LattePanda Sigma SATA expansion

[eicar]

I just watched the Unraid on ZimaBoard video by @SpaceInvaderOne here… and there is also a topic in this forum. Very nice indeed, and maybe it's possible to build a fairly big NAS with several drives using the PCIe slot on the side. At any rate, I immediately remembered the LattePanda Sigma. Since there don't seem to be any topics on this device here, only one for the older LattePanda Delta, I figured I could open one:

The LattePanda Sigma does not come with any traditional SATA ports—the ZimaBoard has two built in—, but I think it can be expanded to at least 10 (ten!) SATA ports with adapters converters on the underside of the device:

 

• 6 ports via e.g. the 10Gtek M.2 M key to 6xSATA adapter —> PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot (#14)
• 2 ports via e.g. the IO Crest M.2 B+M key to 2xSATA expansion card —> PCIe 3.0 x1 M.2 B key slot (#13)
• 2 ports via e.g. the IO Crest M.2 M.2 NGFF A+E key to 2xSATA expansion card —> PCIe 3.0 x1 M.2 E key slot (#16)

 

You would obviously lose WiFi/Bluetooth expandability by occupying the E key slot, but maybe there's also an M.2 M key to 7- or 8-port SATA adapter… then you wouldn't need the E key slot. At any rate, this would still leave one PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot for a fast cache drive. And like so often, the network interface would become the bottleneck (2 x 2.5GbE). 😉

Now, this sounds crazy, and maybe it is. One obvious downside is that the board only has one SATA power header. So you'd not only need a 10-bay SATA enclosure for the drives, but an external power supply to power these 10 drives. So in the end, this would be way more expensive than a solution using the ZimaBoard, and you might probably also save money building a server/NAS on your own instead of expanding a LattePanda Sigma.

 

In any case: would anyone know how to solve the latter two issues? (SATA power supply + enclosure?)

 

PS: it is a bit weird that the Sigma only comes with only 16GB or 32GB of RAM. The processor (Intel Core i5-1340P) supports up to 64GB. Maybe it's because of the form factor? Or the type of RAM used? DDR5 vs DDR4?

Edited September 8, 2023 by eicar

[foo_fighter]

On 9/8/2023 at 2:44 AM, eicar said:

 

 

In any case: would anyone know how to solve the latter two issues? (SATA power supply + enclosure?)

 

You would use a JBOD or a picopsu with a couple of 5in3 SATA hot swap backplanes. Here is a similar setup: