Supermicro A1SA7-2750F (16x SATA onboard)

[chackoc]

Anyone know anything about this board? I believe it's pretty new so I'm curious if anyone has tried one.

It seems like the perfect MB for a money-no-object 16 bay build. And perhaps some of the cost could be justified by eliminating the need for the HBA boards.

Here's a link to the specs, but the big ones for me are Avoton and 17 onboard SATA ports.

 

[Ericloewe]

It's a proprietary form factor, so you'd definitely need a supermicro chassis (perhaps even a specific model)... Other than that it seems like yet another Avoton storage solution.

 

[chackoc]

Are there other Avoton options that provide similar SATA ports onboard? I have previously been looking at the ASRock at 12x or the Supermicro at 6x. I've been waffling between a quiet 6 drive build in a Fractal case and a loud 16 drive build in a used Supermicro server chassis, so seeing this board made me pretty excited about the Supermicro possibilities since the only previous Supermicro option I'd seen would have required two HBA cards to fill the 16bay chassis.

And I have a (no doubt unjustifiable) preference for Supermicro over ASRock.

 

[Ericloewe]

You can either use an expander and an HBA or that 16-port HBA. Supermicro's basic Avoton board (which unfortunately uses SO-DIMMs) should work.

 

[chackoc]

Is there an advantage to add-on boards over integrated ports? It seems like the other SM board plus expanders/HBA(s) leaves you at roughly the same price as this board ($600.) And for the same cost I would think onboard hardware would be preferred to accessory boards, no?

The proprietary form factor is definitely a disappointment, but at 8.3" x 6.7" it's only 2" wider than the Mini-ITX version. The typical 3U, 16bay server cases on ebay indicate they support MBs up to 13"x13" so I would imagine fitment wouldn't be a concern. Unless they went with their own mount positioning, which would be unfortunate.

 

[Ericloewe]

Is there an advantage to add-on boards over integrated ports? It seems like the other SM board plus expanders/HBA(s) leaves you at roughly the same price as this board ($600.) And for the same cost I would think onboard hardware would be preferred to accessory boards, no?

The proprietary form factor is definitely a disappointment, but at 8.3" x 6.7" it's only 2" wider than the Mini-ITX version. The typical 3U, 16bay server cases on ebay indicate they support MBs up to 13"x13" so I would imagine fitment wouldn't be a concern. Unless they went with their own mount positioning, which would be unfortunate.

Onboard or separate is irrelevant, mostly, assuming controls. But separate cards can be easily replaced.