Supermicro X11SPM-TF - SATA connectivity

[alexxxxx_p]

Hi,

I bought myself an X11SPM-TF Supermicro mainboard, which has 4 onboard SATA ports and 8 ports through a connector:
https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C620/X11SPM-TF.cfm

It uses intel c622 chipset. Due to my newbieness, I am not able to tell exactly how I connect my SATA disks to that second connector. I suspect it has a SFF-8643 header (so I could just buy an expander), but I can't find anything about that connector, to be honest. Is anyone familiar with that board?

Thanks a lot,
Alex

 

[Ericloewe]

It's still SATA, you can't plug in an expander. The physical connector was simply chosen to reduce board area.

 

[alexxxxx_p]

It's still SATA, you can't plug in an expander. The physical connector was simply chosen to reduce board area.

Ok, so it's 2 holes, and there needs to be 8 SATA connectors at the other end. I haven't found any mention of that kind of connector. Supermicro just says SATA ports 0-7. Other 4 "normal" SATA ports in board are listed as SATA 0-3. I'm sure I'm overlooking something very basic in terms of SATA connector types, and am afraid to ask silly questions to their tech support :-(

 

[Stux]

Think you want an SFF-8643 breakout cable, x2.

Edit: actually I’m not sure it is 8643. The manual is unhelpful. Whatever it is, you want breakout cables.

 

[alexxxxx_p]

I've found a review of another Supermicro board which has the exactly same looking connectors. Those are SATA 3 and the article claims they are SFF-8087:
https://www.servethehome.com/supermicro-x11sph-nctf-atx-storage-motherboard-review/
I'll just give a shot to the breakout cable, as suggested, SFF-8087 to 4x SATA, it costs around $12 here.
Thanks for your advice.

 

[Chris Moore]

Hi,

I bought myself an X11SPM-TF Supermicro mainboard, which has 4 onboard SATA ports and 8 ports through a connector:
https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C620/X11SPM-TF.cfm

It uses intel c622 chipset. Due to my newbieness, I am not able to tell exactly how I connect my SATA disks to that second connector. I suspect it has a SFF-8643 header (so I could just buy an expander), but I can't find anything about that connector, to be honest. Is anyone familiar with that board?

Thanks a lot,
Alex

The connectors you are asking about are not SAS connectors and if you have questions about your hardware you should create your own thread instead of adding on to an unrelated thread.

 

[Ericloewe]

The connectors you are asking about are not SAS connectors

Well, SFF-8087, which the board uses, judging by the image in the product page, is most often associated with SAS. It can be a bit confusing, hence why it's best to always call them exactly what they are: SFF-8087 (or SFF-8643, for the newer one common in SAS 3 gear).

 

[Chris Moore]

The illustration does appear to be a SFF-8087 connector, but the documentation says it is twelve SATA ports. So each of the two SFF-8087 connectors must represent four and there are four additional more easily identifiable SATA ports on the board to make the full complement.

I'll just give a shot to the breakout cable, as suggested, SFF-8087 to 4x SATA, it costs around $12 here.

I would agree that a forward breakout cable is what you need, just keep in mind that you can't connect this to a SAS expander because it is not a SAS connection. It can be confusing when they use a connector that is usually SAS to run SATA connections.

 

[alexxxxx_p]

The illustration does appear to be a SFF-8087 connector, but the documentation says it is twelve SATA ports. So each of the two SFF-8087 connectors must represent four and there are four additional more easily identifiable SATA ports on the board to make the full complement.

I would agree that a forward breakout cable is what you need, just keep in mind that you can't connect this to a SAS expander because it is not a SAS connection. It can be confusing when they use a connector that is usually SAS to run SATA connections.

Confirmed. SFF-8087 to 4 SATA from Supermicro is working with my motherboard.