SAS UltraStar HDD with U.2 Motherboard Port

[dahorde]

I am currently only using SATA drives and have an SAS hard drive arriving in a few days. My motherboard has two U.2 ports with 4 dedicated PCIe lanes each. I read somewhere that a U.2 port can support two SAS drives (no mention of SAS in the EVGA x299 FTW-K motherboard manual).

Do I just need a cable that can connect the drive's SAS port to the motherboard's U.2 port?

 

[BlueFox]

While the same physical connector is also used for SAS connectivity, you have to have a SAS HBA for SAS drives to be supported, which is not something your motherboard has integrated. You will only be able to connect NVMe drives to the U.2 port.

 

[dahorde]

Thank you. I will get an SAS HBA.

 

[dahorde]

Do all the encrypting HBAs require the purchase of an add-on license or hardware key to enable the encryption?

 

[BlueFox]

Not all. My Areca ones do not.

 

[dahorde]

I found cheap HP P440 controllers with 8 ports, but the connector is a double-wide mini-SAS (x4 each for 8 lanes total), and my HC550s connect via 29-pin SFF-8680. I'm not sure if I could plug two mini-SAS connectors in (each attaching to 4 drives), or if I would instead have to use a cable with the proprietary double-wide connector and connect a more standard 4-drive breakout cable to that.

 

[dahorde]

What cables might I need to connect the p440 to the HC550s?