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  • Motherboard With LOADS of SATA Ports

    From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jun 14 16:10:50 2025
    Car is knackered one day, server won't power up the next...

    My Asus Z170P mobo has decided not to power up. I have a spare Z170K and
    could swap in into the case or I could try and find a mobo with at least 8
    SATA ports and do a fresh build.

    I have managed to find some MOBOs (Asrock and MSI) at < £250, has anybody
    any suggestions/recommendations? The Asus Z170K works fine with add on
    cards but I enjoy new builds, as long as they have an advantage. The ones
    I have found are Z790 chipset, same as my main PC, so I know it won't run Windows 8.1 but is OK with Win 10.

    Suggestions with at least 8 SATA ports appreciated :-)

    --
    Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
    Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his friends for his
    life.
    (Jeremy Thorpe, 1962)

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  • From Theo@21:1/5 to Andy Burns on Sat Jun 14 18:15:25 2025
    Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
    Jeff Gaines wrote:

    Suggestions with at least 8 SATA ports appreciated πŸ™‚

    Someone had you in mind

    <https://pangoly.com/en/hardware/motherboard/sata-6-gbps-ports/8>

    and even

    <https://pangoly.com/en/hardware/motherboard/sata-6-gbps-ports/10>

    Or indeed 74 options: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#s=30&K=8,13

    (filters by 8+ ports and by socket LGA1151 - if you start a build and first select a CPU it'll check compatibility)

    Theo

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Andy Burns@21:1/5 to Jeff Gaines on Sat Jun 14 18:04:32 2025
    Jeff Gaines wrote:

    Suggestions with at least 8 SATA ports appreciated πŸ™‚

    Someone had you in mind

    <https://pangoly.com/en/hardware/motherboard/sata-6-gbps-ports/8>

    and even

    <https://pangoly.com/en/hardware/motherboard/sata-6-gbps-ports/10>

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to Theo on Sat Jun 14 17:43:30 2025
    On 14/06/2025 in message <TVb*lU2eA@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> Theo wrote:

    Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
    Jeff Gaines wrote:

    Suggestions with at least 8 SATA ports appreciated πŸ™‚

    Someone had you in mind

    <https://pangoly.com/en/hardware/motherboard/sata-6-gbps-ports/8>

    and even

    <https://pangoly.com/en/hardware/motherboard/sata-6-gbps-ports/10>

    Or indeed 74 options: >https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#s=30&K=8,13

    (filters by 8+ ports and by socket LGA1151 - if you start a build and first >select a CPU it'll check compatibility)

    Andy Burns / Theo

    That is enormously helpful, thank you :-)

    Googling now for "how to google"...

    --
    Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
    If BjΓΆrn & Benny had been called Syd and Dave then ABBA would have been
    called ASDA.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul@21:1/5 to Jeff Gaines on Sun Jun 15 06:03:44 2025
    On Sat, 6/14/2025 1:43 PM, Jeff Gaines wrote:
    On 14/06/2025 in message <TVb*lU2eA@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk> Theo wrote:

    Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
    Jeff Gaines wrote:

    Suggestions with at least 8 SATA ports appreciated πŸ™‚

    Someone had you in mind

    <https://pangoly.com/en/hardware/motherboard/sata-6-gbps-ports/8>

    and even

    <https://pangoly.com/en/hardware/motherboard/sata-6-gbps-ports/10>

    Or indeed 74 options:
    https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/products/motherboard/#s=30&K=8,13

    (filters by 8+ ports and by socket LGA1151 - if you start a build and first >> select a CPU it'll check compatibility)

    Andy Burns / Theo

    That is enormously helpful, thank you :-)

    Googling now for "how to google"...


    The Z790 LGA1700 14900K DDR5 has eight ports as an option.
    You could likely build a Win11 solution around a board like this.
    (The current socket is LGA1851, silicon for LGA1851 CPU going through a respin)

    https://www.newegg.com/msi-mpg-z790-edge-ti-max-wifi-atx-motherboard-intel-z790-lga-1700/p/N82E16813144632

    W790 has 8 SATA. Expensive all round.

    Many of the HEDT are old stock.

    On the AMD side, one solution is older and most likely out of stock.
    There is an X870e with 6 SATA. The previous generation are all gone.

    There is really *nothing* in add-on cards worth buying. Nothing
    that can do 530MB/sec on all ports at the same time. Who wants to
    pay $125 for a card with port multipliers on it ??? Yikes. The
    motherboard SATA ports, only a DMI bus limit could limit them.
    Whereas the add-in cards, they always put inferior PCIe interfaces
    (not enough bandwidth).

    Paul

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Theo@21:1/5 to Paul on Sun Jun 15 11:19:42 2025
    Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
    There is really *nothing* in add-on cards worth buying. Nothing
    that can do 530MB/sec on all ports at the same time. Who wants to
    pay $125 for a card with port multipliers on it ??? Yikes. The
    motherboard SATA ports, only a DMI bus limit could limit them.
    Whereas the add-in cards, they always put inferior PCIe interfaces
    (not enough bandwidth).

    You want a proper server-grade host bus adapter (HBA), not a pathetic
    consumer SATA chip (Asmedia, JMicron, ...). LSI SAS HBAs (which also do
    SATA) are a good starting point (LSI is now owned by Broadcom), and
    available used for cheap.

    eg the Avago SAS9300-8e has 9600MB/s of SAS bandwidth: https://docs.broadcom.com/doc/12352000

    but is limited to PCIe Gen3 x8 which is only 8GB/s.

    But you do pay for it in extra power consumption (that one is 14W), so a
    decent motherboard has its advantages.

    Also, if this is for spinning rust there's no point in trying to max out
    PCIe bandwidth because the drives won't handle it. If you're using SSDs
    it's better to use NVMe. I'd still recommend an HBA over consumer junk for reliability though.

    (I managed to overwhelm an nvidia chipset SATA controller once with an unoptimal ZFS setup to the result it just stopped doing anything at all. I
    put in a HBA and it worked much better. But turned out the nvidia was fine with a more sensible ZFS setup, and the HDD were much less busy too)

    Theo

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From GB@21:1/5 to Jeff Gaines on Sun Jun 15 11:29:28 2025
    On 15/06/2025 11:19, Jeff Gaines wrote:
    On 14/06/2025 in message <xn0p71kk84c0orv010@news.individual.net> Jeff
    Gaines wrote:

    My Asus Z170P mobo has decided not to power up. I have a spare Z170K
    and could swap in into the case or I could try and find a mobo with at
    least 8 SATA ports and do a fresh build.

    I decided I couldn't justify the extra cost so surgery commenced at
    10:45 to extract Z170P Mobo and replace with known working Z170K.

    I am clumsy sadly, size 11.5 feet with hands to match but it went OK,
    usual fiddle arse issue with front panel connector, by that stage buried
    next to the PSU and surrounded by cables.

    I used to screw the mobo in, then fit the cables. It's logical after
    all. But, experience has shown it's easier to fit as many cables as
    possible to the mobo before inserting it into the case. Obviously, that
    depends on lead lengths and/or dismantling the front panel.







    Anyway got there, pressed the tit, one flash of the power light and
    nothing. Fiddled a bit but no go.

    Cup of tea and decided to swap the PSU with a known working. On donor
    and re-build I had very carefully run the cable so it didn't interfere
    with air flow so I had to disentangle it.

    Anyway into re-build, turned on, straight into BIOS (it doesn't like it
    when I re-build) and then booted fine.

    Said lots of swear words, some of which I didn't know I knew. Will wire
    up the various accessories this afternoon.

    Can't remember the last time a PSU went, it's a Seasonic and doesn't owe
    me anything after all this time.

    The car power pack arrives later, let's hope that boots up too!


    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeff Gaines@21:1/5 to Gaines on Sun Jun 15 10:19:08 2025
    On 14/06/2025 in message <xn0p71kk84c0orv010@news.individual.net> Jeff
    Gaines wrote:

    My Asus Z170P mobo has decided not to power up. I have a spare Z170K and >could swap in into the case or I could try and find a mobo with at least 8 >SATA ports and do a fresh build.

    I decided I couldn't justify the extra cost so surgery commenced at 10:45
    to extract Z170P Mobo and replace with known working Z170K.

    I am clumsy sadly, size 11.5 feet with hands to match but it went OK,
    usual fiddle arse issue with front panel connector, by that stage buried
    next to the PSU and surrounded by cables.

    Anyway got there, pressed the tit, one flash of the power light and
    nothing. Fiddled a bit but no go.

    Cup of tea and decided to swap the PSU with a known working. On donor and re-build I had very carefully run the cable so it didn't interfere with
    air flow so I had to disentangle it.

    Anyway into re-build, turned on, straight into BIOS (it doesn't like it
    when I re-build) and then booted fine.

    Said lots of swear words, some of which I didn't know I knew. Will wire up
    the various accessories this afternoon.

    Can't remember the last time a PSU went, it's a Seasonic and doesn't owe
    me anything after all this time.

    The car power pack arrives later, let's hope that boots up too!

    --
    Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
    If it's not broken, mess around with it until it is

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)