Hi, I have possibly messed up…

I scored a 10Tb SAS drive (Ultrastar DC HC330) and went looking for an interface card. I have ordered a 9212-4i4e, which has 4x SATA ports internal and one external SFF-8088 SAS port. I figured future drives I add were more likely to be sata than sas but my read of the manual is that the sata ports can also take SAS drives.

Trying to figure out what cables I need for SATA to SAS and got a bit lost. I then figured I could just loop the external SFF-8088 back inside the case and that looks like is really more for an external device that houses the SAS drives?

Help!

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edit : link to specs

https://docs.broadcom.com/doc/12353334

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  • jcatemysandwich@alien.topOPBEnglish
    11·
    10 months ago

    Thanks! SAS is totally new to me and there is a bit of a learning curve…. I am confused though as the manual refers to the 4 sata ports on the card and mentions that sas or sata devices can be connected?

    • Status_Mechanic@alien.topBEnglish
      11·
      10 months ago

      I’d have to read the documentation more for that board.

      SAS drives can only connect to SAS controllers, SATA drives can connect to SATA or to SAS controllers but SAS drives cannot connect to SATA controllers.

      If the 4 SATA ports goto a SAS controller then you could have 8 SAS drives connected at 6gbps or 4 connected “dual channel” at 12gbps or 8 SATA drives at 6gbps.

        • Status_Mechanic@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          Yeah, specs say 4 SAS ports only through the external connector and 4 internal SATA ports. The external SAS port can be used for SAS or SATA, the internal SATA ports are SATA only.

          The external connector assumes you’re using external enclosures. If you want to you can loop it back inside the case but it’ll require the case to have up to 8 SATA power connectors which is slightly unusual (assuming you’re using the internal SATA connectors as well).

          • jcatemysandwich@alien.topOPBEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            Appreciate it. I am going down the road of a sata to sas adaptor one of the internal ports. I have spare connections on my power supply so hopefully it will all work out. Since I know now sas drives don’t work on sata ports I guess the main reason the adaptors exist is scenarios like this.