Cable for Dell PERC H330 RAID Controller

Hello.

Try these cables Dell P/N D2M62 for connection from H330 controller to the hard drives. Contact Dell sales directly.

Let me know whether the cables meet your requirement.

Robert---

I searched at Dell and Google but I can't find part number D2M62.  Do you have another number for the part?

There is also P/N M7MXD which is shown in our internal spare parts database. These cables are new in the market that is why I would advise that you call sales with the same P/Ns. 

In addition, the PERC cards and associated cables for the T130 are only available at point of sale. This may be the reason why they not accessible elsewhere.

I can't find that part number online either.

In addition, the PERC cards and associated cables for the T130 are only available at point of sale. This may be the reason why they are not accessible elsewhere. Contact Dell sales for specific information.

Thank you.

I too find it highly ridiculous that Dell would not sell the cable separately. But given the nature of electronics connectors, I am sure someone will create such a cable! I too ordered an H330 card aftermarket and it came with no cables. I found this cable on Amazon and will try it out ... did you ever find your own solution?

Go to Amazon's website and type in this item number: B01B1IVEM2

Thank you for the part number.  Dell's position makes no sense on many levels.  After speaking with Dell, I was informed that if I did purchase a Dell PERC RAID controller and install it in the server, it would void my 3 year ProSupport contract.   I have owned many Dell servers over the last 14 years, and I have always had to use their support at least once for a replacement part or service call.  Dell's solution was to sell the server and purchase a new T130 configured with the RAID controller.  I decided I will just live with the slow performance, having learned an important lesson.

They actually told you it would void your pro support warranty?? I would love to see that in writing. Good thing I opted out of the pro support for our newest build. That's incredulous. Why not just upgrade anyway and disable the lifecycle controller's inventory mechanism? ;-)

Misinformation. Using validated Dell hardware will not void your warranty. You should escalate when things don't sound/appear right.

EMR, I too think that would be more accurate! I hope you can get that RAID card installed per your spec. We incorrectly assumed our new T130 would come with a RAID card from our PoS vendor while it actually did not (our original T110 did come with one). They must've been cutting corners this time around on cost. But for PoS usage, in a small store, even I felt the lag of not having RAID while doing some very basic SQL work during the configuration phase of our system.

I ordered those cables from Amazon yesterday and was able to confirm with the vendor that they should work fine with the H330. Will install those today and migrate to my SSD array. That, and given TheFlash's comment, I'm going to re-evaluate the necessity of getting ProSupport this time around. I too, used ProSupport often, though for the phone support. I never actually needed parts for our T110. My original fear years ago was that the PSU would be first to go since that's usually what happened with all the desktops I've used over the years. That actually never happened, even after 6 years of continuous operation! But still, best warranty I ever bought. I'd like to do it again assuming they don't try to void me for whatever... odd, ridiculous reason.

HTC---let me know if the cables work with the H330.  I am also interested in two other areas:

1.  I assume you will need to rebuild your disk array

2.  Please let me know if you notice a performance improvement after moving to the H330.

Thank you!!!

I spoke to several Dell support people, and the issue was escalated.  Dell's view is that if you did not order a hardware RAID controller when you are configured, you are out of luck unless you order a new server with the RAID controller.  This was not a total shock based on my PE T130 order.  When I ordered the server originally, I bought it at a good price.   About 5 days later, Dell had a weekend special on the T130 that dropped the configuration price by $300.  I contacted Dell sales and asked them to adjust the price.  They refused; their advice was to order the server again and return the first server when it arrives.  This is a dumb policy, but it is what happened.

I received the cables today and they are of excellent quality. It's even packed nicely. The only caveat is that I didn't consider the way the drives at the base of the T130 are mounted, which is perpendicular to the motherboard. If you do get these cables and want to attach all four drives, the SATA connector sticks out slightly, up against the side panel once you close it. It's not tight to the point where you can feel the pressure while closing the chassis panel but I wouldn't leave it like that too long. For now, it will have to do unless I can find a 90* connector, or use some right angle adapters on the two bottom drives so nothing goes up against the chassis panel after closing it up. Also, I got the 3ft cable - overkill. I think you can do well with the 1.6ft no problem. I had to coil the thing up as to not get in the way of airflow. 

And yes, with a new H330 card, I had to rebuild the array. One thing I noticed that was a little odd was that I see a cache option to enable or disable, but it won't let me specify read/write, even though the options are in the RAID BIOS, albeit grayed out. Somehow I like the interface on my older PERC S300. But it works just fine. Build time was instant compared to the S300.

After moving to my 4x240GB OCZ Deneva (1st generation) in RAID10, I have 500GB usable space, which is several times more than I actually need since my OS + SQL runs just about 40GB. 

So performance wise...

1. It goes from the BIOS boot screen straight into the Windows Server 2008 desktop. It left me wondering ... when the heck do I press F8 if I needed to? LOL

2. By the time I was in the desktop, I could go straight into apps with zero delay. On the previous single non-RAID drive, I had to sit another 30 seconds before stuff started opening/launching. 

But a caveat ...

I don't know of any RAID controller that has explicit TRIM support, the H330 included. You may run into issues if the SSD reaches capacity. The best you can do is logoff the system, but leave it powered on and let the SSD's do background garbage collection (most SSD's have at minimum this function). Alternatively, I have been told and read that if you overprovision the drives, you are OK. But if you don't have access to firmware utilities to do this, just don't partition the entire drive full. Leave a good chunk of it unpartitioned, which is what I do (500GB avail, but I only use 120GB)

But back to your issue with Dell ...

I still think that's horrendous service. How can they be so inflexible? I'd say reach out to the BBB at this point and see if someone there is listening. Or reach out to the FTC about unusual trade practices. Or, if someone here on the forums has direct contact with Dell, contact!

Alternatively, how would they even know? If you really needed something replaced, just remove the RAID card and let them do their thing, and put it back. I highly doubt they would actually go through all the work to determine if you used unvalidated hardware. Through all the times I've called ProSupport, I've never once been told that they wouldn't help me because of non-validated cards. And I was actually calling them specifically about non-validated cards that I was using (e.g., video card, sound card, modem, etc). The best they could do was, "it may work, we just can't guarantee it nor can we help you proceed further." 

For the time being, our T130 build is pretty much as good as we can get it. Down the road, looking at finding replacement SAS breakout cables with 90*/right angle SATA connectors. But will continue as is for the time being.

Actually, just found the connector I'm looking for to fit the bottom SSD's. Look up Amazon item number B00STZAVGQ. Two of those and you should be good to go.

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BTW, the Amazon cables I pointed out are no go with the case. The next morning, I was getting intermittent connection. It's on the connectors that were flattened by the chassis panel. I've re-ordered a new cable as well as purchased right angle SATA adapters. But I think because you were using just 2 drives, just use the top two bays. The bottom bays, ignore.