Tech Corner

[jaylach]

You may have some work to do. Refering to disks by their drive letter is no longer the only way on MS OS's. This is used inconsistently within the registry (even by MS internal tools).
So what may be referred to as C:\ in one place may be Disk n, Partition m somewhere else or even simply VOLUME.
Also some third party software generates a system signature for licensing but don't say what that signature is based on.
That being said I'd still give it a go. Those issues (if they come up) are usually pretty starightforward to fix.

The main issues I would expect to involve the NIC and VIDEO. NIC should not be much of an issue as the base drivers are included on the motherboard I'm looking at. As to video the drivers would already be there as the card will be the same as is currently being used.

Chipset may be hindered but should still be functional to boot. Once booted there is an included utility to download and install all motherboard drivers. This is why the NIC drivers are part of the motherboard. A minor reason as to why I like ASRock motherboards. They are not only very functional but there is actual thought put into the layout design. For instance let's consider the ASRock board in my current main. First, the M.2 slots run parallel to the video card so they can be accessed without having to remove the video card. Then there are the SATA ports of which there are 10. On any other motherboard I've had the SATA ports are scattered all over the board. With my current ASRock board they are all together in 2 banks of 5 along one edge of the board as shown in the following partial board diagram. Not only convenient but also makes it easier to run cables.

 

[seangee]

My board is an MSI so YMMV, but check for SATA / M.2 config. On my board when I start using M.2 slots beyond the first 2 I start losing SATA ports. Not an issue for me because I have far more than I need and the board is also sensibly laid out, so I used the lowest numbered ports first.

 

[jaylach]

My board is an MSI so YMMV, but check for SATA / M.2 config. On my board when I start using M.2 slots beyond the first 2 I start losing SATA ports. Not an issue for me because I have far more than I need and the board is also sensibly laid out, so I used the lowest numbered ports first.

My current ASRock board is the same as to losing slots. For instance take my PCIe x16 gen 2 slot and my gen 2 M.2 slot. Either can be used but only one or the other.

 

[anewbie]

btw is there a good mb with 12 sata ports ?

 

[jaylach]

btw is there a good mb with 12 sata ports ?

On a quick search on New Egg I don't see a board with 12 SATA ports. My current board with 10 ports is the most I've seen. However I THINK there are cards that can add additional ports.

 

[jaylach]

Here are several PCIe to SATA cards.

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=card+to+add+sata+drives

 

[anewbie]

Here are several PCIe to SATA cards.

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=card+to+add+sata+drives

A lot of the cards have poor controllers and are unreliable. I wouldn't buy something unless someone has first tested it under stress.

 

[jaylach]

A lot of the cards have poor controllers and are unreliable. I wouldn't buy something unless someone has first tested it under stress.

That is why I always look at the reviews. Actually I look at the 1 and 2 ratings a lot more than the 4 and 5 ratings as I want to see where there are issues, not where all is good.

BTW, anyone have any experience with the AMD AM5 Socket Ryzen 9000, 8000 and 7000 Series Processors? With the motherboard I'm looking at the CPU has a lot to do with how the motherboard features are handled. The 9000 series allows full use of all board features and is likely what I'll use. Not cheap at around $700.00 USD but, if I'm going for a higher level motherboard, I can't see throwing in a CPU that will restrict board features. For instance, if I read right, the 7000 series would disable the on-board video and I intend to use the on-board for my second display to, hopefully, get rid of a minor video issues I have when streaming to my 55 inch display while playing some VERY old games on my 43 inch display with my Radeon RX 6700 XT video card doing both displays. I figure that using a different GPU for each display should solve the display resolutions conflict I get with those ancient games.

 

[anewbie]

That is why I always look at the reviews. Actually I look at the 1 and 2 ratings a lot more than the 4 and 5 ratings as I want to see where there are issues, not where all is good.

No kidding and your link didn't show any cards with 1/2 decent reviews.

 

[jaylach]

No kidding and your link didn't show any cards with 1/2 decent reviews.

Actually the link is just to a search on New Egg. Actually 1/2 reviews reviews would not be good as they indicate issues. Of course you have to weed out the dumb negative reviews as many are actually user caused as they hare no clue as to what they are doing so you have to take some such reviews with a grain of salt. As an example let's use my label maker. The thing takes 4 1.5 volt batteries. The reviews were really pretty bad with many saying that no matter what they did it would always fail to work due to low battery power. I had a hunch on the actual issue and bought anyway. The thing failed to work due to a low battery as I actually expected as I was using re-chargeable Ni-Cad batteries. The thing needs 4 AA batteries. Since re-chargeable Ni-Cad batteries only put out 1.2 volts instead of the expected 1.5 bolt output it was clear that the unit would fail due to battery. The thing wanted 6 volts to operate and the Ni-Cad batteries only supplied 4.8 volts resulting in a battery failure. Went to Lithium rechargeable batteries and all was fine as only lithium rechargeable batteries can give a true 1.5 volt output.

 

[anewbie]

Actually the link is just to a search on New Egg. Actually 1/2 reviews reviews would not be good as they indicate issues. Of course you have to weed out the dumb negative reviews as many are actually user caused as they hare no clue as to what they are doing so you have to take some such reviews with a grain of salt. As an example let's use my label maker. The thing takes 4 1.5 volt batteries. The reviews were really pretty bad with many saying that no matter what they did it would always fail to work due to low battery power. I had a hunch on the actual issue and bought anyway. The thing failed to work due to a low battery as I actually expected as I was using re-chargeable Ni-Cad batteries. The thing needs 4 AA batteries. Since re-chargeable Ni-Cad batteries only put out 1.2 volts instead of the expected 1.5 bolt output it was clear that the unit would fail due to battery. The thing wanted 6 volts to operate and the Ni-Cad batteries only supplied 4.8 volts resulting in a battery failure. Went to Lithium rechargeable batteries and all was fine as only lithium rechargeable batteries can give a true 1.5 volt output.

I don't want to argue with you; the link you provided has no value. thanks.

Probably the only reliable solution are those that use the lsi chipset in it mode. Unfortunately most of those cards require sas cabling which are ok i guess but still a bit of a pain.

 

[jaylach]

I don't want to argue with you; the link you provided has no value. thanks.

I didn't know there was an argument to be considered. You asked a question and I gave a link in response that gave a possible solution. No argument that I can see from my end.

Still I have to admit that I don't understand why the link I provided has no value as it offers several possibilities for your wanting more SATA ports.

 

[MaloK]

Funny thing with SATA extenders is that They all work as expected and 100% reliable who ever made them...

The card has nearly no effects at this point, It's the CHIP running on it... And the dumbest manufacturers Can easily provide really good PCBs That delivers no less than chip maker advertised for nothing...

So if it's whatever the name al long as it's running an ASMedia or LSI, and it has a big heat sink...

You're in the good direction. I have a "1x" 6 ports that's faster than onboard controllers.

My last PCIe M.2 nvme adapters are pure no name just a part number simple and clean. Awesomeness, that goes up to 32Gb/s.

One of my daily driver, full bootable SATA UEFi / BIos rom configuration.



Nothing much can fail there besides... The chip. With good caching it works twice faster than it can.

 

[jaylach]

Funny thing with SATA extenders is that They all work as expected and 100% reliable who ever made them...

The card has nearly no effects at this point, It's the CHIP running on it... And the dumbest manufacturers Can easily provide really good PCBs That delivers no less than chip maker advertised for nothing...

So if it's whatever the name al long as it's running an ASMedia or LSI, and it has a big heat sink...

You're in the good direction. I have a "1x" 6 ports that's faster than onboard controllers.

My last PCIe M.2 nvme adapters are pure no name just a part number simple and clean. Awesomeness, that goes up to 32Gb/s.

One of my daily driver, full bootable SATA UEFi / BIos rom configuration.

View attachment 373473

Nothing much can fail there besides... The chip. With good caching it works twice faster than it can.

Actually I use an M.2 NVME to a 16X PCIe adapter to mount my clone drive. I have an actual empty M.2 slot but it only gen 2 and my 1TB M.2 drives are gen 4 and won't work in the slot. There is no issue with cloning my system drive and the clone boots just fine.

There are also adapters that will turn an M.2 slot into PCIe 16X.

This is not the exactly card but very similar. I also have an M.2 to PCIe 1X adapter but it is not in use.

 

[MaloK]

I have one of these in my R730.



All I can give is a part number... (ph44)... But that supports / complete bifurcation / Virtualization and didn't start a fire. For 29$... Drives sold separately... It's able to saturate all bands on the server.

And that's is no kidding on a 80 lanes.