Reddit reviews Mini SAS Cable with SATA Power, CableCreation Internal Mini SAS 36 Pin to 4 x 29 Pin Cord with SATA Power, SFF-8087 to SFF-8482 Cable, 3.3 FT

What cable are you using to connect the drive to controller? I believe you need something like this.

Edit - If cards BIOS is booting then it's not related to the PCIe slot.

[Mini SAS Cable Connector SATA Power, Creation Internal Mini SAS 36pin SFF-8087 to (4) 29pin SFF-8482 connectors with SATA Power,3.3FT] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013G4FEGG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_7kDSCbS994F6V)

You want 8087-to-8482. You'll also need SATA power splitters; there are some linked in Amazon's "frequently bought together" section:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013G4FEGG/

Prebuilt NAS from the likes of Synology is a huge waste of money. The ones that can transcode 1080p media properly cost upwards of $600, and that's without the storage.

For well under $600 (again excluding storage) you can build a kick-ass dual socket Xeon based server that will transcode one 4k stream without breaking a sweat, 2 would be a stretch, but maybe.

• Gigabyte GA-7PESH2 mobo - $175
  
• 2x Xeon E5-2650 V2 - $110
  
• Couple of half-decent coolers - $45
  
• 4U server chassis - $145 often on sale for $100
  
• 16GB 1066 or 1333 ECC REG memory - around $50 on eBay
  
• Decent PSU with dial EPS connectors - $60 on Evga B-stock site
  
• 2x SAS break-out cables if you want to run the SATA HDDs at their full potential speeds - $30
  
• As much SATA storage as you can afford. I usually buy the 8TB WD MyBook external drives when they go on sale, for around $130 each, and shuck them.
  
  You won't even need a GPU. Just make sure your monitor has VGA input for setting up the server, and after the initial setup it can run headless. The passmark score on the 2 CPUs is over 20k which is plenty.
  
  For more information check out https://serverbuilds.net site and Discord channel. Based on their guides I built a very capable server for under $400, and it does extremely well transcoding multiple 1080p streams simultaneously. Besides Plex Media Server it also runs all my automation like NZBget, Sonarr, Radarr, Bazarr, Tautulli, MCEBuddy (for converting 4k to 1080p,) Commskip (for removing commercials from recorded OTA programs,) and is my backup target for 4 Duplicati sources. The CPU load never goes above 50%, so I may throw all my home automation on there as well.

In order to use the drive at full link speed (SAS3) you would need something like this: https://www.amazon.com/LSI-Broadcom-9300-8i-PCI-Express-Profile/dp/B00DSURZYS and this cable to go with it (for a desktop anyhow): https://www.amazon.com/CableCreation-Internal-SFF-8643-SFF-8482-connectors/dp/B01F378UF6

if you don't care about getting the full 12Gb/s from it you can go with the cheaper LSI-9207-8i controller ( https://www.amazon.com/LSI-Logic-9207-8i-Controller-LSI00301/dp/B0085FT2JC ) and this cable https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013G4FEGG/ which would allow you to get 6Gb/s which is the current max SATA speeds anyhow. (SATA1 is 1.5Gb/s, SATA2 is 3Gb/s, and SATA3 is 6Gb/s while SAS1 is 3Gb/s, SAS2 is 6Gb/s and SAS3 is 12Gb/s

Ok, so in another thread I started earlier today, /u/JDM_WAAAT may have convinced me to build my own server based loosely on his anniversary build. Couple of changes I just want to run by the fine people of this subreddit to make sure I'm not doing something stupid/incompatible. The items on top are straight from the guide, the items on the bottom of the list are the ones I have questions about.

-Single E5-2630 CPU

-GA-7PESH2 Mobo

-16gb DDR3 1600mhz Ram (incl with mobo)

-4TB Hard Drive (incl with mobo)

--------

-** This case, the Corsair Carbide 330r. The mobo should fit in there, I think, since it supports e-atx. If that case works, can I just use the fan that comes with it or will I need to add more cooling beyond the included fan and the CPU cooler?

-** Is this the correct breakout cable? The one linked on the guide is no longer in stock.

-**EVGA 450W 80+ Bronze PSU. The one in the build guide has gone way up in price, so does this one work?

-**Arctic Freezer 12 CPU Cooler. The one in the guide is no longer sold on Amazon, will this one be ok?

-**Operating System - I'd like to use Windows since I'm the most comfortable with it, would there be any issue with running Win10 on a flash drive with this build?

-ANYTHING else that I am missing that would be required for the build?

Thanks!!

So, in the server world, they're obviously not using SATA for high-density storage. One solution they use is SAS (Serial Attached SCSI). There are many different types of SAS ports, the most common in the homelab community (and with specific types of servers) being the SFF-8087 connector (mini-SAS) for internal storage. HBAs / RAID controller cards usually have 2 SAS connectors on them. They can be flashed (or bought pre-flashed) to what's called IT mode which allows them to operate as JBOD (Just a bunch of disks). Something like this. If you shop around a bit you can find better deals on used ones (which you shouldn't be afraid to buy, these things are rugged as hell and kept in nice server environments). You can then pair this with one of two cables, Mini-SAS 8087 to SATA or Mini-SAS 8087 to SFF-8482. If you by the latter of the two, it will work with any SATA drive you have as well, with the added compatibility for SAS drives (2 in 1!). SAS drives sometimes come in good deals on ebay @ 4TB for $50 so I'd go with the latter if you ever feel like you want bulk storage for cheap. No real harm in it.

A SAS controller should be all you would need (along with any necessary drivers for the OS). Serverbuilds has a couple of suggestions that can be used on their NAS Killer build guides. One is the LSI 9210-8i (link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/182100909150) and another is the LSI-9201-8i SAS2 (link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/153441341142?ul_noapp=true). You'll also need the mini-SAS to SAS breakout cables to connect the two (link: https://www.amazon.com/Connector-Creation-Internal-SFF-8087-connectors/dp/B013G4FEGG/ref=as_li_ss_tl ).

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Oh sweet, thanks.

After I read your comment I went back and looked at Amazon again - they have the SATA data and power cables here. Hopefully these work with the H310. I can't find any real information on how the SAS to SATA cables work. I keep reading about "forward" and "reserve" and "breakout" cables, but I'm not clear on what any of those are. I'm mildly computer savvy, but this is my first foray into RAID controllers.

Anyway, enough of that - thanks much for your help!

Fantastic! I'll probably just buy the LSI SAS card you listed along with this cable then.

Most of my confusion stemmed from motherboards having "SAS support", but I'm assuming that's if you are hooking up directly to the motherboard opposed to a PCIE controller?

Thanks for the in depth information!

Yeah I have these just have to hook sata power to them. I'm also using these converters to go from the 8080 to 8087

Just a FYI,

if you opted to go with the Mini SAS Cable Connector SATA Power connector and tried to do the alternative SATA 3.3V cable mod mod before this particular connector you will be in for a nasty surprise.

The cable manufacturer shorted the 3.3v pins together within this connector so the alternative 3.3v approach will not work since the sleep pin will get power from the adjacent pin 3.3v pin even if removed.

I find that the Kapton tape approach works well (I recommend the old 3M sticker sheet and razor blade approach), but a full removal of the 3.3v rail via Molex will likely work (thought the risk of Molex/SATA fire would give me some heartburn).

If you want to use those cables, you'll need to get a bunch of Molex splitters, because your power supply only comes with one peripheral cable that has 3 Molex connectors. You may want to look at this SAS cable as an alternative:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013G4FEGG/

Then you can use the SATA power cables that came with your supply to power most of the drives.
Regardless of which option you choose, you will need at least a couple splitters, because the supply only has 12 total connectors.

One other option if you don't want to deal with spaghetti in your case would be to roll your own cables. Check out this guide:

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/25pftl/discussion_making_custom_sata_power_cables/