PCI-e mSata for cache drives

Hi all,

I'm running unraid on a Gen8 microserver, which is working great.

I'm looking to move to a mirrored cache setup, and for that I need some additional SATA ports.

I originally thought about buying a P420/P222 and going down that road, but I think in the end I'm never going to need that many connections in a microserver, so to save space and power, what I'd like to do is use a pair of mSATA SSDs for cache. It will fit neatly in the case, the price premium on mSata vs 2.5" SSD is workable, and it saves me having to get some more power connectivity internally

I've found a few dual mSata to PCIe cards, including some that have a sensible x4 connection.

Does anyone have any experience with these in unRaid?

Am I going about this the wrong way?

Thanks,

Yes, I use this one by SEDNA in one of my servers. It only has one PCIe lane but it's more than adequate for the purpose.

In my HP Microserver Gen8 I use a pair of regular SSDs on a Schoondoggy bracket, attached to a SYBA SI-PEX40063. It's a PCIe x2 card, which provides two internal SATA ports (for the SSDs) and two eSATA ports for future expansion.

EDIT: Updated SEDNA url.

Thanks John_M,

In your G8MS, do you find that having a non-HP sata card causes the fans to spin up?

I've flashed my bios to the latest, which fixed the AHCI fan noise issues using the B120i, but I've read reports that a non iLO compatible PCI card can cause a fan speed issue also.

Cheers

No. The fan runs fast until the OS boots and then it's very quiet. iLO says the fan is running at 9%. As far as iLO is concerned the PCIe slot is empty.

Firmware: J06 07/16/2015

iLO: 2.30 Aug 19 2015

CPU: G1610T

RAM: 4GB + 4GB