Supermicro AOM-SAS3-8I8E / AOM-SAS3-8I8E-LP 2xSFF-8644 to 2xSFF-8643 Adapter

[luckylinux]

I see lots of Supermicro AOM-SAS3-8I8E-LP Adapters on eBay (with Low-Profile Bracket) for around 12-15 USD.

I cannot see many Adapters with Full Profile Bracket (Supermicro AOM-SAS3-8I8E), let alone the Fact that they cost > 50 USD.

I also cannot find the High-Profile Bracket sold separately .

Unfortunately common Brackets for e.g. LSI SAS 9300-8e will NOT work since the 2xSFF-8644 Ports are roughly in the middle, whereas for the Supermicro AOM-SAS3-8I8E they are almost all the Way towards the bottom Part of the Chassis.

Is there somebody that was/is in the same Situation and maybe has a 3D Model of a Full-Profile Bracket to 3D print ?

The Supermicro Part Number for the High-Profile / Full-Profile Bracket only (Part of ) seems to be MCP-240-00143-0N according to this Supermicro FAQ.

I must admit that it's not really clear to me how the Bracket is even attached to the PCB. Is the "Bracket" including also the entire "Backplate "Metal Structure ? I cannot see other Screws at least, to me it seems like a monolithic Piece .

 

[kapone]

cannot find the High-Profile Bracket sold separately

It is indeed hard to find, but not unobtanium. (It may not hurt to contact Supermicro RMA dept, if you need a few of them).

8ANET - Supermicro MCP-240-00143-0N Full Height bracket which is part of AOM-SAS3-8I8E

8ANET - Supermicro MCP-240-00143-0N Full Height bracket which is part of AOM-SAS3-8I8E

www.8anet.com

$17/ea.

Or some janky setup with straightening the LP bracket...and some zip ties...

Is the "Bracket" including also the entire "Backplate "Metal Structure ?

Yes. That black bar you see in the middle has a single screw that holds down the PCB assembly to the bracket.

Pro tip - You can Dremel out the remaining space on the bracket to fit another PCB in there easily (and the black bar will work for both), converting two 8i/8e into a single 16i/16e. Ask me how I know...

 

[luckylinux]

It is indeed hard to find, but not unobtanium. (It may not hurt to contact Supermicro RMA dept, if you need a few of them).

I already tried to contact them for a few PCIe Risers for a SC512 purchased 2nd Hand. They basically told me "you are free to purchase them from a Reseller/Retailer since you are a Private Customer".

Not sure if I want to deal with that kind of Support ever again .

8ANET - Supermicro MCP-240-00143-0N Full Height bracket which is part of AOM-SAS3-8I8E

8ANET - Supermicro MCP-240-00143-0N Full Height bracket which is part of AOM-SAS3-8I8E

www.8anet.com

$17/ea.

Just for the Bracket ? That's basically doubling the entire Cost .

Or some janky setup with straightening the LP bracket...and some zip ties...

I actually thought about cutting a PCI blanker Piece and screw it onto the lower Part of the existing Low-Profile Bracket .

Yes. That black bar you see in the middle has a single screw that holds down the PCB assembly to the bracket.

Alright, so it's not only a Bracket, but rather the entire Metal Assembly.

Pro tip - You can Dremel out the remaining space on the bracket to fit another PCB in there easily (and the black bar will work for both), converting two 8i/8e into a single 16i/16e. Ask me how I know...

I actually also looked at the AOM-SAS3-16i16e but at >= 100 USD they are hard to justify ...

I was actually looking at these to be used as PCIe 3.0 (or hopefully PCIe 4.0) Riser Adapter, together with the Dell KVXGG Dell Gen4 X16 PCIE Transparent Host / Target Adapter (MXH932) PCIe 4.0 x16 Active Adapter:

Transparent Host & Target | SFF-8644 |PCIe Gen4 Adapter | MXH932 | Microchip

The Dolphin Express MXH932 is a 256 Gigabit/s Transparent Host and Target PCI Express IO expansion card. The adapter card uses the new PCIe chipset from Microchip, PCIe 4.0 cable infrastructure and comes with extensive software and support.

dolphinics.com

Then use some SFF-8643 to PCIe x16 Risers in another Chassis to install some GPUs for LLM .


EDIT 1: Basically I was thinking to do

HYVE HYV-S-CF-EDGE-G10-04 EPYC 7642 1U Server <---> Riser Card <--> MXH932 PCIe Adapter <--> 4 x SFF-8644 Cables <---> 4U Chassis (unsure which one) with likely Full-Profile PCIe Slots <---> Supermicro AOM-SAS3-8I8E <---> SFF-8643 Cable <-----> SFF-8643 to x16 PCIe Riser Adapter <----> AMD Radeon Instinct Mi50 GPU

 

[kapone]

HYVE HYV-S-CF-EDGE-G10-04 EPYC 7642 1U Server <---> Riser Card <--> MXH932 PCIe Adapter <--> 4 x SFF-8644 Cables <---> 4U Chassis (unsure which one) with likely Full-Profile PCIe Slots <---> Supermicro AOM-SAS3-8I8E <---> SFF-8643 Cable <-----> SFF-8643 to x16 PCIe Riser Adapter <----> AMD Radeon Instinct Mi50 GPU

With that kind of a setup...I wouldn't even think of getting the full height bracket. Just do a janky thing and mount these somewhere in that external chassis.

That said...using them for pci-e connectivity...that's gonna be interesting.

 

[luckylinux]

With that kind of a setup...I wouldn't even think of getting the full height bracket. Just do a janky thing and mount these somewhere in that external chassis.

What do you mean ? Just mount the Low Profile Bracket in the Full Profile Slot and call it a Day ?

That said...using them for pci-e connectivity...that's gonna be interesting.

Interesting, yeah . Easy, probably not .

Based on Reports by some Users for NVMe Drives, it seems these SFF-8643 Cables (generic SAS Cables, i.e. with the WRONG Impedance) are able to work fine at PCIe 3.0.

However, at PCIe 4.0 they will probably start misbehaving quite badly.

Now, I'm not too concerned about the Adapter/Connector as it's quite short (~ 5 cm), but the 50cm Cable (external) + the 50cm Cable (internal, I don't think I can find shorter) will probably be a bit too much for PCIe 4.0.

 

[kapone]

What do you mean ? Just mount the Low Profile Bracket in the Full Profile Slot and call it a Day ?

Yup. Rig something up...bend the bracket...or zip ties...or something.

 

[BryceRocky]

Better late than never I guess, but I just published my 3D print that does exactly this. Hope it helps others save some $$$ in the future on this adapter.