HP SAS Expander Owner's Thread

kevchris01 said:
I just setup a new WHS and am experiencing the same issue bellaireroad had a few months back. I currently have the HP SAS Expander connected to a Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 on an ASUS P5BV-M motherboard. On the first boot-up I was prompted to install a driver for the SAS Expander, which I tried going through to get to the 'don't ask me again' step. It seemed that everything was working fine, even though the expander was listed as unrecognized in Device Manager, but when I went to shut-down I got a BSOD.

In looking through the forum it doesn't appear that the issue was resolved before, so I thought I'd post and see if anyone has an idea. I did verify that the motherboard has the latest BIOS and the Supermicro card has the latest drivers I could find (3.1.0.22). Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

I dunno, but here are a few things to check.

Eliminating the sas expander.
When i've looked at the inf files for various expander device drivers, they are just dummy drivers. They just tell windows "I don't have a driver, don't try to control me".

Do the marvell based cards have any kind of configuration utility?
I know that for LSI based cards, you can us lsiutil to set options on the sas hba to expose or hide a sas expander chip from the OS. When the expander is exposed, windows will ask for a driver. When the expander is hidden, windows will not ask for a driver.

Did you check the window event logs for error messages?
The logging in the latest versions of windows is much better and more detailed than in previous versions. I have had the W2K8 event log tell me that a specific stick of ram was bad (whea log). I'm guessing that win7 provides the same level of detailed logging.

Power management?
If this happens every time you shut down, try a different power profile. The default power profile in windows is "balanced". Try setting the power profile to performance...
If there are power or performance properties for the detected expander device within windows, try disabling them.
Maybe try disabling power management on the expander connected drives too.
The driver or firmware for the hba might be freaking out when it can't power down the drives or expander on shutdown.
 
simplesam said:
I dunno, but here are a few things to check.

Eliminating the sas expander.
When i've looked at the inf files for various expander device drivers, they are just dummy drivers. They just tell windows "I don't have a driver, don't try to control me".

Do the marvell based cards have any kind of configuration utility?
I know that for LSI based cards, you can us lsiutil to set options on the sas hba to expose or hide a sas expander chip from the OS. When the expander is exposed, windows will ask for a driver. When the expander is hidden, windows will not ask for a driver.

Did you check the window event logs for error messages?
The logging in the latest versions of windows is much better and more detailed than in previous versions. I have had the W2K8 event log tell me that a specific stick of ram was bad (whea log). I'm guessing that win7 provides the same level of detailed logging.

Power management?
If this happens every time you shut down, try a different power profile. The default power profile in windows is "balanced". Try setting the power profile to performance...
If there are power or performance properties for the detected expander device within windows, try disabling them.
Maybe try disabling power management on the expander connected drives too.
The driver or firmware for the hba might be freaking out when it can't power down the drives or expander on shutdown.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I'll try and address your suggestions below.

Eliminating the sas expander:
The problem only presents itself when the SAS Expander is installed and fully connected. Since I'm having the same problem as bellaireroad I've quoted his post for the explanation.
bellaireroad said:
I've tried several scenarios

1) with no connection between cards - no message to install drivers - NO BSOD on shutdown - HP SAS device in Device Manager with yellow ?

2) with cards connected without hard drives - message to install drivers for "HP HP SAS EXPANDER SCSI ENCLOSURE DEVICE" - no BSOD on shutdown - HP SAS device in Device Manager with yellow ?

3) with cards connected, with HDD- message to install drivers for "HP HP SAS EXPANDER SCSI ENCLOSURE DEVICE" - BSOD on shutdown - HP SAS device in Device Manager with yellow ? . Drives show up in device manager, and can be added to pool.

AOC-SASLP-MV8 has latest drivers from SM FTP site. AOC-SASLP-MV8 shows in device manager has having drivers installed and functioning.
Click to expand...

Do the marvell based cards have any kind of configuration utility?
There is a BIOS-utility that you can access during the POST screen. The options are as follows:

INT 13h: Enable
Silent Mode: Disable
Halt On Error: Disable
Staggered Spin Up [1-8 devices, select delay]
HDD Detect Time [0-10]

I'm not entirely sure what INT 13h does. A quick google search was unsuccessful, so I'll have to do some more research into the setting to see if a change will help. Silent mode only changes the status of attempting to initialize the card/spinup drives on the POST screen.

Did you check the window event logs for error messages?
I receive the following error message, which from what I can tell it is due to a faulty or non-existent driver.

Source: system error
Category: (102)
Event ID: 1003
Description: Error code 000000d1, parameter1 00000007, parameter2 d0000002, parameter3 00000000, parameter4 f720a63d.
Data: 0000: 74737953 45206d65 726f7272 72452020
0010: 20726f72 65646f63 30303020 64303030
0020: 50202031 6d617261 72657465 30302073
0030: 30303030 202c3730 30303064 32303030
0040: 3030202c 30303030 202c3030 30323766
0050: 64333661

Power management?
Under WHS I have the following power options:
- Home/Office Desk
- Portable/Laptop
- Presentation
- Always On
- Server Balanced Processor Power and Performance
- Max Battery

The 'Server Balanced Processor Power and Performance' option is selected, and I don't have the ability to make line item selections. I tried changing to always on, but that had no effect.

Other Thoughts:
I have the cards connected via internal SFF-8087 cables. Would there be any difference in function if I were to connect the cards from the 8087 Port on the Supermicro to the External SFF-8088 port on the SAS Expander?

Also, my card is displaying a BIOS of 3.1.0.15N whereas the firmware displayed in the device manager is 3.1.0.22. Can anyone verify whether these numbers should match?
 
Did you try to connect the controller on port 8 or 9 of the expander and the drives on port 2 to 7? My controller reports errors if I connect drives to 8 or 9.
 
omniscence said:
Did you try to connect the controller on port 8 or 9 of the expander and the drives on port 2 to 7? My controller reports errors if I connect drives to 8 or 9.
Click to expand...

The controller is currently connected to port 9, with the system in the following configuration:
1: Empty (External)
2: Norco RPC-4220 Backplane 1
3: Norco RPC-4220 Backplane 2
4: Norco RPC-4220 Backplane 3
5: Norco RPC-4220 Backplane 4
6: Norco RPC-4220 Backplane 5
7: Empty
8: Empty
9: Supermicro Controller

I tried switching the controller to port 8 but saw no difference.
 
odditory said:
The HP SAS Expander: A lot of ports.


RAID HBA's

3ware 9690SA Series (verified by SeanG): YES

[
Click to expand...

Hi

I'm not sure the above is completely true. I've bought a 9690SA based on the above but it doesn't get past the initialization stage. Posts within this thread point to issues if the firmware version of the SAS Expander exceeds v1.52. Finally, the latest firmware readme from the LSI site (http://www.lsi.com/DistributionSystem/AssetDocument/9.5.3_Release_Notes__Web.pdf) states

SAS 6Gb/s Expanders Are Not Supported on the 9690SA Controller
Do not use SAS 6Gb/s expanders with the 9690SA controllers.

So I assume I'm SOL? I haven't applied the latest firmware yet but based on the above statement I don't expect much joy.
 
More misery and joy. Put my HP P800 back in the server where I had been testing out the 9690SA and it appears to be fubar - orange status lights and doesn't post properly. After cursing *a lot* and trying to find an offline firmware update I tried an old P800 that I had broken a port on with the SAS Expander..and it worked. So semi happy days, I have my old array back and also I have a possible way forward for building out my new array. So in summary life's a bitch etc and the P800 card appears to be compatible with the SAS Expander.
 
Hi,

I would like to add my experience to this thread.

I was using an areca 1120 8 port card and I purchased a 1680ix-12 and a HP SAS expander. I too am having trouble with the 1680 seeing the card from external port to external port (more on this in a bit). In order to determine if the HP SAS card was working I co-located it with the 1680 card. I connected port 9-12 on the 1680 to port 8c on the HP card using a SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cable. Low and behold both cards were able to see each other. Then I put an existing array on the SAS card and ran a volume check.

The volume check took 4 hours (6 TB) but it came back clean.

Next I restored my server to the original config -- raid array on the 1680ix-12 port 1-4 and port 5-8. Rebooted and everything looked good with the original config. However! When I got into Linux my LVM and xfs filesystem was GONE! I was able to recover the LVM with a backup and recover the XFS filesystem with xfs_repair, but now I have to exercise on moving / renaming 200+ dvds from lost and found.

I have no idea WTF happens, especially since the RAID SET is normal and the volume check was clean, but something corrupted the LVM and filesystem superblock.

Now back to the external connectors -- I believe I understand why this does not work. After some research today I determined that the external SAS connectors are DIRECTIONAL. Both ports are "IN" ports. Will this mean I will need to sacrifice an internal port on the 1680i to use an external enclosure? I have no idea, but I plan to but a SFF-8087 to SFF-8088 connector to find out.

Update: Oops -- both ports are keyed as universal ports. That means the external ports should theoretically work together since the internal ports work together. Well I am still going to get the converter so I can use port 9C on the expander.
 
Last edited:
MrD1234 said:
Hi,

I would like to add my experience to this thread.

I was using an areca 1120 8 port card and I purchased a 1680ix-12 and a HP SAS expander. I too am having trouble with the 1680 seeing the card from external port to external port (more on this in a bit). In order to determine if the HP SAS card was working I co-located it with the 1680 card. I connected port 9-12 on the 1680 to port 8c on the HP card using a SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cable. Low and behold both cards were able to see each other. Then I put an existing array on the SAS card and ran a volume check.

The volume check took 4 hours (6 TB) but it came back clean.

Next I restored my server to the original config -- raid array on the 1680ix-12 port 1-4 and port 5-8. Rebooted and everything looked good with the original config. However! When I got into Linux my LVM and xfs filesystem was GONE! I was able to recover the LVM with a backup and recover the XFS filesystem with xfs_repair, but now I have to exercise on moving / renaming 200+ dvds from lost and found.

I have no idea WTF happens, especially since the RAID SET is normal and the volume check was clean, but something corrupted the LVM and filesystem superblock.

Now back to the external connectors -- I believe I understand why this does not work. After some research today I determined that the external SAS connectors are DIRECTIONAL. Both ports are "IN" ports. Will this mean I will need to sacrifice an internal port on the 1680i to use an external enclosure? I have no idea, but I plan to but a SFF-8087 to SFF-8088 connector to find out.

Update: Oops -- both ports are keyed as universal ports. That means the external ports should theoretically work together since the internal ports work together. Well I am still going to get the converter so I can use port 9C on the expander.
Click to expand...

This is odd. I didn't think it would work at all if you connected the HP expander through another expander port. This why I use ow port count adaptec controllers that don't have an onboard expander (most RAID cards that have more than 2 8087 connectors does use through an onboard expander). I know on the adaptecs though that the external ports on a high port count card is not connected to the internal expander. Perhaps that is the same for the Areca?

Theoretically, you should be able to use 2 levels of exapnders, but expander interoperability is hard enough with 1 level, so I wouldn't trust my data in the 2 level case...
 
Yeah, I know, first post on HF and all that and I should be putting this in the for-sale section but I don't have the correct requirements for that.

I've read through this entire thread and a SAS controller and HP SAS Expander is exactly what I am after even if just for my home machine. Beats tons of sata port multipliers which never seem to work with the Silicon Image sata controllers I have.

But I need to source piece by piece due to budget ... and a wife that'll put the murder on me ... and a 6 week old little boy who'll be pretty upset I spent his entire current inheritance on a SAS card and expander. :)

I've looked through everything in this thread and done my homework on cards and the ARC-1680LP is perfect for my needs. A couple of drives off the internal connector for a set of main RAID drives, with the external connector looped around to an HP SAS Expander for the rest of the drives (currently only 5 in the rig but more to come for sure). Current setup is a junky old Sil3124 doing just RAID1 on the main drives, but off the PCI bus.

To start with, does anyone have a used old Areca ARC-1680LP they're willing to flog off for cheap? Just missed an awesome deal on ebay last night. Missed the auction by a couple of seconds thanks to my dumb DSL connection and the current state of international access from my country. The little thing sold for $185.67. :-(
 
SuperMicro AOC-USAS-L8i: YES (Confirmed by Tau)
Click to expand...
Is there a limit on drives seen/supported by this card? All the documentation says it supports upto 122 drives. Wondering if I have to config or turn something on/off.

I have 32 drives attached to the HP SAS. With this card, opensolaris will only see 24 of my 32 drives. With nothing else changed, I plugged my 1680 in and opensolaris sees all 32 fine. 1680+HP in FreeBSD shows all my drives as well. I didn't tried the USAS+HP in FreeBSD.

The card's config has 24 listed for maximum 13h supported drives but I thought that's only for booting and once in the OS, it wouldn't care.
 
I think the HP SAS expander is supposed to work with only up to 24 drives. The internal Ports 2-7 are not the same as Ports 8-9. If I have drives connected to 8 or 9 and a LSI controller to Port 1, I get errors while the controller enumerates devices.
It seems 2-7 are for backplanes, 8-9 for controller uplink and the external one for backup solution, just like the manual states.
 
PigLover said:
I have no idea whether or not this expander actually works or can be purchased. But I do see one thing that sets it apart - head and shoulders above - every other expander on the market today from HP, Chenbro or any other that I have seen. It actually has a manual! Almost takes all the fun out of the project.
Click to expand...

Chenbro actually has a manual for their expander, but the information in most of them is a joke ... it usually covers stuff you can figure out by just looking at the actual boards :)

Interestingly enough, the Astek expander 'REALLY' only uses the PCI, PCI-X or PCIe slot for mechanical support. Power is delivered in the form of 12V via the power connector on the expander (same as on the Chenbro expanders). Another interesting fact is that the expander has 3 additional FAN headers that monitor and can control the fan speed via SES2 commands (the processor in the expander chip does not control the fans directly!).

This expander has similar setup as the HP SAS expander in the sense that it allows up to 24 drives to be connected and two ports are designed for connection to a host. The two differences here are that the Astek has one internal and one external dedicated host port versus two dedicated internal host interface ports on the HP SAS expander and the Astek has an additional external port specifically designed for daisy chaining multiple expander boards!

Now the question is.... Availability and of course ... how much do they cost???
 
The Astek A33606-AIC boards look even more interesting. Compact and can be mounted on stand-offs. Saves a PCI/PCI-e slot. E-mail sent, will see what they say about availability and pricing.
 
Last edited:
SinnerG said:
The Astek A33606-AIC boards look even more interesting. Compact and can be mounted on stand-offs. Saves a PCI/PCI-e slot. E-mail sent, will see what they say about availability and pricing.
Click to expand...

Last time I looked at this unit, it was $500+, but it may be available as B-stock for a lower price. I'm not sure which controllers it's designed to operate with however - none of the documentation I was able to find had a hardware compatibility list attached.
 
They use LSI chips, so just look at something similar, say the compatibility list for some of the Supermicro backplanes.
 
mikesm said:
Last time I looked at this unit, it was $500+, but it may be available as B-stock for a lower price. I'm not sure which controllers it's designed to operate with however - none of the documentation I was able to find had a hardware compatibility list attached.
Click to expand...

It should work with any of the LSI based controllers. If it was cheaper it would be nice to have since the PMC chipset seems to only really like Intel/Marvell IOP based cards.
 
Even at ~$500 the system cost might not be higher. Depends entirely on your ability to shop. Compare at typical/easy to find prices:

Areca 1680i (~$500) + HP SAS Expander (~$250): total ~$750
LSI 9260-4i (~$250) + Astek SAS Expander (~$500): total ~$750 (LSI card wont work with HP expander).

I know its not apples to apples. The Areca card has 8 ports vs the LSI's 4. But Areca doesn't really have a 4-port Raid-6/SAS product to compare. The LSI card is a true 600Mbs product (not that this really matters for most hobbyist/enthusiast users unless you are running SSDs). And the LSI card is firmware restricted to 32 drives vs the Areca's 128 - so this comparison is only valid for modest builds (24-32 drives). Also, if you are doing a really big build the cost advantage of the HP expander starts to add up.

This twist to the discussion also got me looking at the Chenbro expander again. It seems to be shipping again with a new board rev (B0) and new firmware. You can get them brand new for as low as $248. This could be a good option again if you don't need a 600Mbs expander and don't want to shop B-stock/gray market. I ordered one to test just-for-grins (and to see if the people who say its "in stock" are telling the truth this time).
 
I wish Chenbro was available when I got my HP. I hate having to 'waste' a pci-e just to power this thing. I'm not that concerned about 3gb/6gb atm tho.

I've also noticed that the HP SAS gets pretty hot. Whatever the heatsink is on. It was hot enough that I couldn't touch the heatsink. I'm gonna see if I have a spare small fan and see if I can mount that on the heatsink. Looks like a 60mm should fit about right.
 
PigLover said:
This twist to the discussion also got me looking at the Chenbro expander again. It seems to be shipping again with a new board rev (B0) and new firmware. You can get them brand new for as low as $248. This could be a good option again if you don't need a 600Mbs expander and don't want to shop B-stock/gray market. I ordered one to test just-for-grins (and to see if the people who say its "in stock" are telling the truth this time).
Click to expand...

Mind telling us where you ordered it from?

What controller are you going to use it with?
 
tojoski said:
Mind telling us where you ordered it from?

What controller are you going to use it with?
Click to expand...

They were showing in-stock at several distributors. I decided to save a few pennies (and the sales tax) by ordering through Provantage - who I've dealt with a lot over the last two years. They listed it as special order, but I called then and they said they are averaging 5 day back-order on that part. Plus if they can move it this way then I can be sure Chenbro is really shipping again and its not just gray-market parts showing up as "in stock". If Provantage can't fulfill the order in a few days then I just cancel it and move on. Its just a curiosity for me anyway.

I'm going to run it with a Marvell non-Raid controller in my WHS machine first (AOC-SASLP-MV8). It will be an in-place swap with an HP expander so we get apples/apples. Then off to a system I built for someone else that has a 1680i. I've been toying with moving my WHS machine to Server2008/Raid - if this thing works I'll be shopping for a raid controller soon.
 
Last edited:
PigLover said:
Even at ~$500 the system cost might not be higher. Depends entirely on your ability to shop. Compare at typical/easy to find prices:

Areca 1680i (~$500) + HP SAS Expander (~$250): total ~$750
LSI 9260-4i (~$250) + Astek SAS Expander (~$500): total ~$750 (LSI card wont work with HP expander).

I know its not apples to apples. The Areca card has 8 ports vs the LSI's 4. But Areca doesn't really have a 4-port Raid-6/SAS product to compare. The LSI card is a true 600Mbs product (not that this really matters for most hobbyist/enthusiast users unless you are running SSDs). And the LSI card is firmware restricted to 32 drives vs the Areca's 128 - so this comparison is only valid for modest builds (24-32 drives). Also, if you are doing a really big build the cost advantage of the HP expander starts to add up.

This twist to the discussion also got me looking at the Chenbro expander again. It seems to be shipping again with a new board rev (B0) and new firmware. You can get them brand new for as low as $248. This could be a good option again if you don't need a 600Mbs expander and don't want to shop B-stock/gray market. I ordered one to test just-for-grins (and to see if the people who say its "in stock" are telling the truth this time).
Click to expand...

The HP expander (with the 1.X software) works fine with adaptec RAID controllers. So that's a better comparison i think. And the adaptec works with LSi based expanders too.
 
mikesm said:
The HP expander (with the 1.X software) works fine with adaptec RAID controllers. So that's a better comparison i think. And the adaptec works with LSi based expanders too.
Click to expand...

But you can't generally get the 1.x firmware anymore...every seller I can find is now showing 1.52 or 2.02 on the HP expander...
 
Got the following via E-mail from Astek regarding their SAS expander:

You can purchase these parts through PC-Pitstop (www.pc-pitstop.com). They may not be on the web yet; you may need to call them.


Regards,
John
Click to expand...
I've e-mailed pc-pitstop to see if they really have them and at what price.
 
Just got this expander..
Green board, not sure what firmware version?
Connected to 3Ware 9690SA-4I with 9.5.3 bios with a short SFF cable to port 9..
3Ware locks up at "Waiting for controller to initialize".
Only one SFF8087 is connected to drives (4 drives) to expander, on port 2. (As a test).
Disconnecting expander from 3ware works.
Bought this based on the 1st post saying it DOES work..
Any ideas?

1/ how to check firmware version
2/ what to do, lol
 
To determine the firmware version you need a working controller. It will be included in the device identification string.

It seems that the expander causes problems if the firmware is too new. If you read the full thread (yes, it is a long thread) you would have seen that there are a lot of problems with these expanders.
 
Ok. I will test with AOC-SASLP-MV.
If all else fails i ordered a P410...

Edit:
Got the controller to boot with AOC-SASLP-MV8.
Only showing 12 out of 16 current connected drives, but progress, haven't rebooted yet.
Looking at controller children properties in devmgmt, i see this:

SCSI\Enclosure&Ven_HP&Prod_HP_SAS_EXP_Card&Rev_2.02\5&1e1293e8&0&001000

I guess I'm on rev 2.02.
I don't suppose one can go back at firmware versions?
There's another post on here from 2009 - http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1431652
And the guy says it works perfectly with his 9690SA... Sigh.
 
Last edited:
MrD1234 said:
Hi,

I would like to add my experience to this thread.


I plan to buy a SFF-8087 to SFF-8088 connector to find out.
Click to expand...

I received the adapter installed it in the remote case installed an external cable from the areca 1680ix-12 external port to the adapter external port. Then I routed a an internal cable from the adapter to port 9c on the HP SAS expander. Restarted the server an viola the HP SAS expander was recognized. It does seem that the expander only talks to a controller on port 8c or 9c.

Fyi, Areca updated the firmware / bios and expander firmware late last week -- but there are no release notes.
 
PigLover said:
Got the following via E-mail from Astek regarding their SAS expander:

I've e-mailed pc-pitstop to see if they really have them and at what price.
Click to expand...

I got e-mail back from John as well asking about what needs I have (enclosure support, etc.) and volume required, but have since not heard from him. If they are indeed $500 then there's no point looking at these for a low-cost enthusiast build (read: I am a cheap bastard).

Let us know what pc-pitstop have to say. I'm hoping these actually come up cheaper than the HP.
 
I highly doubt they will be cheaper than the HP, unless you are referring to the regular HP retail price and not the the price for the 'used' HP SAS expander cards we are discussing here!
 
Yes that is quite expensive. But it does have a couple of features that stand out.

  • Ability to use any slot for support
  • Powered by molex connector and not MB
  • Can be mounted in 5.25 bay
  • Can be daisy chained
  • In/Out external ports

The card features looks to be a competitor to the areca-8020 (vs. chenbro or HP) and it is cheaper than the areca 8020 expander by several hundred dollars.
 
PigLover said:
The Astek expander is up on the pc-pitstop website. $655. Ridiculous price, IMNSHO.

See here: http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sas_expanders/A33606-PCI.asp

I'm still waiting to see when Provantage ships the Chenbro. Its been 4 business days...
Click to expand...

We should really start some new threads, as this thread has become seriously bloated and disjointed.

But anyway... I bought several salvage astek (lsi based) expanders from ebay last year. The first batch i bought worked, the second batch - I got ripped off. But that's an ebay problem, not a problem with the expander.

The expanders worked ok with every lsi based card that I tried. My problem with the expander is: Expander and disks in a dedicated chassis with a dedicated power supply + host system with sas hba or raid card, connected via sas cable... When I shut down the host system, the astek expander also shuts down.

The dedicated storage chassis power supply keeps running, but the expander in that chassis shuts down when the host OS does, and doesn't restart when the Host does.

It works fine in the same chassis. But I was not able to get it working properly in a dedicated chassis.

Before I bought the first batch, I called astek to inquire about pricing if I were to buy them direct from astek (without mentioning the ebay seller). At that time, they were over $1200 each.

I held back a laugh, then mentioned the pricing of the chenbro expanders... The tech or sales person said they had ordered one and planned to examine it, to see how they did it so cheap (but he didn't say the astek one was better or anything like that).

I mentioned hardforum and told him that there was decent market of "crazy people", who would spend thousands of dollars to build systems to store a bunch of $10 movies.. But $1200 was far too much for an expander... That intel gets it, and markets cpu's to the fringe "home user" crowd, and maybe they should too... He took it pretty well.

Their market seems to be the oem market. Maybe if enough people express an interest, we will see a low priced "stand alone" astek expander too.

Edit:
Sorry, didn't look at the link. The ones I have are totally different... I guess they listened, just not on price.
 
MrD1234 said:
Yes that is quite expensive. But it does have a couple of features that stand out.

  • Ability to use any slot for support
  • Powered by molex connector and not MB
  • Can be mounted in 5.25 bay
  • Can be daisy chained
  • In/Out external ports

The card features looks to be a competitor to the areca-8020 (vs. chenbro or HP) and it is cheaper than the areca 8020 expander by several hundred dollars.
Click to expand...

The chenbro expander matches that list feature-for-feature. Chenbro also markets a pretty slick mounting tray the size of a mini-itx motherboard and uses the io-shield space in the chassis (with 24-pin power input, etc).

The only real advantage of the Astek expander is 600Mbps operation...on paper, at least. Oh, and perhaps you can actually get one if you order it.
 
Oh, buggers... $600+ is not going to do it for me. The game becomes serious when you start digging into server grade hardware for home server purposes. I'll save my pennies then for a HP SAS Expander. Pity, really, considering the non-PCI Astek would be perfect for small enclosures or tucked away in a main rig.
 
PigLover said:
LSI 9260-4i (~$250) + Astek SAS Expander (~$500): total ~$750 (LSI card wont work with HP expander).
Click to expand...
What exactly do you mean with "wont work"? please elaborate.
The reason for my question is because I have a LSI 9211-8i running fine with the HP expander.
 
sweloop64 said:
What exactly do you mean with "wont work"? please elaborate.
The reason for my question is because I have a LSI 9211-8i running fine with the HP expander.
Click to expand...

Solely based on reports earlier in this thread and the OPs summary that he keeps up on page one. No personal experience with that combination.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top