More Than 6 SATA Ports?

Seems like most mobos have six or fewer SATA ports.

The one I'm currently using as a WSH server only has six.

I find that using RAID cards to enable more drives has it's hassles.

When I shop for the next mobo, would I be wasting my time looking for
something with 10 or 12 SATA ports - that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

 

That's not going to happen - the "that doesn't cost an arm and a leg" thing.
If it looks like a server or smells like a server, they'll charge
server pricing.

Use the search engine on Newegg, to look for something.

*******

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77 Extreme11/?cat=Specifications

$400

Z77 PCH - 4 SATA II
- 2 SATA III

LSI SAS 2308 - 8 x SAS2/SATA3 6.0 Gb/s

Then the question would be, what would it cost for a SAS 2308
chip if purchased separately. It happens to be $300. The question
then would be, whether the rest of the motherboard is worth more
than $100. And, it probably is. It's got "a lotta junk on it".

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118182

The difference might be in the level of support for the SAS.
A reviewer on Newegg, for the Asrock board sez:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157343

"Cons: The 8-port onboard LSI SATA3 6G/Sec RAID controller
looked really nice on paper, was a huge selling point,
and convinced me to rush into this purchase...
Unfortunately, it's performance has been pretty far
under-par for me so far."

You'd probably want to check out the driver situation,
before buying the motherboard. Are drivers readily
available ? Anyone else get good results with SAS 2308 ?
And so on. Once you buy the motherboard, you're "married"
to it. No pulling out the SAS2308 chip and installing
something else. (Hopefully, it can be turned off
in the BIOS.) It'll be tying up x4 or x8 PCI Express
lanes, or some other number of lanes. And on a LGA1155
motherboard (selected for economy), there aren't that
many PCI Express lanes to begin with (hosted by the CPU).
The Asrock uses a couple PEX chips, to move the available
bandwidth where needed (so that's a plus).
See page 16 of the manual.

http://www.techpowerup.com/img/12-04-09/z77_chipset_block_diagram.jpg

ftp://174.142.97.10/manual/Z77%20Extreme11.pdf

For your storage server purposes, I doubt the PCI Express part
is a limiting factor. So part of the $400 purchase price, pays
for the two PEX chips and makes the board more usable.
To make a simple storage server, you wouldn't go to that much
trouble, as the x16 processor interface could run x8 to a single
video card slot and x8 to the SAS2308.

What's really unclear, is what market Asrock is selling that
product to. Gamers who wanted a left over SAS2308 ? Or
storage server builders who wanted left over video card
slots ?

*******

Have you considered using a SIL3132 card, and Port Multiplier
boxes ? That's another way to achieve fanout on a regular
motherboard. The SIL3132 uses an PCI Express x1 slot (x1 or larger).
Such an approach would be suitable for DVR recording
scenarios. We need someone to test these things
You know you wanna

http://www.sataport.com/

The wiring looks like this. One x1 PCI Express slot, can
host 10 disks this way.

PCI Express x1 --- SIL3132 (FIS) ----- Port Multiplexer ---- 5 disks
----- Port Multiplexer ---- 5 disks

Total cost, around $250 or so. Say $100 for each 5 port box, and $50
or less for the SIL3132. And the cables of course. I'm hoping
somewhere, you can find a box like that for less than $100.

I see one here for $60 or so. So maybe they're not all price-fixed
at $100.

http://www.datoptic.com/silicon-image-4726-raid-port-multiplier.html

Because the siliconimage web site is currently in a web monkey
meltdown, I have to use an archive to find a description of the
4726 for you. Before spending $50 on a SIL3132 board, you can
try it off a motherboard (Intel) host port first. If it doesn't work
there, the SIL3132 should help. AFAIK, the SIL3132 has RAID software
that makes all the ports off a Port Multiplier visible.

http://web.archive.org/petabox/2013...siliconimage.com/products/product.aspx?pid=74

Example of a SIL3132 for $24.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124027

So that's another way to do it.

I haven't even seen a benchmark for a Port Multiplier chip, so
don't know whether it'll do 120MB/sec on a single disk or not.
I haven't run into anyone yet, who has tested one.

Paul

 

Per Paul:

I've got a couple of SIIG 2-port cards. One PCI and one PCI-Express.

I've also got a PCI-Express Rocket-Raid with 4 ports.

Sounds to me like I need to learn to love SATA cards.

Right now, that's a challenge bc I'm stuck in the middle of a Windows
Home Server re-install where it's not buying my SIIG PCI card's driver.

Worked fine with it (same card, presumably the same driver) for years
before.... but now it doesn't like it.

Gonna obsess over it for a few more days and then, if I can't resolve
it, just sacrifice the array and do a new install - trying the
RocketRaid 4-port card instead just on GPs.

Only reason I don't do that right now is an aversion to restoring 8
terabytes from scratch....