At 2:58, look at the terminal output, you'll see "Link speed: 2" - so it's actually publishes itself as a PCIe 2.0 X8. You're right, and I think the reason it's with this issue is due to history, someone at Dell simply copied the firmware from some earlier card, and didn't modify the firmware to support PCIe 3.0 X8. BTW, I wish there were good IT mode controller with PCIe 3.0 X16, to support 16 SATA SSD's at full speed.
Interesting thoughts. I'll have to check my stock dell controllers now and see. I have two R720xd servers on a stock mini H710 controller, running ESXI, and the other, your H710 mini flashed to IT mode running Free NAS. Feel like I'm leaving some extra bandwidth on the table because of the dell FW...
The H710 mini is a very hot card to begin with. I don't know if there's a difference in heat and power consumption between the B0 vs D1 revisions. Could be an interesting thing to investigate at some point.
Please could you point us in the right direction for those who would like to flash the Megaraid firmware on their H710 D1 so we can get the full pci-e 3.0 speeds out of our cards. I’ve looked everywhere online and cannot find info on how to do this. It would be amazing if you could make a video showing us how it’s done
It is possible, but for PCIe card (not mini mono card), there are so many other options that are easier if you want a LSI SAS2308 HBA... 9205-8i, 9207-8i, etc.
I don't know much about Windows... but I might try to install the LSI / Broadcom drivers from previous versions of Windows and see if that works. Download them from broadcom.com and give it a try.
Again, very informative video, thanks! I have my H710 mini D1 crossflashed to IT mode, and confirmed it works at 8GT/s. But when I passthru to esxi 6.7 VM (Unraid) it goes down to 5GT/s. Do you have any idea why that might happening?
@@ArtofServerYeah, but I think I'm not the only one, I read other people are having the same issue with GPUs and other PCIe devices. You can do a test of your own if you're curious, esxi 6.7 U3 (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-201912001-15160138.x86_64.iso). Haven't tried in esxi 7.0 (just because it doesn't support my other LSI2008 cards)...
@@ArtofServer exactly! What is the perf difference dell firmware raid mode pcie gen 2 vs LSI raid (not it mode) firmware. Maybe the card can’t even exploit pcie gen 3 anyway. But since you switched to IT mode can’t make a raid to raid perf comparison.
I know this is for h710 mini but I have h310 mini flashed to IT mode (yours) and looked and it still show LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 5GT/s, Width x8, so is h310 not capable of the faster link by design?
Saw you post on the forum a couple days ago, and have started to plan to flash mine to stock LSI firmware. =) Good catch.
At 2:58, look at the terminal output, you'll see "Link speed: 2" - so it's actually publishes itself as a PCIe 2.0 X8. You're right, and I think the reason it's with this issue is due to history, someone at Dell simply copied the firmware from some earlier card, and didn't modify the firmware to support PCIe 3.0 X8.
BTW, I wish there were good IT mode controller with PCIe 3.0 X16, to support 16 SATA SSD's at full speed.
Ah! I didn't notice that... Just so use to using lspci for that information.
On h710 mini d0 with firmware 21.2.0-0007+ you can change pci-e to gen 3 in lifecycle controller->controller management
indeed
Interesting thoughts. I'll have to check my stock dell controllers now and see. I have two R720xd servers on a stock mini H710 controller, running ESXI, and the other, your H710 mini flashed to IT mode running Free NAS. Feel like I'm leaving some extra bandwidth on the table because of the dell FW...
Higher speed means more heat. I wonder if this card will work well in the long run at PCI v3.0 speeds
The H710 mini is a very hot card to begin with. I don't know if there's a difference in heat and power consumption between the B0 vs D1 revisions. Could be an interesting thing to investigate at some point.
This is such awesome in-depth work! I wonder if the H710P can be flashed to support pcie 3.0 like the H710 Mini here. Anyone tried that?
Please could you point us in the right direction for those who would like to flash the Megaraid firmware on their H710 D1 so we can get the full pci-e 3.0 speeds out of our cards. I’ve looked everywhere online and cannot find info on how to do this. It would be amazing if you could make a video showing us how it’s done
Hi, thank you for the great video, very informative. I have a PERC H710 Adapter, can it be flashed to IT mode too?
It is possible, but for PCIe card (not mini mono card), there are so many other options that are easier if you want a LSI SAS2308 HBA... 9205-8i, 9207-8i, etc.
@@ArtofServer thank you for the hint!
With these flashed cards, can you use HGST 4kn 10TB drives?
With IT mode HBA firmware cards, yes 4Kn is supported. watch this video for demonstration: ua-cam.com/video/70G5teIamvU/v-deo.html
Interesting, good to know for sure.
Any ideas how to get the H710 to work with Windows Server 2022? Works fine in 2019, but 2022 has no drivers!
I don't know much about Windows... but I might try to install the LSI / Broadcom drivers from previous versions of Windows and see if that works. Download them from broadcom.com and give it a try.
dell just uses the same firmware on the perc/lsis since there are so many types they do that for compatibility
sweet
My H710P Fullsize is ChipRevision = B0. Can be flashed to support pcie 3.0 ?
no, that chipset cannot support PCIe 3.0.
Again, very informative video, thanks! I have my H710 mini D1 crossflashed to IT mode, and confirmed it works at 8GT/s. But when I passthru to esxi 6.7 VM (Unraid) it goes down to 5GT/s. Do you have any idea why that might happening?
It actually reports it as x32 gen2:
LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 5GT/s, Width x32, ASPM L0s, Exit Latency L0s
Wow, that is really weird. I suspect it has something to do with the way your hypervisor is doing PCIe passthrough.
@@ArtofServerYeah, but I think I'm not the only one, I read other people are having the same issue with GPUs and other PCIe devices. You can do a test of your own if you're curious, esxi 6.7 U3 (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-201912001-15160138.x86_64.iso). Haven't tried in esxi 7.0 (just because it doesn't support my other LSI2008 cards)...
I got exactly this kind of card in my Dell R720, I did use the fohdeesha guide, all went well, but Proxmox wasn't able to use the disks. Any ideas?
No idea, but sounds like a software issue.
Is this also available for the H710p?
why don't you test it in RAID mode (megaraid)?
not sure what you mean? this H710 mini in this video is a RAID card...
@@ArtofServer exactly! What is the perf difference dell firmware raid mode pcie gen 2 vs LSI raid (not it mode) firmware. Maybe the card can’t even exploit pcie gen 3 anyway. But since you switched to IT mode can’t make a raid to raid perf comparison.
@@psycl0ptic Its a good point, it would be great to compare.
I know this is for h710 mini but I have h310 mini flashed to IT mode (yours) and looked and it still show LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 5GT/s, Width x8, so is h310 not capable of the faster link by design?
yes, that's right... H310 mini uses LSI SAS2008 chipset.. which was from the PCIe 2.0 era.