Sata expansion card questions.

[Thornwood]

I have a Asus M4A785-M mother board.

It has a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot and a PCI Express x1 slot.

 

And I am looking for a Sata expansion Card that runs on either or.... I prefer faster but I will take any suggestions.

 

I am trying to build a 20 drive system (in time) so I all ready have 2 Cards that are PCI not fast but I will put data that needs less usage on these drives. I also have the motherboards 6 sata slots. So 8+6+4+4=22 2 spares cool. All I need is a good 8 port sata card. Any good ideas?

 

Thank you.

[Rajahal]

The SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 is an 8 port SAS card that will work in the PCIe x16 slot.  Keep in mind that you will need special cables for this card - either SAS-SATA forward breakout cables or SAS-SAS cables if you use a case with backplanes, such as the Norco 4220.

 

It looks like you won't need to use your PCIe x1 slot, but if you choose to you should just get something cheap like this.

 

I believe a PCIe x1 card will work in the PCIe x16 slot, but not the other way around.

 

To improve your parity check/data rebuild speeds, you might want to consider replacing one of your PCI cards with the PCIe x1 card that I linked above.  You would then have:

 

6 onboard + 8 PCIe x16 + 2 PCIe x1 + 4 PCI = 20 Drives

 

The PCI drives will still bottleneck your system, but the fewer you have on PCI the better.

[Seven]

The SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 is an 8 port SAS card that will work in the PCIe x16 slot.  Keep in mind that you will need special cables for this card - either SAS-SATA forward breakout cables or SAS-SAS cables if you use a case with backplanes, such as the Norco 4220.

 

When adding an expansion card, like the Super-Micro card mentioned here, do you just install the card into the system and then power up and all is good or is more needed like drivers, additional software packages, configuration, etc., before unRAID will recognize the new expansion card?  Thanks.

[gfjardim]

The SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 works out of the box, additional drivers or software needed.

[Thornwood]

The SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8 is an 8 port SAS card that will work in the PCIe x16 slot.  Keep in mind that you will need special cables for this card - either SAS-SATA forward breakout cables or SAS-SAS cables if you use a case with backplanes, such as the Norco 4220.

 

It looks like you won't need to use your PCIe x1 slot, but if you choose to you should just get something cheap like this.

 

I believe a PCIe x1 card will work in the PCIe x16 slot, but not the other way around.

 

To improve your parity check/data rebuild speeds, you might want to consider replacing one of your PCI cards with the PCIe x1 card that I linked above.  You would then have:

 

6 onboard + 8 PCIe x16 + 2 PCIe x1 + 4 PCI = 20 Drives

 

The PCI drives will still bottleneck your system, but the fewer you have on PCI the better.

 

Thank you very much.

 

On the PCIeX1 slot I will see if I can find a SATAe card. My case has enough room for three 3X5 so to get 20 drives I will do an External drive enclosure. I hope to find one that can handle one 3X5. Both My PCI Boards handle 2 SATAe.

[Rajahal]

Here's the same PCIe x1 card with two eSATA ports instead of two internal SATA ports:

 

PCI Express Serial ATA II (SATA II) Card, 2x External Port (e-SATA), SiI3132 Chipset

 

Should work out-of-the-box with unRAID, just like the other one.

[queeg]

Here's the same PCIe x1 card with two eSATA ports instead of two internal SATA ports:

 

PCI Express Serial ATA II (SATA II) Card, 2x External Port (e-SATA), SiI3132 Chipset

 

Should work out-of-the-box with unRAID, just like the other one.

 

I'm using this card on the same motherboard, it works great.  I have a dual port dock connected with one of the drives in my unRAID array and the other is not.  I hotswap the one that isn't in the array and it works perfectly.  I also have this adapters brother that is sata, not esata.  I've hooked up a sata/esata cable to it and it works perfectly for esata also as both cards are hotswappable.  

[Thornwood]

Thank you very much.

 

Now I need to scratch up the money so that I can get it.

 

Thank you.