WTB SATA Card

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ibose said:
Won't you be limited by the number of pci lanes for the maximum number of SATA ports, your board can support ?
Click to expand...
I use hard disks. So it shouldn't be a problem.
My primary concern is availability not speed.
I currently have 8x 3.5 HDDs, 1x NVMe, 1x 2.5 HDD connected to an mini itx motherboard in a CM Elite 130 case.
Further I am trying to additionally use an adapter to extract the PCIe lanes from the M.2 slot to add more drives & figure out where to get custom sata power cable so that I can connect more drives.
I am a dense storage aficionado.
 
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bornlibra23 said:
I use hard disks. So it shouldn't be a problem.
My primary concern is availability not speed.
I currently have 8x 3.5 HDDs, 1x NVMe, 1x 2.5 HDD connected to an mini itx motherboard in a CM Elite 130 case.
Further I am trying to additionally use an adapter to extract the PCIe lanes from the M.2 slot to add more drives & figure out where to get custom sata power cable so that I can connect more drives.
I am a dense storage aficionado.
Click to expand...
thats inspiring, would you care to share how you managed to get 8 drives in ? i have managed to get 6 3.5 and 2 2.5. if its not too off topic for you.
 
@bornlibra23

If you're planning to set up a NAS or similar, please don't cheap out on the SATA card. Always opt for refurbished SAS/SATA HBA (Host Bus Adapter) cards that are pulled from servers and use them after flashing the IT (Initiator Target) mode firmware. Those are meant for 24/7 workload and you will never face any glitches due to buggy firmware and/or PCIe lane allocations.

You can buy pre-flashed cards from vendors like Art of Server. Indian vendors like ServerBasket sell such cards as well, but you might need to take care of the flashing part yourself. To know more, explore the datahoarder and DIY NAS communities.
 
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Titokhan said:
@bornlibra23

If you're planning to set up a NAS or similar, please don't cheap out on the SATA card. Always opt for refurbished SAS/SATA HBA (Host Bus Adapter) cards that are pulled from servers and use them after flashing the IT (Initiator Target) mode firmware. Those are meant for 24/7 workload and you will never face any glitches due to buggy firmware and/or PCIe lane allocations.

You can buy pre-flashed cards from vendors like Art of Server. Indian vendors like ServerBasket sell such cards as well, but you might need to take care of the flashing part yourself. To know more, explore the datahoarder and DIY NAS communities.
Click to expand...
I have no reason to cheap out on sata cards except availability in India.

Server basket guys ask for make & model of the server before they will sell me anything & know less about the cards than me. They don't even know about which sas generation card they are selling & have already tried to upsell me a 3rd generation card for connection sata hard disks.

I know about art of server & wanted to buy the cards from there but paying the customs duty wasn't an option for me not was getting it through a friend. Oh well that's the price we pay for being in India. I am still exploring that. If you or anyone here can help me with that, I will be grateful.

Is there any diy nas community you can point me to?
salman8506 said:
thats inspiring, would you care to share how you managed to get 8 drives in ? i have managed to get 6 3.5 and 2 2.5. if its not too off topic for you.
Click to expand...
I tried uploading a photo but TE told me that it's too big. I will try again. I have removed the 5.25 bay from the CM Elite 130 case & used the consequent total space to stack 4x custom plates of 2x hard drives each aligned together length wise. It can take 10 hard drives this way too, I just need to get a better mounting system where I can slide the drives in. Currently these plates use the drop & slide mechanism which is replicated off the case.
 
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@bornlibra23

Yeah, the customs part makes it very hard to buy such niche hardware component from overseas. :confused:

Regarding ServerBasket, I don't have any prior experience with them. But a friend of mine procured some components from them for their home lab. I guess it would be better to approach them with the specific OEM part number (e.g. "779134-001" for the HP H240 12G SAS/SATA HBA) and stick with the home lab domain while querying.

For the community, you should start with ServeTheHome's forums. The forums for the NAS distros (e.g. Unraid, OMV, TrueNAS etc.) are relevant as well.
 
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d8b9f778-b8fe-4b06-a2f9-832f7e356fa2.jpg

Here is my mod for your reference. I have replaced graphics card with a sata card to connect all the drives. TE won't allow me to upload that photo saying that's it's too big. I can add two more HDDs if I can get the slide in tray mechanism to work. Currently they are all fitted in with grommets which come with the case.
 
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