is it looks ok ? ``` 10Gtek M.2 to SATA Adapter, M Key to SATA3.0 Card, ASMedia ASM1166 Chip, Support SSD and HDD for Desktop PC with LED Indicator, Tools Included```    https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-SATA3-0-NO-Riad-Desktop-Support/dp/B0B5RJHYFD  

 

13 hours ago, Masterwishx said:

is it looks ok ?

Should be.

5 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Should be.

 

What is mean x2 electrical in addition to x4 physical? 

47 minutes ago, Masterwishx said:

What is mean x2 electrical in addition to x4 physical? 

That's when a controller requires a x4 (or larger) slot, but will only be using 2 lanes.

 

 

44 minutes ago, Masterwishx said:

x2 electrical in addition to x4 physical? 

That means the PCIe slot is physically big enough for an x4 card (with 4 lanes), so an x8 or x16 card that have a bigger connector do not fit, but an x1 or x2 or x4 card will fit.

 

However, only 2 lanes (x2) are connected to the system, so the other 2 lanes have no connection. So that means a card with an x1 or x2 connector will work at max capability, but an x4 card won't be able to use 2 lanes, so it only will have half the bandwidth as maximum.

 

2 hours ago, JorgeB said:

That's when a controller requires a x4 (or larger) slot, but will only be using 2 lanes.

 

 

ASM1166, a SATA host controller(AHCI) with upstream PCIe Gen3 x2 and downstream six SATA Gen3 ports

 

Sorry I'm still not sure if it used in m2 port x4 physical but only x2 electrical, how it use x6 sata ports if it need x6 lanes physical ? 

Not all will use at same time or  

Or it's like expanded by controller? 

32 minutes ago, Masterwishx said:

ASM1166, a SATA host controller(AHCI) with upstream PCIe Gen3 x2 and downstream six SATA Gen3 ports

 

Sorry I'm still not sure if it used in m2 port x4 physical but only x2 electrical, how it use x6 sata ports if it need x6 lanes physical ? 

Not all will use at same time or  

Or it's like expanded by controller? 

 

ASM1166 IS the other controller. It converts PCIe lanes (x2 in this case) to 6 SATA III ports - those are not equiavalent to PCIe lanes.

Unraid 7 potential issues post moved to: 

 

 

Edited January 16, 20251 yr by glancy
in wrong place

Hi!

 

Been running Unraid for almost a year now and decided to make the transition from tower case to server rack.

I'm still pretty new to the server hardware space, so if I have misunderstood anything fundamental. Please correct me or ask me to clarify and I will do my best.

So I recently bought a Chenbro RM41416 with a SAS2 backplane and the connectors on the backplane is SFF-8087 to SFF-8643.

My issue is that I don't have any SFF-8643 ports on my motherboard, but a few SATA ports with the SATA expansion card I have.

 

So my question is:

Should I buy new cables that are SFF-8087 to SATA?

Or get an PCIe card that has SFF-8643 ports on it?

The SFF-8643 card that I found after some quick googling was this one: https://www.amazon.se/gp/product/B0B7S6HMC7/ref=sw_img_1?smid=A1IT2UFMVZEG5L&psc=1&language=en_GB

 

But I couldn't really find any information on what is commonly the best practice in this case.

So I hope that some of you can shed som light on my issue.

 

Thanks in advance!

9 hours ago, Fizzz said:

Chenbro RM41416

Does it include an expander? I assume not, how many miniSAS connectors?

Sorry for the confusion. 

I have the empty case with backplane. 

 

I will put my own motherboard and things in it. 

It is 4 miniSAS connectors, if my understanding that miniSAS and Sff-8643 is the same. 

 

My motherboard has 4 sata ports and then a pcie card with 8 sata ports. 

 

I don't need all the drive bays, so that was my thought when suggesting changing the cables that are sff-8087 -> sata instead of sff-8087 -> sff-8643 that it is now. 

56 minutes ago, Fizzz said:

It is 4 miniSAS connectors

Assuming it's a connected per 4 drives, it doesn't have an expander, you can use any SAS/SATA controller with the appropriate cables, they need to be reverse forward if there are individual SATA ports on them.

7 hours ago, JorgeB said:

Assuming it's a connected per 4 drives, it doesn't have an expander, you can use any SAS/SATA controller with the appropriate cables, they need to be reverse forward if there are individual SATA ports on them.

Yes, it is 4 drives per cable.
What would you say about getting a card like this?

https://www.amazon.se/gp/product/B0B7S6HMC7/ref=sw_img_1?smid=A1IT2UFMVZEG5L&psc=1&language=en_GB

Then I wouldn't need any new cables.

15 minutes ago, Fizzz said:

What would you say about getting a card like this?

That won't work, it's not a SAS/SATA HBA, that's for U.2 NVMe devices.

19 minutes ago, JorgeB said:

That won't work, it's not a SAS/SATA HBA, that's for U.2 NVMe devices.

Ah, thanks for the clarification.

 

New cables it is.

And saw your comment about them needing to be reverse forward if there are individual SATA ports on them.
Just to clarify. It would be if the cable is sff-8087 to 4 sata connectors?

9 minutes ago, Fizzz said:

It would be if the cable is sff-8087 to 4 sata connectors?

Yep, to connect to 4 SATA board ports.

I have a MSI B550 Gaming Gen3 motherboard, with a free PCI x16 slot that supports PCIe 3.0 x4 and 4x PCIe x1 slots.

I've recently filled all 6 sata ports on this mobo and I want to expand with an HBA or something, what should I get and from where? (EU).
I was looking at a Supermicro 9300-8i from aliexpress, but I don't know if that's the right choice?
I'm going to use ordinary sata harddrives, atm I only have seagate exos.

7 hours ago, CusmaR said:

I was looking at a Supermicro 9300-8i from aliexpress, but I don't know if that's the right choice?

If you need 8 ports that a good option, assuming it's genuine.

1 hour ago, JorgeB said:

If you need 8 ports that a good option, assuming it's genuine.

I guess I'll find out when it's time to order :), thanks for your advice.

15 hours ago, Fizzz said:

Just to clarify. It would be if the cable is sff-8087 to 4 sata connectors?

See this post why forward and reverse sas-to-sata cables are different and important.

Thank you for this excellent thread!

 

I have a LSI 9207-8i card in my system and now need to expand it with another card. Getting reasonably priced LSI / Broadcom cards is a bit problematic here where I live. Therefore, I am planning on getting this: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/dp/B07VV91L61/?th=1.

• Is 10Gtek a good brand? That is, has there been reports against their cards and Unraid?
• I needed to update the BIOS and firmware of my LSI card. I tried to find BIOS & firmware updates for the 10Gtek card but did not find them. As the 10Gtek card has a Broadcom chip, can LSI / Broadcom firmwares utilized with it?

 

Supposedly they use the same LSI/Broadcom chips, so it should be OK, and use the same LSI firmware. 

Thank you for the very fast response!

 

Maybe I will go with a "safer" route and purchase an already flashed card like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305124908426.

 

From the first port in this thread: 

Quote

Note: RAID controllers are not recommended for Unraid, this includes all LSI MegaRAID models, doesn't mean they cannot be used but there could be various issues because of that, like no SMART info and/or temps being displayed, disks not being recognized by Unraid if the controller is replaced with a different model, and in some cases the partitions can become invalid, requiring rebuilding all the disks.

 

In the description of the above ebay item it says "Product line: Megaraid". I have seen "Megaraid" mentioned also in other LSI 9211-8i  sales adds. Is there a possible issue? I have understood that LSI 9211-8i cards are good for Unraid.

Although i have an LSI 9206-16e SAS HBA IT Mode in one of my unraid servers. i have just bought a couple of MiniSAS 4bay external drives so going to order myself:

 

9200-8e HP LSI SAS HBA - IT Mode

 

with a couple of SFF-8088 cables - just need to up my unraid license from Pro (12 device)

1 hour ago, Ruato said:

I have understood that LSI 9211-8i cards are good for Unraid.

9211-8i is not MegaRAID, though it can still be flashed to RIAD mode, but you can reflash to IT mode, 9240-8i/9260-8i for example, are MegaRAID.