IBM BR10i won't work with AsRock AliveXFire

[habibjp]

Hello all

I wanted to upgrade the motherboard and CPU in my server but I've run into a problem.

The board I'm using is a bit strange: it has two PCIe slots but if you want to use only one you're supposed to install a "switch card" (which came with it) in the other slot. The wording of the manual implies that the full-length PCIe slots are only intended for GPUs.

If I install a GPU in one slot and the IBM BR10i SATA controller in the other (said controller worked flawlessly on my older intel board), the controller doesn't POST (on the previous board it would POST after the motherboard POSTed) and unraid boots but doesn't see any drives. If I swap them round it's the same. I tried putting the BR10i and the switch card in, but naturally the motherboard refuses to boot without a GPU.

Is there any way to get my controller to work with this board?

 

Specs:

Parity: 2x2TB

Data: 5x2TB, 1x1.5TB

SATA Controller: IBM BR10i (8xSATA via 2xSAS)

Motherboard: AsRock ALiveXFire-eSATA2 R3.0

CPU: AMD Athon II X2 240 @2.8GHz

RAM: 4x1GB DDR2

(Old Motherboard: AsRock ConRoe 1333-D667 R3.0)

(Old CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @3.16 GHz)

(Old RAM: 2x2GB DDR2)

PSU: XFX TS 430

Flash: Lexar JumpDrive 8GB

[SSD]

11 minutes ago, habibjp said:

Hello all

I wanted to upgrade the motherboard and CPU in my server but I've run into a problem.

The board I'm using is a bit strange: it has two PCIe slots but if you want to use only one you're supposed to install a "switch card" (which came with it) in the other slot. The wording of the manual implies that the full-length PCIe slots are only intended for GPUs.

If I install a GPU in one slot and the IBM BR10i SATA controller in the other (said controller worked flawlessly on my older intel board), the controller doesn't POST (on the previous board it would POST after the motherboard POSTed) and unraid boots but doesn't see any drives. If I swap them round it's the same. I tried putting the BR10i and the switch card in, but naturally the motherboard refuses to boot without a GPU.

Is there any way to get my controller to work with this board?

 

Specs:

Parity: 2x2TB

Data: 5x2TB, 1x1.5TB

SATA Controller: IBM BR10i (8xSATA via 2xSAS)

Motherboard: AsRock ALiveXFire-eSATA2 R3.0

CPU: AMD Athon II X2 240 @2.8GHz

RAM: 4x1GB DDR2

(Old Motherboard: AsRock ConRoe 1333-D667 R3.0)

(Old CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 @3.16 GHz)

(Old RAM: 2x2GB DDR2)

PSU: XFX TS 430

Flash: Lexar JumpDrive 8GB

 

The BR10i is limited to 2T and smaller drives. But I know of no reason why the motherboard would not see it. You are sure the board is good? It works in the other MB.

 

[habibjp]

The board and GPU (Sapphire 5670) have worked fine together in the past, although I've never tried to get anything other than a GPU to run in the x16 slots. I'll check for BIOS updates, but may just go back to the old setup - according to Passmark the E8500 is significantly faster than the Athlon II anyway!

[dikkiedirk]

Looking at the specs on the Asrock site the switch card for using the 2 PCIE slots is mentioned for using Crossfire. Might well be that it is limited to graphics cards only.

[habibjp]

Yeah I think that must be it - it was a budget board when I bought it. I checked the BIOS, it's the latest and I don't fancy trying to update the BR10i firmware so I'm going back to the old platform.

 

Thanks for the help

Edited February 16, 2018 by habibjp