Question 1

Does this provide power to the drives as well?

Accepted Answer

No. It's just an HBA. You have to provide power.  Currently running 25 HDD. Had to be creative with power using splitters. Just make sure you don't cheap out on the splutter themselves. I'd snagged a few that have capacitors to stabilize voltage so it doesn't spike and destroy the drives.

Question 2

I want to connect 16 SATA drives to this card.
I am pretty sure this is possible from the other comments.
The picture looks like it has 4 SAS ports.
How you do I connect 16 SATA drives to 4 SAS ports?
Are special cables needed?

Thanks

Accepted Answer

I have two of these cards with 16x3TB drives connected to each. I then used linux to create a software raid. They have worked great. Those are not SATA connectors, They are mini SAS splitters ports. You will need to get something like. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2V517C5113&cm_re=mini_sas_splitter_cable-_-9SIA2V517C5113-_-Product That's just an example of the cable, check the documentation.

Question 3

Does this card support 8tb hard disks?

Accepted Answer

It should. I've personally used several of the Seagate 8TB archive drives on it with no issues at all.

If any problems arise, I'd lean towards the drive and it's firmware/on-board controller being the issue, not this card.

Be aware, there are firmware updates for this card, and the instructions are somewhat spotty.

Also, if you intend on booting from an attached drive, be aware that many motherboards have a limit on the bootable drives available, usually 12-16. So, make sure to enter the bios utility for this card and specify the primary and secondary boot drives for it, then set the INT13 drives passed to the bios to 2. This will ensure that the drives you wish to boot from show up as options in your bios.

Question 4

Does this card support RAID expansion?

Accepted Answer

This is not a RAID card.  It is just an adapter card for SAS or SATA drives.  I used it to connect 10 SATA hard disks, but the card itself does not provide any RAID functionality.

Question 5

does the card com with full height bracket or  short bracket?

Accepted Answer

This is a full-height card.  It only comes with a full-height bracket.  It would not fit in a low-profile case.

Question 6

So this is just a JBOD card?

Accepted Answer

yes

Question 7

Will this controller work with the newer Seagate 6TB disks? (The consumer version: STBD6000100)

Accepted Answer

Simple answer is yes. If bios can register the drives, you should have no issues. Currently running 6TB drives myself.

Questions & Answers