OK,  I am needing to expand my server, & have been looking at sata controllers & am not sure what exactly would be the best card for my server at this point.

I currently have 3 Icy Dock 5 in 3's in my case.  However, I only have 8 drives live at this time.

My Motherboard has 9 onboard sata ports, so I need a total of 6 more ports to fill this server.

 

Motherboard - Abit AB9 Pro

Expansion Slots

PCI Express x16 1  - Video Card

PCI Express x1 2

PCI Slots 2

 

What is my best option with this setup?

I've kept a sata port open so I could go with a port multiplier, but I'm not sure those work too well with Unraid yet.

 

Someone recommended the Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 but that uses PCI Express x4 which my MB does not have.

 

Please let me know what my options are.

 

Thanks!

Someone recommended the Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 but that uses PCI Express x4 which my MB does not have.

 

If you buy a cheap PCI video card the you can put the Supermicro card in the x16 slot.

 

Also, there are actually 10 ports on the bit board.  The eSATA port can be used to hook up another drive.  I have don't it and it works just fine.  I bought an eSATA to internal SATA cable and mounted the drive in the case.  Works great.

I too would buy a cheap PCI video card and place the Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 in the 16-lane PCI-Express slot.

So that Supermicro card will work in the PCI Express x16 slot?

 

Sounds like a plan!

It should. But the real life answer is maybe. It depends on the motherboard's chipset and bios. Some mfgs might have buggy bios or skimped on design. Short of that, PCI Express Specification states cards requiring less lanes can be utilized in slots providing more lanes (1x or 4x in 4x, 8x, 16x).