You have totally impressed me with your explanation for the PCIe power usage. I actually had to go check the specs because I've never heard of this before. Everything I read said it was backwards compatible and if there was a discrepancy then I clearly didn't catch it when I read the specs. You did cite Wikipedia, which is usually accurate with things like this. I got very curious as to what the deal is with this since I read some of these specs for fun(yes, I'm pathetic and have no life). Anyway, so you are right, but also wrong. I'll explain.
When the PCIe 1.0 spec was released it allowed for up to 75watts from the PCIe slot(x16) plus two 6-pin power connectors for graphics cards(technically it says for graphics cards only, but some companies uses the added power for other cards... go figure!) for up to 225w total power usage(75w from slot, plus 75w from each 6-pin connector). With PCIe 2.0, the spec allowed for up to 75 watts from the PCIe slot and one 6-pin connector(75w) and one 8-pin connector(150w) for up to 300w of power. This was strictly on the PSU side of the house and didn't change the maximum power draw from the PCIe slot.
Note that 4x and 8x slots are limited to 25w and 1x to 10w regardless of PCIe version . Even the 16x slot must initially be at 25w. I couldn't find what "initially" was defined as and at what point it wasn't "initially" anymore. My guess is only during POST, but who knows.
With all that being said....
-If you bought a power supply that supports "PCIe 1.0 spec" then you can use it on a "PCIe 2.0 spec" card assuming it doesn't actually have an 8-pin connector or the manufacturer allows you to use the 6-pin connector in the 8-pin connector slot, but at a reduced speed due to the lower power available.
-If you buy a "PCIe 2.0 spec" PSU, then it will obviously be backwards compatible as the PSU will have to include the 8-pin and two 6-pin. Most PSUs will likely have the 8-pin as a 6+2 connector for convenience.
Now check out how smart us humans are... guess what the PCIe 3.0 spec calls for? Haha...(assume 75w from the slot at all times)
225w:
- Add 8-pin connector(150w)
- Add two 6-pin connectors(75w each)
- Add 8-pin connector(but only at 75w) and a 6-pin connector(75w)
300w
- Add 8-pin connector(150w) plus 6-pin connector(75w)
- Add three 6-pin connectors(75w each)
- Notice the conspicuous lack of two 8-pin connectors!?
What a joke! Guess we know what PCIe 4.0 is likely to have.. haha.
Anyway, so with that out of the way we both got some edumication out of this. Definitely caught me off-guard with your educational post. Thanks for that!
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Now to the documentation...
At the end of the day, I realize that many people will ignore the documentation, or just not read it. Unfortunately, you can't fix "stupid", just like you can't force people to use the manual. I definitely recognize that people don't RTFM. I made my noobie guide and yet about 1/2 the questions asked in this forum are answered in my short presentation! Does it urk me? Heck yeah! I either ignore them or tell them to RTFM usually. I try to force them to fish so that they have to touch the documentation. Sure, sometimes it makes me look like a jerk(maybe even all of the time). But hopefully if they touch the documentation once they'll touch it a little more.. maybe even read it. That saves me from answering the same stupid questions over and over and maybe they'll read that one tidbit of info that saves them from losing their data.
Now, at the end of the day I look at the big picture like this. I was a FreeBSD/FreeNAS noob 2 years ago from today. I hadn't even touched a FreeBSD/FreeNAS system before. If I'm going to start using some software package I don't understand, I'm gonna put that program through the ringer and make sure I can do everything I need to do with it. I'm going to try to find weaknesses in the software, and I'm gonna try to break the software. I want total confidence that I'm using the software properly, I'm not doing anything to put my data at more risk than I may be realizing, and I want to know that if things start going wrong(bad hard drive, etc.) that I can handle the problems on my own, or have the expectation that I can find reasonable help from someone that will know the answers.
That being said, I spent almost a solid month with a test bed doing all sorts of nasty things to it. Pulling drives out with the system on, doing all those things the manual says not to do, etc. I also did a cubic boatload of forum reading and I read the manual cover to cover. I asked a lot of the stupid noob questions that I resent too. Go check them out! I was a moron! I put my guide together because there was no good all-you-can-eat quick document to help get some of this information straight. There's so much conflicting information out there(mostly between what is said in this forum about FreeNAS and the dozens of FreeNAS guides on youtube and elsewhere).
Now, if you chose not to do your due diligence and read the manual(only takes about 4 hours to read), and you choose to ignore my guide(maybe 20 minutes), then in my book you fail to do your due diligence. Now, it's not my job to judge you. But, you know what will judge you? Reality. And the reality of it is that you stand a very good chance of losing your data. Regardless of if you do NTFS or ZFS, etc. There's so many ways to get it wrong, and only a few ways to get it right. I just wrote in a post that someone did a 6-disk stripe and since 1 disk doesn't even spin-up anymore his data is permanently lost. I'm sure he's gonna poop in his pants when he finds out what he did wrong. And I have no doubt if he had read my guide and the manual he likely wouldn't have made that mistake. About 95% of the mistakes people make could have been prevented if they had read the manual and my guide. The other 5% are things that they assumed would work, appeared to work correctly, then later bit them in the butt. Mostly this is things like importing ZFS on linux pools and NAS4Free pools, running FreeNAS on ESXi or any type 2 hypervisor, etc. They aren't exactly covered in the manual, but people made the leap that it would work without understanding enough details about how FreeNAS works. We've created stickies for far too many things hoping that maybe if we provide another location for good info they might read it. They often don't anyway.
At the end of the day, its your data. How much time you spend doing your homework will determine how successful your FreeNAS experience is(I even mention this point in my guide!). Don't do your homework and you might be crying over lost bits later. I've seen it and I've heard it on Skype from people all over the planet. Some people even told me if I couldn't get their data back their marriage may be over because of the lost data. It's your data. You basically put a "value" on your data based on how much time, effort, and money you are willing to spend to do it right. Try to cut corners in one or more areas and you'll probably be back with a lost pool. Happens all the time. I used to care. Way too much in fact. But I don't anymore. People don't want to put an adequate value on their pool then come begging me to help them. Sorry, but inappropriate actions on your part does not constitute an emergency action on my part. I used to spend 20+ hours a week helping people.. for free! I stopped doing that. I offer my services to those that PM me, and that's that. If you lose your data, it was your responsibility to do it right.... and you didn't. I've tried to make stuff as clear and precise as possible. I don't always achieve that, but I try. It's nobody else's fault but your own though. Nobody will ever care about your data more than you do. Expecting anything more than that is just crazy talk IMO. It's not my job to educate you, it's not the manual's job to give explicit explanations for anything, but it's your job to make sure you look both ways before you cross the freeway. And choosing not to look can prove fatal for your data.
And you know, even after all that crap I just said, everyone that has ever even used a computer, let alone people that work in IT, have heard of "backups". And if you didn't want to make good ones, are you going to blame us for that?(that's rhetorical.. not directed at you). So, in theory, even after you kiss your pool goodbye, you should be able to recover. If you didn't make backups I'll go back to what I said above.. "you basically put a 'value' on your data based on how much time, effort, and money you are willing to spend to do it right". Sorry, but it's not a problem on my end if you didn't value your data enough when you chose a method of storing it.