Tech Corner

[jaylach]

I have one of these in my R730.

View attachment 373477

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.

I looked at a 4-socket card like shown in your previous post but just didn't see the need for more than one additional M.2 slot.

 

[MaloK]

I looked at a 4-socket card like shown in your previous post but just didn't see the need for more than one additional M.2 slot.

Got it for "Density" sake... But it shown up as 4 single 2TB SSDs full bandwidth each. on a 16x slot. 4x4 bifurcation...

That's faster than the server bus... I split it in two to gain a disputable spread advantage. But maintained very high parity levels... And it's where....

It all comes so beautiful, that a tear leaked on my cheek...

 

[jaylach]

Got it for "Density" sake... But it shown up as 4 single 2TB SSDs full bandwidth each. on a 16x slot. 4x4 bifurcation...

That's faster than the server bus... I split it in two to gain a disputable spread advantage. But maintained very high parity levels... And it's where....

It all comes so beautiful, that a tear leaked on my cheek...

If not too much to ask could you please explain "bifurcation"? As I previously stated I'm not any longer all that current.

 

[MaloK]

If not too much to ask could you please explain "bifurcation"? As I previously stated I'm not any longer all that current.

Bifurcation is a PCIe option that enables the motherboard to use a 16x slot and present them to the operating system as 4x4x4x4x or 8x8x or 8x4x4x etc. So you can use a 16x expansion to install 4 devices at 4 lanes.

That's why high end SAS and Nvme controllers can have up to 8 devices per channel and 2 channel per controller. All working at full bandwidth.

 

[jaylach]

Bifurcation is a PCIe option that enables the motherboard to use a 16x slot and present them to the operating system as 4x4x4x4x or 8x8x or 8x4x4x etc. So you can use a 16x expansion to install 4 devices at 4 lanes.

That's why high end SAS and Nvme controllers can have up to 8 devices per channel and 2 channel per controller. All working at full bandwidth.

Thanks for the info. Like I said I've sort of allowed myself to drop out of being current on stuff. Actually I'm a little ashamed. I gripe about people not doing research before asking on a forum yet I just did exactly that. I apologize for taking your time to respond to my question when I could have found out on my own.

 

[jaylach]

I had an odd thought tonight. I sort of wonder why I'm pushing to do a new build. My main system is getting long in the tooth as to age but I initially built it as a total beast and it can still do anything I want without stress. Why do I want to replace a system that serves me just fine?

Going to have to really think about this... For me it just brings up the question of why I want to replace a system that does not need to be replaced.

 

[Colin_T]

Question time. I am using my new pc for this so I finally got some thermal paste and got it running. However, the graphics card has 4 little connectors in the back but they are way too small to connect a HDMI cable to.

Right now I have removed the graphics card and have the HDMI cable from my monitor connected to the onboard graphics port on the mainboard.

The graphics card is Nvidia RTX A400

How do I connect my graphics card to my monitor?
I'm assuming I have to track down an adapter of some sort, which goes from the tiny sockets (no idea what they are called) on the graphics card to a HDMI socket?

 

[MattW]

I believe that card has display ports rather than hdmi. Mini DisplayPort 1.4a if I remember correctly.

 

[Colin_T]

I believe that card has display ports rather than hdmi. Mini DisplayPort 1.4a if I remember correctly.

would a shop that sells computers and monitors have an adapter for it?

 

[seangee]

would a shop that sells computers and monitors have an adapter for it?

Yup it is mini DP. The adaptors are about 5GBP on Amazon here.
But if the onboard port is working do you need to do anything?

 

[MattW]

Using integrated graphics affects CPU performance. Personally, if I had a GPU spare, I'd use it even if it was a 1-2 GB card.

 

[MattW]

@Colin_T I had a quick look for an adapter. Found a couple available at Bunning's, but at 30-40 AUD. There is a cable (DisplayPort to mini DisplayPort) for 11AUD, however. Does your monitor have a regular DisplayPort?

 

[anewbie]

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.

Yes the chipset is the important part. The thing is i use it as part of a software raid so the card itself can be dumb controller but the software raid will check the raid now and then for errors and that will put quite a load on the card as all the connected disks will be access linearly at the same time. While i don't mind if the card throttle the drives i do mind if it produces error or constantly reset the drive which bad chipsets even in this day and age will do so.
The LSI cards are pretty darn expensive even the ones in it mode (non-raid) and the newer chips will run $400 but the older models (10+ years) are around $70. Which card do you have ?

 

[anewbie]

@Colin_T I had a quick look for an adapter. Found a couple available at Bunning's, but at 30-40 AUD. There is a cable (DisplayPort to mini DisplayPort) for 11AUD, however. Does your monitor have a regular DisplayPort?
View attachment 373528

In USA pre tariff days i could get an adapter for under $10 for pretty much anything from old style dvi to hdmi, mini hdmi, super mini hdmi, display port, mini display port, super duper mini displayport to whatever they come up with - buying cables was a lot more expensive esp if they thought you were going to use it with a tv where they added in another $50 or $100 to the price. So i would look for an adpater - the problem i kept running into in my nuck days is every few years they changed the port type and i have one really old very good 22 inch dvi monitor which i'm letting my mother user with her brand new pc (windows 11 upgrade - her old computer was one i built 15 years ago with a cheap celeron like chip).

Anyway what drives me mad is how they constantly change the connectors - heck even the rechargeable flashlight i got 2 years apart had changed the connector - i think one use mini usb and one use that size inbetween mini and full size usb. Sigh.

 

[jaylach]

Here is a link with a selection of adapters on New Egg ranging from $9.00 to $35.00. If your monitor has a port for Display Port I'd just go ahead and get a cable. Keep in mind that the card does not have full display ports but, rather, mini display ports which are smaller.

Here is the difference. The larger is display port and the smaller is mini display port. Your card's specs state mini display ports.

https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=mini+display+port+to+hdmi+adapter