@srfnmnk i use for of the On-board SATA. Also, this board has an option in the bios that let you connect 4 SATA drive on the U2 connector.

@srfnmnk you could use a sas expander card like the intel res2sv240 it has pcie x4 pins for power or 4 pin molex if you want to keep a slot free, it can be configured for 1 or 2 8087 from a HBA card and breaks out to 4 or 5 8087 (depending on how you config the input side ), so you can have 16 - 20 drives hanging off this thing, i use one of these in my rig it's just plug and play, I think HP make one that is about upto 24 or 28 drives capable, so if you want it set up for speed use 2 input 4 output and if you can use the m/b sata plugs for the rest or a second HBA card for upto 8 more drives or option 2 you could setup 1 input 5 output for 20 drives and still have another 4 off the second port of your HBA card

Hi guys, looking for any advice around using an older Ryzen 1700. I'm yet to purchase anything but need to upgrade my server. I have seen Ryzen 1700 CPU can now be obtained in the UK second hand for about £85. I want to pair one with 32GB of unregistered ECC (2 x 16gb modules ideally, or if I need to, 4 x 8gb). It seems a bit of a minefield out there with compatibility around ECC ram on the motherboards. 

 

From some reading online, it seems that the best choice for ECC compatibility is firstly Asrock, closely followed by Asus. Does anyone know of a solid motherboard and ram combo that will work?

 

I find the amount of Ryzen boards confusing and wonder whether I should go for a more modern one to hopefully avoid issues, but I don't really need overclocking or high end features, just 4 ram slots and if possible 2 high speed PCI-e slots.

Thanks @fr05ty and @Pducharme - gotcha. @Pducharme, yeah I finished reading that thread and figured it out. I am using a Norco 20 bay for hot swap front drives which is going to require that I have all my drives connected via SAS.

 

That said, I think I'm going to try my luck with this crazy expensive card LSI 9305-24i...and sell by -8i cards. Seems like then I can add two GPUs and this card card to the three PCI slots on the GIGABYTE X570 AORUS Master with the Ryzen 3900x.

 

Anyone see any issues with this setup?

18 minutes ago, srfnmnk said:

I think I'm going to try my luck with this crazy expensive card LSI 9305-24i...and sell by -8i cards

or use one or your -8i card paired with Intel RES2SV240 expander - it can be powered by molex, so it won't occupy PCIe slot.. in all, much cheaper solution.

29 minutes ago, uldise said:

or use one or your -8i card paired with Intel RES2SV240 expander - it can be powered by molex, so it won't occupy PCIe slot.. in all, much cheaper solution.

Thanks @uldise -- Think I'll still be able to saturate all 20 drives at around 120MB/s with only one of those 8i cards and this expander? I believe I understand that pci 2.0 8x should support 4000MB/s which should allow up to theoretical max of 200MB/s on all drives and thus I should be good...thoughts? does this seem accurate? If not, do you think the expensive -24i would allow me to saturate all 20 drives at 120MB/s?

 

Thanks again.

12 minutes ago, srfnmnk said:

Thanks @uldise -- Think I'll still be able to saturate all 20 drives at around 120MB/s with only one of those 8i cards and this expander? I believe I understand that pci 2.0 8x should support 4000MB/s which should allow up to theoretical max of 200MB/s on all drives and thus I should be good...thoughts? does this seem accurate? If not, do you think the expensive -24i would allow me to saturate all 20 drives at 120MB/s?

@johnnie.black have a great answers to those questions, so i will link two threads:

so all credits to him

Thanks again @uldise - I happen to have what looks to be an older PCIE 2.0 8x sas 8i card tho...with all the rebranding it's hard to keep up. Think I should just go ahead and upgrade to that pci 3.0 card? still cheaper than the original idea...

 

10 hours ago, srfnmnk said:

I happen to have what looks to be an older PCIE 2.0 8x sas 8i card tho...with all the rebranding it's hard to keep up. Think I should just go ahead and upgrade to that pci 3.0 card?

not sure about your card it even have HBA mode.. but according to PCIe 3.0 - if your board have 3.0 slot, the yes, look for 3.0 card. according to link above:

RES2SV240 Dual Link on LSI 9207-8i (4800MB/s) gives you 16 x 275MB/s. Plus some ports on your board.

@uldise thanks again for all the great info. Almost squared away here, one lady question... Whats the difference between these two? I think you're recommending the second one, but I have the first one... However, the one you're recommending looks to be PCI 3 whereas the one I have is only pci 2...do you agree? You thinking it's probably worth it to upgrade?

 

The one I have, HighPoint RocketRAID 2720SGL 8-Port SAS 6Gb/s PCIe 2.0 x8 RAID HBA https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050SLTPC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Dh5aEbHCP9098

 

The one I think you're recommending, LSI Logic SAS 9207-8i Storage Controller LSI00301 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085FT2JC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_cn5aEbPB1VTBR

20 minutes ago, srfnmnk said:

Whats the difference between these two?

Yours is PCIe 2, 9207-8i is PCIe 3, so more available bandwidth to all connected disks. but it's affected only if you use all disks together like parity check or turbo write.. 

but you can do step by step - first get expander, and then plan your HBA upgrade if yours is not enough..

@PducharmeWhich USB port did you use for the flash drive since USB 2.0 is preferred and the Asus Pro WS Ace X570 doesn't have one on the back panel? I have the same board and am using it with Unraid.

@lzrdking71 I used a random one, i think I even change twice.  No issue at all, even if 3.x USB port.  Might look at some kind of internal adapter to be able to put the USB key of unraid Interal.  

I haven't had any issues with the usb boot either on this asus board. Only issue I am having is some print_req_error: I/O error's on a unassigned device plugged into a 9207-8i that I think are related to the drive spinning down. I am hoping to get that sorted or I may have to us the U.2 port for my unassigned devices connections.

 

@Pducharme

 

I was just curious if you have given the new 2010 bios asus released for the WS-X570-ACE a whirl?

I saw the new bios, but did not installed it yet. I plan on maybe switching board and cpu with my other PC (asrock x470 with Ryzen 2700x) because I feel the 3900x will be more useful in a gaming pc

Not just a struggle with lanes, but what is with the lack of slots in the first place? Looking at B550, X570 and they either have only 2 16x slots and a few x1, or not even that. My B350 Strix-F at least has enough slots of accommodate my 1080, Mallenox Connect-X3, and SAS controller. Not sure what board to go with.

@Pducharme maybe you can confirm this to me regarding Asus X570 WS Pro-Ace ....
On slot1 available for pci-e, it is rated as x16 in single, could it be splitted (bifurcated) in bios to x8x4x4 ? As here mentioned it is not possible, just want to double check for future proof extension options..https://www.asus.com/us/support/FAQ/1037507


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Hi @Luca2, I moved out of the Asus X570 WS Pro-ace for my Unraid box... I can't test or confirm unfortunately, sorry.