I'm looking to expand my sata drives where as my current ports are almost full.  I currently have this board Gigabyte MB-GA-MA78GM-US2H and wondering if this supermicro card will work in that PCI-E slot?  I read somewhere that most PCI-E slots only work for graphics card. 

 

Thanks

 

I read somewhere that most PCI-E slots only work for graphics card. 

 

That depends on the manufacturer. Read the manual as that will usually tell you what it can run. Some have 2 x16 slots but when both used will run x8 only. Some will allow cards like that in only one slot and some both.

 

You should be able to find out in your manual.

 

Josh

The card requires x4 (or better) PCI-E slot.  Also many x16 PCI-E slots intended for graphics cards will not support a x4 card, though probably it will work if it's PCI-E 2.0 slot.  Anyway that's been my experience.

So it's really strange that in the P5B VM DO the SASLP only works in the x16 slot and not in the x4 slot!

Ahh crap!  I do have 2 pci slots but dunno which sata card to use, or better off replacing mainboard? Any suggestions?

 

edit - Well will this card work with no slowdown in transfer speeds?  Btw I have a NIC card in the 1x slot since my onboard nic is dead.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816102065

 

Thanks for the replies.

A test you could run is to move your network x1 card to the x16 slot.  If it works there you have proven that the slot will work for something beyond video.  

 

If, for some reason, the SASLP doesn't work in your motherboard (highly unlikely), you'd need to replace your motherboard anyways and this card could be used in the new motherboard.  So either way an investment in this card is a good one if you plan to expand your array.

 

 

Thanks for the suggestion, if I have to get a new board then I'll wait for the Gigabyte GA-E350N-USB3 board and hopefully it will work with Unraid and MV8 card.