TrueNAS HBAs: SuperMicro AOC-SLG3 4E4[x] [redriver] or [retimer] w non-SM MB: (Dell or Gigabyte).

[TrumanHW]

Looking for a 16-lane HBA for TrueNAS to connect 4x x4 U.2 NVMe drives that's:
• Inexpensive
• Isn't a bottleneck...
• FreeBSD compatible (TrueNAS HCL)
• Compatible with NON-SuperMicro hardware (Dell PowerEdge or Gigabyte MB)

I'd been advised to look at these SuperMicro HBAs, but don't understand "redriver" to choose between it & "retimer".

SuperMicro AOC-SLG3 4E4R (redriver)
-or-
SuperMicro AOC-SLG3 4E4T (retimer)

 

[Rand__]

First of all,

there is no need for any of these to be on any HCL as they are not active components.
That also means they should work with other brands boards as long as these support bifurcation.

Second, let me quite Supermicro support on this:

" Re-driver cards are typically noisier as they just amplify the signal, it does mean the “cable” is rather long, from the CPU to the PCIe slot, through the card and the cable to a backplane. A Re-timer takes the signal from the CPU and sends a new signal, so the cable length is reduced, meaning less noise. "

From that and my own personal experience I always use the ReTimer Cards and only had issues once (incompatibility with an X11SSL that should have worked but just didnt)

 

[TrumanHW]

Thank you very much...

I had been waiting for that info to reference the reference to the two HBAs instead of just listing the Dell PERC ...
Hopefully my omission was why you said saturating an SFP25 with 4x NVMe drives won't happen & is even less likely with 8..?

IF I understood you correctly & if it's wasn't bc I only mentioned the PERC as the only HBA mentioned ...I'm really lost.