Do I have SAS HBA options for a Asus Prime B560-Plus Motherboard?

[jrd680]

Wondering if I’m able to use a SAS HBA for my Asus Prime B560-Plus Motherboard. Currently have 6 SAS drives that won’t plug into my SATA ports of my motherboard.

 

I had messaged Art of Server on eBay and he mentioned

“Also, besides the x16 slot, you don't have any x8 slots which is what this card prefers. If you install it in the x4 (in x16) slot, you'll be limited to half the bandwidth of this card's capability. Just keep that in mind if it is a concern.”.

 

So am I screwed? I’d rather not have to pay for more drives at the moment. I’d also preferably not have to change out my motherboard.

 

 

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[Hoopster]

5 hours ago, jrd680 said:

If you install it in the x4 (in x16) slot, you'll be limited to half the bandwidth of this card's capability.

The PCIe 3.0 x16 (physical) slot that supports x4 mode still gives you 4 GB/s in x4.  Reduce that by 20% for overhead (typical) and you are still left with 3200 MB/s.  If you have 8 HDDs attached to the drive, that should still be more than enough even when all are in use.  Most spinners are pushing it to get to 250 MB/s and 200 MB/s is usually plenty.

 

I don't know what card you are looking at specifically, but., if it is PCIe 3.0 you should still have enough bandwidth for 8 HDDs.  PCIe 2.0 may be pushing it.

 

SSDs may be an issue from a bandwidth perspective but, depending on the card, it is usually not recommended to attach SSDs to an HBA anyway.  Use MB SATA ports if you have 2.5" SATA SSDs.

 

Keep in mind that only during things like parity checks are all attached drives going to be spun up and actively reading/writing.

 

@JorgeB is the real expert on this stuff.

Edited January 23, 2022 by Hoopster

[jrd680]

The PCIe 3.0 x16 (physical) slot that supports x4 mode still gives you 4 GB/s in x4.  Reduce that by 20% for overhead (typical) and you are still left with 3200 MB/s.  If you have 8 HDDs attached to the drive, that should still be more than enough even when all are in use.  Most spinners are pushing it to get to 200 MB/s.
 
I don't know what card you are looking at specifically, but., if it is PCIe 3.0 you should still have enough bandwidth for 8 HDDs.  PCIe 2.0 may be pushing it.
 
SSDs may be an issue from a bandwidth perspective but, depending on the card, it is usually not recommended to attach SSDs to an HBA anyway.  Use MB SATA ports if you have 2.5" SATA SSDs.
 
Keep in mind that only during things like parity checks are all attached drives going to be spun up and actively reading/writing.
 
@JorgeB is the real expert on this stuff.

Thanks for the response. So I’m not looking to do any SSD’s connected to a HBA. I’ll pick up a M.2 closer to summer and put that on my motherboard.

Yeah so at least as far as I know I won’t need a graphics card as my cpu has integrated graphics. Down the line I’ll switch to a Fractal 7XL case but probably not till next year or the year after. Then the plan is to have 12+ drives later down the line.

Looking forward to what others say as well.


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[JorgeB]

If you don't need graphics use the x16 slot, x4 used with a PCIe 3.0 HBA still has plenty of bandwidth for 8 drives, just keep in mind that slot goes thought the DMI, so bandwidth is shared with the remaining SATA ports, etc.

[jrd680]

If you don't need graphics use the x16 slot, x4 used with a PCIe 3.0 HBA still has plenty of bandwidth for 8 drives, just keep in mind that slot goes thought the DMI, so bandwidth is shared with the remaining SATA ports, etc.

Sounds good, is there a recommended LSI card flashed to IT mode? I’ll search some more but not seeing much of what others have done if anybody has used a HBA card with that motherboard. Also hence why I’d cross posted in the motherboards section, my apologies. I’ll also later poke around the Compulsive Design section to see what motherboard, cpu, HBA’s people are using.


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[JorgeB]

 

[jrd680]

Thanks all, I bought a HBA card (LSI 9211-8i) from
The Art of Server on eBay. I ended up having to remove the metal bracket as my case (Cooler Master 400) doesn’t easily allow removal of the PCIE slots in the back of the case. Didn’t wanna mod my case so the bracket removal worked.


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