Need info about hard drives

[itsryan]

Hello yes this is my first post of most likely many. To start off I need help with my hard drives and how to get them all connected.
Currently I have the SUPERMICRO MBD-X11SSL-O Micro ATX Server Motherboard and NORCO RPC-2008 2U Rackmount Server Case
I'm going to be using the server for media storage / plex server
The Norco has 8 hot swap bays and 2 trays for SSD's, but the motherboard only has 6 SATA ports. I'm looking for a way to use all hot swap and the SSD trays. I have been looking at a few things that would expand the amount of SATA ports I have(IOCrest SI-PEX40064 PCI-Express 2.0) but i keep reading around that this would be hardware raid, and I have read I should avoid hardware raid at all costs.
What device can I get to expand the amount of SATA ports I have so I can connect all my drives and use them as software raid.

Also other questions that's kinda out there, my motherboard has a PCI-e slot that's x8 but in the size of a x16. would i be able to put a low profile gfx card in there. I might use the server for rendering later.

 

[Spearfoot]

Hello yes this is my first post of most likely many. To start off I need help with my hard drives and how to get them all connected.
Currently I have the SUPERMICRO MBD-X11SSL-O Micro ATX Server Motherboard and NORCO RPC-2008 2U Rackmount Server Case
I'm going to be using the server for media storage / plex server
The Norco has 8 hot swap bays and 2 trays for SSD's, but the motherboard only has 6 SATA ports. I'm looking for a way to use all hot swap and the SSD trays. I have been looking at a few things that would expand the amount of SATA ports I have(IOCrest SI-PEX40064 PCI-Express 2.0) but i keep reading around that this would be hardware raid, and I have read I should avoid hardware raid at all costs.
What device can I get to expand the amount of SATA ports I have so I can connect all my drives and use them as software raid.

Also other questions that's kinda out there, my motherboard has a PCI-e slot that's x8 but in the size of a x16. would i be able to put a low profile gfx card in there. I might use the server for rendering later.

Welcome to the forums!

What you need is a Host Bus Adapter (HBA). The most popular HBA here on the forum is probably the LSI 9211-8i (which is also available in OEM models such as the IBM M1015 and the Dell H200 & H310). There are a zillion threads on the forum about using these HBAs. Basically, you plug the HBA into a PCI-e port and get 4 or 8 more SAS/SATA ports (depending on the model, some only have 4 ports).

A good place for you to get started would be this hardware guide by our own @Ericloewe. It explains HBAs and how to use them, among a great many other things.

Good luck!

 

[itsryan]

Welcome to the forums!

What you need is a Host Bus Adapter (HBA). The most popular HBA here on the forum is probably the LSI 9211-8i (which is also available in OEM models such as the IBM M1015 and the Dell H200 & H310). There are a zillion threads on the forum about using these HBAs. Basically, you plug the HBA into a PCI-e port and get 4 or 8 more SAS/SATA ports (depending on the model, some only have 4 ports).

A good place for you to get started would be this hardware guide by our own @Ericloewe. It explains HBAs and how to use them, among a great many other things.

Good luck!

I have been looking into Host Bus Adapters. The only thing that was turning me away was that I didn't know if a SFF-8087 port to SATA cables is a common thing or just something random I thought of. I have seen the cables that would be used for that, I just could not find any posts or websites that talked about it.

I have spent about a hour looking at that hardware guide, and comparing parts with what i learned there. Its very well written.

Also my other random question in my post was. My motherboard has a PCI-e slot that's x8 but in the size of a x16. would i be able to put a low profile gfx card in there. I might use the server for rendering later.

 

[pirateghost]

Yes, SFF8087 to SATA cables is a real thing. Get them on Newegg, Amazon, or any of a thousand other sites that sell PC components.

As for your question about the graphics card, you can't use FreeNAS to render anything.

 

[SweetAndLow]

It's also called a forward breakout cable don't buy the reverse breakout cable which looks the same but is different.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Spearfoot]

Here are a couple of SFF-8087 forward breakout cables available on Amazon:

• StarTech
• Cable Matters

 

[GBillR]

I have been looking into Host Bus Adapters. The only thing that was turning me away was that I didn't know if a SFF-8087 port to SATA cables is a common thing or just something random I thought of. I have seen the cables that would be used for that, I just could not find any posts or websites that talked about it.

I have spent about a hour looking at that hardware guide, and comparing parts with what i learned there. Its very well written.

Not sure if you came across this sticky post or not, but it answered all my questions on SAS to SATA: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...-sas-sy-a-primer-on-basic-sas-and-sata.26145/