I’ve been working together with BitDeals to put together some unique combos.
This one is basically the ultimate NAS storage starter kit!
I’ve been doing some thinking about what the average Unraid user needs to start out with. Obviously, this combo is useful for others too, but most of the community runs Unraid.
This combo will include:
LSI SAS HBA
Flashable to IT mode
2-8 x 3.5" HDDs
Ideally 1 parity drive, rest for data
1 x 2.5" 10K SAS HDD
Great for write cache, unpack/landing drive
It can easily saturate a gigabit uplink, and it doesn’t have a finite lifespan like a SSD.
1 x 2.5" SAS SSD
Since your Unraid cache drive is covered with the 10K SAS HDD, this will be used as an unassigned drive for VMs and Docker.
[Details]
Included (free!) with every order is the following:
You’ll need some SFF-8087 to SFF-8482 cables to connect your SAS drives, the 2.5" HDD and 2.5" SSD. You need 1 cable for every 4 drives of this type.
For the SATA HDD, you can use cheaper SFF-8087 breakout cables. Again, you need 1 cable for every 4 SATA HDD.
LSI Firmware
Flashing the LSI 9211 to IT mode is super easy. You can follow this guide to do so.
I’d recommend picking up the additional LSI 9211-8i. It really opens up your storage capacity, and it’s priced well under normal ebay pricing. With both the -4i and -8i cards, you can attach 12 storage devices.
If you’re using Unraid, consider that you will be using at least 1 HDD for parity. So your usable storage will be (N-1) HDDs worth of space.
Pick up at least 1 spare 2.5" SAS HDD. They are incredibly useful because they are much faster than a regular HDD, and much cheaper than a traditional SSD. You’ll never know when they will come in handy! (They work even better in RAID)
Since you’re offloading your cache duties to a 2.5" HDD, the SSD for your VM/Docker doesn’t need to be as large. 200GB is a perfectly good starting point, 400GB is borderline overkill.
If you’re using Unraid exclusively for storage, you don’t even need an additional SSD at all!
[Pricing]
[LSI SAS HBA]
9211-4i - $0.00 - INCLUDED ($15.00 value)
ADD 9211-8i - $20.00
[4TB SATA HDD]
2 - $95.00 ($47.50 each)
4 - $180.00 ($45.00 each)
6 - $260.00 ($43.33 each)
8 - $330.00 ($41.25 each)
[2.5" SAS HDD] Note: Make/model numbers of 2.5" SAS HDDs are not specified due to vast inventory variability. You are guaranteed the capacity and RPM you select.
300GB 10K SAS2 HDD - $0.00 - INCLUDED ($8.00 value)
ADD 300GB 10K SAS2 HDD - $5.00
ADD 300GB 15K SAS2 HDD - $20.00
ADD 600GB 10K SAS2 HDD - $12.00
ADD 900GB 10K SAS2 HDD - $20.00
ADD 1.2TB 10K SAS2 HDD - $40.00
[2.5" SAS SSD]
No SSD - $0.00 - INCLUDED
ADD 200GB SAS2 SSD - $30.00
ADD 200GB SAS3 SSD - $35.00
ADD 400GB SAS3 SSD - $66.00
ADD 400GB SAS3 SSD - $70.00
Due to high order volume, orders will ship ASAP in order received - typically within 1 week of order.
Do any of these require the ol’ tape trick like the EasyStores? I’m completely new to SAS drives, but I swore I read something on here that certain drives needed them.
Possibly. It’s safest to just remove the 3.3v wire regardless of which drives you have, since there are zero modern drives that the use 3.3v power rail. It’s a relic from the days of the 1.8" spinning drives that were used in the original iPod.
I posted this in KS 4.1 forum but didn’t’ get any response so trying again here;
I do have one of the combo units on the NK4.1 and trying to add more HDDs. Got couple of questions:
Does the cash size matter for Unraid? 128 vs 256MB?
Will they support 12gb SAS drives and if it matters if they are 4Kn?
I tried looking into it more but I can’t find any good information on it but from what I have seen 4Kn has been around for sometime and its supported everywhere. It would be good to see if anyone has used 4Kn with that MB or have some document for it!
Well, if you know what controller is onboard, you can reference the list above and compare the controller features to the external cards. Likely, it’s LSI2008 onboard, which means it does not support 4Kn. If it’s something else, then it’s a different story.
Hey I got the array in and starting to get ready to put the build together. Do I need the 8087 to 8482 sas cable for the SAS drives or can I get away with the 8087 to SATA for all the drives? I bought this array with the 2 SATA drives and the other bundle with the 5 SAS drives.
You need the 8482 connector for SAS drives, they won’t work with a standard SATA cable. Since you have a mix of SAS and SATA drives, I would recommend getting the 8482 cables for all of them, since 8482 connectors will fit on both.