PCIe to sata3 expansion card

[iHoller]

My server needs room for 4+ HDDs but there’s no more SATA ports on my asus z10pe-d16 ws.

 

is it possible to use a PCIe to SATA 3 card?

it runs unRaid and all drives are WD Red NAS Pro 6tb.

[jj9987]

There are such cards indeed. You will want a RAID card that can be run in IT or JBOD mode. Some cards are called HBA cards. (Someone can correct me on the terminology here.)

 

There are RAID cards that require you to use RAID to make use of disks, but unRAID wants direct access to the drives for best performance and stability. Flashing is possible, but better just buy one that works in the needed mode, less worry for yourself.

[iHoller]

20 minutes ago, jj9987 said:

There are such cards indeed. You will want a RAID card that can be run in IT or JBOD mode. Some cards are called HBA cards. (Someone can correct me on the terminology here.)

 

There are RAID cards that require you to use RAID to make use of disks, but unRAID wants direct access to the drives for best performance and stability. Flashing is possible, but better just buy one that works in the needed mode, less worry for yourself.

What is IT/JBOD mode?

can you recommend a card?

[jde3]

1 hour ago, iHoller said:

What is IT/JBOD mode?

can you recommend a card?

It means just a bunch of disks. IE you want pass through mode or raw. Expose the drive to the OS instead of emulating a drive.

[AshleyAshes]

They also make regular boring SATA controller PCIE cards that are a lot cheaper than buying expensive RAID cards.

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Id get this. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PERC-H200-6Gb-PCI-e-SAS-SATA-8-Port-Raid-Controller-M1015-9211-8i-047MCV/263575074356?epid=1975052278&hash=item3d5e4c7634:g:oZ4AAOSw8mRavEgy

 

There about the same price as the cheap ones above, but are more stable and just have less issues. They can also uses sas expanders for hundreds of drives later on.

[AshleyAshes]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id get this. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PERC-H200-6Gb-PCI-e-SAS-SATA-8-Port-Raid-Controller-M1015-9211-8i-047MCV/263575074356?epid=1975052278&hash=item3d5e4c7634:g:oZ4AAOSw8mRavEgy

 

There about the same price as the cheap ones above, but are more stable and just have less issues. They can also uses sas expanders for hundreds of drives later on.

That's a good option too if one has larger than 1x PCIE slots free.  Though there are no 'stability' or any other issues with the cheaper PCIE cards.  They're just boring SATA controllers on cards, the same controllers used on many boards to give them additional onboard SATA ports than what the Intel or AMD chipset offers.  There's no known stability or reliability issues reported with these kinds of products.