SATA 6g 4-port non-RAID controller ?

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 10:38:36AM +0100, Tom Evans wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 11:55 PM, Jeremy Chadwick
> <freebsd at jdc.parodius.com> wrote:
> >
> > And before someone asks: in most cases you *cannot* use this card in a
> > PCIe x16 connector on a motherboard. ??Most generic motherboard
> > manufacturers at this point have special one-offs that assume their PCIe
> > x16 slots are for video cards only. ??If you aren't sure, you'll need to
> > ask your motherboard manufacturer/vendor if you can use a
> > non-VGA-adapter in their PCIe x16 slot. ??Some Supermicro boards do have
> > PCIe x16 slots that can be used by non-VGA adapters, but I haven't seen
> > this on, say, Asus/Gigabyte/Dell/Intel motherboards.
> 
> Jeremy may not have seen PCI express x16 HBAs working on consumer
> boards, but I have, plenty of times.

I'm glad -- people should probably start making a list, because the
number of boards I've seen it not work in easily exceeds that of the
times I HAVE seen it work.  :-)

> I don't know why the FUD, but I have had no problems with an Intel
> SASUC8I (LSI 1068 based) running on an Asus P5Q Pro, a simple consumer
> P45 chipset. I'm not unique, many people have success doing this.

Once in a blue moon, an intelligent board manufacturer puts comments in
their user manual to the effect of "the PCIe x16 slot is only to be used
for VGA adapters and will not work with non-VGA cards", or vice-versa.
Here's some hard evidence of my claim:

Supermicro X7SBA server-class motherboard user manual has the following
line in it:

"Note: The Intel 3210 chipset does not support add-in graphics cards in
the PCI-E interface provided by the Memory Controller Hub (MCH)."

So in that boards' case, the PCIe x16 slot (which only has PCIe x8 worth
of lanes wired) will work with controller cards but not VGA adapters.

And here's another, for the X7DVL series boards:
http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=10582

"This is a server board, and you cannot place a x8 or x16 VGA card on
this board. Only onboard VGA is possible. If you need to place a VGA
card please use X7DA(x) board".

And up until last week I owned and used an Asus P5Q SE (P45-based with
ICH10 SB) board, so I can refer you to the fact that the P5Q Pro user
manual "hints" that the PCIe x16 slot is for graphics only but doesn't
downright say that.

TL;DR -- it varies from board to board, ask your motherboard
manufacturer whether or not it'll work *before* just jamming a card in
there.

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                   Mountain View, CA, US |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.               PGP 4BD6C0CB |