The mother board only has 4 SATA connectors, and I want to put a bunch of HDDs/SSDs in there (8-12 in total), so I need to expand the number of SATA ports. It does have a PCIe x16 slot, which I currently have the graphics card connected to.
I’d like to use PCIe bifurcation on the PCIe x16 slot. I have checked the BIOS, the motherboard supports both x8x8 and x8x4x4. I could use x8 for the graphics card, then either x8 or x4x4 to convert into SATA ports . However, I’m having trouble finding any good information about what riser cards I might be able to use for this. Is there one that has a PCIe slot for my graphics card, and 8-10 sata connectors, or would I have to use another adapter card to convert to SATA?
One crazy idea I had is the following
Split the x16 slot into x8x8
Put the GPU in one of the x8 slots
Split the other x8 slot into 2 m.2 slots
Use an m.2 to SATA connector in the two m.2 slots.
Set the bifurcation mode in the BIOS to x8x4x4
I have never used PCIe bifurcation, so no idea if this would work.
Note: I’m currently looking at using the silverstone CS381 case (why can’t I add links here?) which has hot-swap bays built-in, and uses 2xminiSAS HD connectors. So, I could potentially use a HBA, but that is more expensive.
Your mobo has two m.2 slots and you have not indicated if they’re occupied. I think the easiest would be to use an m.2 to 6x SATA converter card. You can find them easily online.
Yeah that also crossed my mind. One is currently occupied the other is not. However, I was hoping to use those for mirrored nvme drives for ZFS meta-data special vdev
You don’t need a 3070 for a Nas, it would be an absolute waste and your cpu has a built in GPU
Instead use a hba for SATA connections and the other lanes for m.2 or network card
You can get cheap HBA cards on the used market
I think there are even m.2 cc ards that break out into multiple SATA ports on AliExpress
Yeah agreed its not needed for a NAS. However, I do some GPU heavy calculations on the desktop today that I need to continue to do. My intention is to do it on a VM on the server by passing the GPU through to the VM
It has 2 built in m.2 slots, I would use one for boot drive and the other for the m.2 HBA SATA card
Idk what a good brand would be but I do know orico makes them
Well the thing is, it’s a lot easier to set up then to try and find and use bifurcating riser cables since they don’t always just work
If you really want to bifurcate then look into adt-link risers on their home page then from there search AliExpress
I ordered from this store and was satisfied Not a guarantee
I ordered a weird niche double female pci-e riser for a minisforum PC
Thanks for the pointer, I’ll take a look at that store. Do you happen to know if its possible to have multiple layers of PCIe bifurcation e.g. split into x8x8 then another split of one port into x4x4 or does it all need to be handled by one card?
This card is the only on that I have found that can split into x8x4x4 in one card, but it looks like its sold out
No experience here, but I would expect that to work.
With all of this: have you given a thought on where to place the end result? You have an ITX board indicating that you have a small form factor case. Just adding more cards and connectors doesn’t make it easier to stow everything into a (any) case. That’s also a reason for the hesitation of recommending these riser cards.
Wouldn’t go for that type of card as you need a half height card to plug in the top as far as the other thing I have no idea
Although I suppose you could use an extension riser at the top https://a.aliexpress.com/_mtPCHc6
I haven’t bought from this store or used this particular one
With all of this: have you given a thought on where to place the end result? You have an ITX board indicating that you have a small form factor case. Just adding more cards and connectors doesn’t make it easier to stow everything into a (any) case. That’s also a reason for the hesitation of recommending these riser cards.
This is a good point - I haven’t given mounting options too much thought to be honest. I plan on getting a new case anyway, and was looking at the silverstone cs381. I was kinda assuming that between being open to the case selection and using pcie extension cables I should be able to sort it. Is that a bad assumption?
Well, most cases are build with assumptions or “standards” on where to place extension cards.
The above mentioned card requires to stick to half-height cards to fit the standard. A serious limitation for modern PCIe based graphics cards.
Riser cables allow routing PCIe signals to a different location, but most cases don’t offer no alternative location to secure a PCIe card. While thinkable I have not found examples that split 16 PCIe lanes into 8x, 4x, 4x (or any other denomination) taking advantage of the motherboards bifurcation capabilities.
Ok, so I was just looking at the case I currently plan to use. It’s the silverstone cs381. It has 4 expansion card slots. So I’m thinking I could use a riser cable to plug the graphics card into the above mentioned half height expansion card, then mount the graphics card in one of the adjacent expansion slots in the case. Does this sound reasonable? Or would other things get in the way?
Add up the price of all your adapters, and ask yourself what your CPU needs are. I say this because for $100 or less you have a couple other options:
Get a MicroATX Z490 motherboard. Put your graphics card in the bottom slot. Bifurcate the top slot.
I got a Lenovo P520C Micro ATX motherboard for about $40 (LGA 2066) and it has 48 lanes of PCIe from the CPU. Dual NVMe, and Dual x16 slots that both support x4x4x4x4. Also a x8 slot. You can put the GPU in the bottom x16 slot, bifurcate the top one, and put regular HBA in the x8 slot. These have a BIOS update that will support Sapphire Rapids CPU, or a cheap Quad core or W-2135 ($30 about like an i7 8700) or ex Mac Pro W-2140B. It uses proprietary Lenovo connector PSU, but a 24 pin adapter is available $2-10 AliExpress or Amazon. HS maybe HP 647287-001 or 749596-001 LGA 2011 HS/Fan from an old workstation. Or HP 749554-001 and swap the fan to backside or use a duct to the rear chassis fan.
HBA will be much cheaper using x4 or x8 PCIe, follow the guide and unlock your own. EG $20 LSI 9211 8i
3rd option (if you can get a deal) i3 12100 is very performant, even with only 4 cores it is neck and neck with a 10600K. A Z690 Micro ATX board may have 3 NVMe slots and another x4 slot besides the x16
Just a warning on these types of 8x 2x m.2 adapter cards. I purchased two similar cards which have a black solder mask for use with my Gigabyte x299 Aorus Gaming 3 Pro motherboard, which only supports PCIe 3.0. This is an older motherboard which has 2x 16x PCIe slots that support bifurcation. All I wanted to do was add more m.2 USB 3.0 controllers to pass through to Unraid. I put some fairly undemanding GT1030 PCIe cards in the main slot. However, I found that these devices have major signal integrity issues. I wasn’t even using USB 3.0, only USB 2.0. The devices show up in Unraid, but when passed through they don’t work. I also tried installing m.2 NVMe drives, but I also encountered a lot of data errors.
By contrast the Asus PCIe 3.0 16x to 4x M.2 adapter board I purchased has no such issues. Ideally, one day I will switch to Proxmox since it has better USB sharing.
Personally, I decided to go the SAS HBA route + SAS Expander instead of dealing with these SATA adapters.
For the P520C the adaptor is “Lenovo 14Pin adaptor” suitable for EG M83 M900 motherboards.
The P520C is not the P520, it is a fairly standard MicroATX (except for the PSU pin out and the M.2 ports are off the front edge of the board). For the P520 it would take a lot of work, it is all custom.
