the biggest draw back is that single point of failure with the PM.

[lionelhutz]

Not meaning to hijack, but you're currently running an unRaid server using this MB?  Any problems with the AMD SB700 southbridge or the Atheros LAN?  I read another thread about this MB, but seemed it was never really confirmed that it worked okay.

 

This motherboard is working good for me. Booted right up no problems at all.

 

Peter

 

[RobJ]

You can't test write performance by writing to a parity protected unRAID data drive, because too many other activities are also performed.  Such a write involves reading from the drive, then writing to the drive, plus reading from the parity drive and writing to it, plus a tiny bit of time doing the parity processing.  So you are actually testing read and write performance of this drive plus read and write performance of the parity drive.

 

I think testing read performance is sufficient for a rough comparative measure, no penalty for parity during reads.

[WeeboTech]

You can't test write performance by writing to a parity protected unRAID data drive, because...

 

Sure you can test it. You just cannot expect too much.

If you are getting significantly low writes, this is cause for concern.

 

When any external reviewer tests a NAS they test write and read performance so you know what to expect.

We just cannot expect high write values without a cache drive.

 

In this case, the numbers matter in determining if port multipliers add penalty.