M.2 to SATA III adapter

[Silther]

Hi,

I want to setup a NAS in the Jonsbo N2 case.
The thing is, most Mini-ITX Motherboards only support 2-4 SATA ports (at least those with AM5).
Can I use a m.2 to SATA Adapter like the iocrest 4 Sata with RAID or iocrest 5 sata without raid ?
Some of them state that they support RAID (but no RAID on PM) and others support no kind of raid.
I want to use them in a raidzf1 or raidzf2 pool in trueNAS scale.

 

[Silther]

As my motherboard I planed to use the MSI MPG B650I EDGE (4 SATA Ports) or the ASRock A620i Lighting Wifi (2 SATA Ports)

 

[HoneyBadger]

Hey @Silther

Is AM5 a hard requirement? There are ITX AM4 boards that support 8 SATA devices like the ASRockRack X570D4I series:

ASRock Rack > X570D4I-2T

www.asrockrack.com

In general though, the M.2-to-SATA cards tend to have underwhelming performance at best, and have less mature/tested drivers, especially when using things like the JMicron chipset that's often found in them. The ASMedia ones are a bit better supported under the Linux-based SCALE drivers, but they're still not at the level of the more tested LSI/Intel/AMD solutions.

 

[Silther]

Thanks for the Answer,

Is AM5 a hard requirement?

Pretty much, I want to future proof my system as much as possible and av1 encoding/decoding is only supported by the coming AMD 8000 series. The ASRockRack X570D4I also seems to be a bit outside my budget with almost 500€.

In general though, the M.2-to-SATA cards tend to have underwhelming performance at best

If I would use only an m.2 to two Sata ports adapter, would that help?

 

[Silther]

Or are there any LSI HBAs which use m.2?

 

[Ericloewe]

Can I use a m.2 to SATA Adapter

You have to use clear nomenclature. Those are not adapters, they are full-blown AHCI controllers and as such all the usual caveats apply (i.e. stay away).

Or are there any LSI HBAs which use m.2?

You mean an HBA that plugs into an M.2 slot? No, but there are adapters to convert an M.2 slot to a standard PCIe slot.

 

[Etorix]

Pretty much, I want to future proof my system as much as possible and av1 encoding/decoding is only supported by the coming AMD 8000 series. The ASRockRack X570D4I also seems to be a bit outside my budget with almost 500€.

"Future proof", as in "last generation hardware", and small budget do not go well together.
For sanity, try to get a motherboard with enough SATA ports.

If you do not need the PCIe slot, you might use a genuine SAS HBA in there.

 

[Silther]

If you do not need the PCIe slot, you might use a genuine SAS HBA in there.

And SAS than can be connected to SATA HDDs?
If I find an SAS HBA that is half size (fits in the case) that sounds pretty good.

 

[Silther]

"Future proof", as in "last generation hardware"

Shouldn't a Ryzen 7600/8600 perform pretty well with TrueNAS and virtualisation?

 

[Ericloewe]

If I find an SAS HBA that is half size (fits in the case) that sounds pretty good.

What do you mean by half-size? Most HBAs are already low-profile cards. It's hard to tell if the chassis has a low-profile slot, they show everything except a good look at what might be said slot.

 

[Silther]

What do you mean by half-size?

Sorry, meant low profile.

And with such an sas hda I can run SATA III HDDs?

 

[NugentS]

Sorry, meant low profile.

And with such an sas hda I can run SATA III HDDs?

Yes

 

[Whattteva]

Sorry, meant low profile.

And with such an sas hda I can run SATA III HDDs?

Not the other way around though. You can't plug a SAS HDD to a SATA port.

 

[Ericloewe]

Yes. You should probably read up on all this more and keep in mind that the Resources section is your friend.

 

[Etorix]

Shouldn't a Ryzen 7600/8600 perform pretty well with TrueNAS and virtualisation?

Don't know. It's too new to be sure—remember TrueNAS is an appliance OS and its kernel is always a few releases behind "current". For instance, SCALE just got scheduler support for the hybrid architecture in Alder Lake with Cobia.

Mind that you need a drive to boot, and that a raidz2 pool is not a good fit for VMs. I'm not convinced that a mini-ITX AM5 will "perform well" for your stated application: Not the right ports on an excessively small board.

 

[Silther]

Mind that you need a drive to boot

An m.2 nvme should work right?

and that a raidz2 pool is not a good fit for VMs

thought about using a separate sata ssd for that, if the boot drive is not enough.

Not the right ports on an excessively small board.

True, but the the most m-Atx cases are they bigger and the jonsbo n2/3 fit right in the shelf under my router, but will look into it a bit more.

 

[Silther]

Yes. You should probably read up on all this more

Already read through it (but only after i started this thread, so thanks for the help and sorry that a few things have been duplicates from other threads etc.)

 

[Ericloewe]

An m.2 nvme should work right?

NVMe SSDs are fine, yes.