Looking at getting a cheap SAS expander card with 4x sff8087 ports on it that operates internally at x4x4x4x4. It's physically a x16 card. Will it work in a x8 or x4 configured slot? I don't care about performance. I just want to make sure it's not common for those to be locked to the lanes.
SAS Expander with x16 in x8 slot?
- Thread starter BitBass
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It's a Dell YPNRC. I'm having trouble with the basic understanding of this so maybe you can set me straight. Consumer MoBo. I have some LSI 9207-8i cards but I'm looking to add ports. Is the YPNRC usable by itself (or with the onboard SATA controller, probably not) or do I need an HBA in the system? And if I need the HBA in the system, does it connect to the YPNRC through the PCI-e bus? I don't see any other connectors on the card for an "input".
My original question was because of the PCI-e slots on my MoBo being configurable to x8x8x4 across 3 x16 slots. If I have the right components, will the x4x4x4x4 YPNRC work on all ports in a x8 configured slot. Even if I need to add the HBA into the mix the question still holds.
Hope I'm making sense and not describing a bunch of nonsense!
My original question was because of the PCI-e slots on my MoBo being configurable to x8x8x4 across 3 x16 slots. If I have the right components, will the x4x4x4x4 YPNRC work on all ports in a x8 configured slot. Even if I need to add the HBA into the mix the question still holds.
Hope I'm making sense and not describing a bunch of nonsense!
Yep, I saw that and it led me to ask these questions. The last question in that thread is similar to the confusion I'm having. I admit that I might be missing some fundamental understanding of how this works, which is why I'm hoping someone can help turn on the lightbulb for me. Is there something that describes how a card like the YPNRC works and what other components it requires when outside a Dell server?
Doing some more investigation, I take it something like the Lenovo 03X3834 has two upstream connectors to go to the HBA and then 4x8087 connectors for drives. If that's accurate, it makes sense to me. I guess the Dell is confusing me with how it makes that upstream HBA connection.
OK so first thing to note is that the YPNRC is a weird card; it has nothing to do with SAS, despite having 8087 connectors. It is neither a SAS HBA nor a SAS expander. You could perhaps call it a PCIe expander; it has a PLX switch on board to mux up to four PCIe connections (via the 8087s) onto a single slot. It does not rely on motherboard bifurcation support. The motherboard slot it uses would ideally be x16, but x8 should be just fine. It was designed to go with Dell-specific cables and backplane for NVMe drives.
Yeah, I was starting to think it didn't seem like a normal card. Ok, I appreciate this info. I'd still like to understand how a normal expander will work.
if you need sas expander, then search for intel or chenbro.
both can be powered by 4 pin molex, but intel can be also powered by pci-e slot.
chenbro has small fan on the chipset-cooling-block.
pci-e slot is just only for power, not for data transfers.
you connect sas expander to hba
hdd/ssd you connect to sas expander
both can be powered by 4 pin molex, but intel can be also powered by pci-e slot.
chenbro has small fan on the chipset-cooling-block.
pci-e slot is just only for power, not for data transfers.
you connect sas expander to hba
hdd/ssd you connect to sas expander
Are there any cables for this card or the Gen3 one GY1TD or P31H2 that convert from dell's pinout to a more standard one, such as the standard SFF-8643, or U.2 ?