Question PCIe Gen 3 16x to 24x SATA III?

[ouroborus]

Any idea if these would work together?


StarTech Quad M.2 PCIe Adapter Card PCIex16 QUADM2PCIECARDB

M.2 NVME PCI-E PCIE 3.0 X4 X8 X16 To 6 Port 3.0 SATA Adapter Card 6Gbps Chassis server PC Computer Expansion

 

[Lutfij]

Make and model of your motherboard and the processor you're working with?

 

[ouroborus]

Make and model of your motherboard and the processor you're working with?

Haven't gotten that far, still working on it. I know I need a motherboard that supports bifurcation. The CPU just needs to support throughput as a NAS with 10GbE. I figure I might be able to get a motherboard that has a 16x and a 4x slot. I'm not sure if I can find a PCIe 4x 10GbE card. Maybe one that uses PCIe gen 4.

EDIT: Seems I can run an 8x NIC in a 4x PCIe gen 3 slot and still have plenty of bandwidth to support 10GbE.

 

[Misgar]

Your solution for 24 SATA ports looks neat. For smaller systems, I've used 8-channel LSI SAS Controllers flashed to IT mode. You might be able to expand one of these out to 24 drives.

The Asus XG-C100C 10GbE NIC is PCIe x4, if you want 10Gig Ethernet, but maybe you're looking for a quad port card, in which case it'll be PCIe x8. I doubt you'll get full bandwidth on all four 10GbE ports if you restrict the card to PCIe x4. Probably 4x 5GbE throughput.

Startech used to make a PEX1000FSP 10GbE PCIe x4 NIC for 10Gig FSP+ fibre or copper.

 

[thestryker]

Any idea if these would work together?


StarTech Quad M.2 PCIe Adapter Card PCIex16 QUADM2PCIECARDB

M.2 NVME PCI-E PCIE 3.0 X4 X8 X16 To 6 Port 3.0 SATA Adapter Card 6Gbps Chassis server PC Computer Expansion

You would probably be better off just buying a PCIe card that supports 24x SATA drives. In theory what you're trying to do should work, but you're adding layers of complexity and failure points that simply don't need to be there.

 

[ouroborus]

You would probably be better off just buying a PCIe card that supports 24x SATA drives. In theory what you're trying to do should work, but you're adding layers of complexity and failure points that simply don't need to be there.

Did you have a recommendation for such a card in the same price range?

 

[thestryker]

Did you have a recommendation for such a card in the same price range?

SYBA USA

SYBA USA-SYBA USA catalog..

www.sybausa.com

I'm sure there are others, but that's the first one I saw that I'd personally be willing to try.

 

[Misgar]

This 24-port card might be a bit pricey because it's SAS/SATA and at PCIe 3x8 may not be fast enough if you're using SATA SSDs instead of SATA (spinning) hard disks. All you'll need is six SFF 8643 4-way SATA breakout cables and you're done.

https://www.amazon.com/SXTAIGOOD-93...1690022807&sprefix=24-port+sas,aps,262&sr=8-3

https://www.amazon.com/EDIMS-Intern...refix=sff+8643+breakout+cable,aps,260&sr=8-11

 

[ouroborus]

SYBA USA

SYBA USA-SYBA USA catalog..

www.sybausa.com

I'm sure there are others, but that's the first one I saw that I'd personally be willing to try.

Oh, this is great! Can get them on Amazon, new, for less than $200. Other 24 port cards I'd seen were $1000+. I imagine the difference is that this one is meant for use with SATA specifically (with the idea that one would use SAS-to-SATA cables) while the others are meant for SAS.

This 24-port card might be a bit pricey because it's SAS/SATA and at PCIe 3x8 may not be fast enough if you're using SATA SSDs instead of SATA (spinning) hard disks. All you'll need is six SFF 8643 4-way SATA breakout cables and you're done.

The Intel X540-T1 (a 10GbE network card) is PCIe2.1 x8 so your find would be good match for use in a NAS as I intend.

 

[Misgar]

I regularly use inexpensive second-hand LSI SAS controllers with SATA drives. 15 to 20 dollars will get you a SAS3 controller that will handle up to 4 SATA (or SAS) hard disk drives.

A bit more money and you can buy a controller for 8 SATA (or SAS) hard disks.

If you're prepared to stick to SAS3 or SAS6 and spinning hard disks, things are quite cheap. SAS12 with its higher throughput is more expensive.

As far as I know, it's not possible to mix SAS and SATA disk drives on the same controller card.

The second- hand server market is a source of high quality components, if you know where to look.