Question regarding hp sas expander

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wonslung

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Jan 11, 2010
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I currently have a ZFS based 20 TB server based on the norco 4020. I'm looking to expand the storage and sas expanders are looking to be a quite attractive option. I know chenbro makes a reasonably priced sas expander card but in my research i've run across a card sold by hp. I'm sure many people in this forum are aware of the card i mean but for those who aren't this is a link to it:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/arraycontrollers/sas-expander/index.html


This card would be ideal for what i want save one thing:

It is powered via the pci-e buss. I'm wondering if anyone knows of an adapter i can buy to power this to avoid using a motherboard. If i have to use a motherboard i guess i can (i haven't tried anything like this but i would imagine it should work) but i'd much rather power it with an adapter.

Another option I'd be willing to consider is buying a blank pci-e bus and creating my own adapter. Has anyone done this?

Thanks for any help.
 
You could order a PCIe riser card and solder your adapter to the correct contact points on the fingers of the riser. This will allow you to power up the card without soldering an adapter directly to the card. Those risers are cheap too.

It will probably work fine if you can find the specs of the PCIe standard (which should be possible). I would like to stress that this should be considered as being "ghetto" :)
 
Are we sure the HP SAS Expander card is only using the PCIe bus for power and nothing else?
Here are some detailed pictures from the PCIe connector:





Also, maybe information gained from this thread can be added here:
HP SAS Expander Owner's Thread
 
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