[Mac25]

my tower is full of hard drives and requires disassembly to service the hard drives, I have the 20 bay case here that uses the horizontal backplanes with Five internal SFF-8087 Mini SAS connectors, the M1015 card has 2 internal SFF-8087 Mini SAS connectors, what cable/cables do I need or additional hardware to connect the card to the 5 horizontal backplanes so when the time comes to populate all 20 bays I wont have to open the case again once it built.


Case:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219033
Card:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA67S25J8482
Motherboard:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131849

 

[ajhieb]

my tower is full of hard drives and requires disassembly to service the hard drives, I have the 20 bay case here that uses the horizontal backplanes with Five internal SFF-8087 Mini SAS connectors, the M1015 card has 2 internal SFF-8087 Mini SAS connectors, what cable/cables do I need or additional hardware to connect the card to the 5 horizontal backplanes so when the time comes to populate all 20 bays I wont have to open the case again once it built.


Case:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219033
Card:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA67S25J8482

You can do it a few ways...

You can get 1 more M1015 controller, (4) SFF-8087 cables, and a SFF-8087 reverse breakout cable if you have 4 free SATA ports on your motherboard.

-or-

You could get 2 more M1015 controllers and (5) SFF-8087 cables

-or-

You could get a SAS Expander (6) SFF-8087 cables and 1 reverse breakout cable if you have 4 free ports on your motherboard.

-or-

You could get one more M1015, a SAS expander, and appropriate cables,

-or-

you could get just the SAS Expander and cables, and run all the drives of the M1015 and possibly run into some performance bottlenecks, depending on your drives, and how you're using them.

Some insight into how you're going to be using those 20 drives might shed some light on things and eliminate some of the above options.

 

[Dark_Slayer]

The number of m1015s you can run will depend on the motherboard as well

 

[Mac25]

added link to mobo.
intend to use 4 hd's @ 8tb for movies/music/videos/pics, streaming to 2 roku's 1 wired pc and 1 wireless pc, but never at the same time, use another 2 hd's for network backup monthly, have 2 other hd's for hot spares, and 2 others for data, would still leave room for expansion.


another M1015 card and 3 SFF-8087 cables as I have 2 already would complete the rigging at backplanes so I wouldn't have to remove the fan panel again, I have the noctua NF-R8 80mm fans mounted, latter I could just add another M1015 if I need to.

 

[ajhieb]

added link to mobo.
intend to use 4 hd's @ 8tb for movies/music/videos/pics, streaming to 2 roku's 1 wired pc and 1 wireless pc, but never at the same time, use another 2 hd's for network backup monthly, have 2 other hd's for hot spares, and 2 others for data, would still leave room for expansion.


another M1015 card and 3 SFF-8087 cables as I have 2 already would complete the rigging at backplanes so I wouldn't have to remove the fan panel again, I have the noctua NF-R8 80mm fans mounted, latter I could just add another M1015 if I need to.

With that board (assuming you use 1 SATA port for boot drive and another for Optical) that should leave you with 4 that you can run to the backplane.

Simplest/cheapest solution would be to get a 2nd M1015, 2 more SFF-8087 cables and one reverse breakout cable to run from your motherboard to the 5th backplane. That would have all of your ports connected and barring hardware issues, no need to open that sucker back up again.

 

[Dark_Slayer]

Simplest/cheapest solution would be to get a 2nd M1015, 2 more SFF-8087 cables and one reverse breakout cable to run from your motherboard to the 5th backplane. That would have all of your ports connected and barring hardware issues, no need to open that sucker back up again.

This is what I'd do as well. Easiest solution

I have an m1015 running without any complaints in x4 mode, but you can run x8/x8 no problem with that board

 

[Mac25]

thanks, placed the order for M1015, 2 more SFF-8087 cables and one reverse breakout cable

 

[Mac25]

as posted by ajhieb on this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0ZX2C34470, it appears it can be used without a pci-e slot by the power connector on board the card and mounted somewhere in the case with sufficient air to cool it.


are there other versions out there that may be less expensive that do/do not require a slot ? the use of m1015 cards and expanders are somewhat new to me, even though the 4220 home server is up and running its just info I would like to be aware of for future reference.


part #s maybe ?


tia.

 

[ajhieb]

SAS Expanders are somewhat rare creatures especially in the retail market. Most of them are OEM parts that are generally sold as part of a complete storage solution so as such they are tough to find new. That Intel one I linked to is one of the few that you can buy as a new part. (They sell another version that has additional ports that doesn't mount in a slot at all, but it is actually more expensive)

There are plenty of cheaper expanders out there if you don't mind working with used parts and/or system pulls, and several of them have the ability to be mounted somewhere besides an expansion slot. Chenbro comes to mind.

The thing is that SAS Expanders are also somewhat fickle creatures so it's hard to talk about them in general terms since they don't always work well (or at all) in various hardware configurations so while I can say the Chenbro expanders can be powered via molex power and mounted pretty much anywhere, that doesn't mean it will work (well) with your HBA.

 

[Mac25]

what would be the correct 'short' cable to use between the M1015 and the intel RES2SV240 expander, less than 12 inches.

 

[ajhieb]

Any SFF-8087 to SFF-8087 cable should work, but a cursory search on newegg didn't turn up anything less than .5m

 

[Mac25]

are all sff 8087 male to sff 8087 male cables multilane [ being name brand ] ? or need to be ?, .5 meter is @ 20 inches, so that should be ok.

 

[ajhieb]

are all sff 8087 male to sff 8087 male cables multilane [ being name brand ] ? or need to be ?, .5 meter is @ 20 inches, so that should be ok.

I'm sure there is some weird oddball exceptions out there, but generally speaking yes all of the SFF-8087 cables you're likely to encounter are multilane.

 

[Mac25]

is there anyway to monitor the sas or expander temps, speedfan doesn't seem to read em, maybe no sensor chip onboard the cards ?