Gotta ask before I make a mistake buying an LBA Sata adapter.

[mattw]

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

[Hoopster]

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.

[mattw]

Thanks for confirming!