November 28, 20223 yr I am running Unraid on an ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6, so this board while really nice is only PCI-e 2.0. It is my understanding that a PCI-e 3.0 card is backwards compatible with PCI-e 2.0. This indicates to me that I should be able to install any of the LSI Sata HBA's into the system for more Sata ports. But, before I buy one and flash it to IT mode, I wanted to confirm my thinking. I also assume that the throughput should be comparable to my 7 onboard Sata ports that I am currently using? I am currently planning to replace older 1-3tb drives as I can afford newer drives, but currently have all of my ports full between pairity, cache and online data. Thanks Matt
November 28, 20223 yr Solution 2 minutes ago, mattw said: It is my understanding that a PCI-e 3.0 card is backwards compatible with PCI-e 2.0. PCIe revisions are backwards compatible with prior versions. For HDDs, PCIe 2.0 bandwidth is sufficient. I have a Dell H310 (LSI 9211-8i equivalent) in my server and it is only PCIe 2.0. The PCIe slots on the motherboard support version 3.0. PCIe 2.0 is more than enough for the 8 HDDs that can be attached to the Dell H310.
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