IBM M1015 on a PCIE riser

[Dave022]

I have a MB with a single PCIe x 16 slot which is occupied by the GPU, but three spare PCIe 2.0 x 1 slots.

I have found a reasonably priced IBM M1015 flashed to IT mode.

Would it be possible to use a riser to connect it to the X1 slot, understanding that the bandwidth will be restricted.

If so, what is the maximum amount of SAS drives that this will work with?

I originally looked at an Adeptec 6405e, which is PCIe x1 (before reading how bad an idea that would be) but that handled four drives...

 

[Ericloewe]

Would it be possible to use a riser to connect it to the X1 slot, understanding that the bandwidth will be restricted.

Yes, assuming signal integrity is maintained.

If so, what is the maximum amount of SAS drives that this will work with?

This is unaffected by the PCIe uplink to the host. I think it's 128 devices (including the HBA and any expanders) for SAS2008s in IT mode.