SATA Express to SAS SFF-8482 Cable... and questions of use

BlackDragon1971

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https://www.newegg.ca/p/0ZF-001N-00032?Description=sata express&cm_re=sata_express-_-9SIAEB25YV9579-_-Product

I recently upgraded to an ASUS x99 motherboard, Intel 6800k CPU and 512 GB Samsung 960 Pro m.2 NVMe SSD, The ASUS x99 motherboard has 2x SATA Express ports. which are of little use other than attaching SATA devices to..
I came across a SATA Express to SAS SFF-8482 29P cable on Newegg.ca. It should plug into my SATA Express ports, however what SAS solid state drive plugs into the other end? I've seen Enterprise SSDs that are SAS 12 GB/s... are these the ones that work?
Will it work?
Playing with the idea of a faster solution than a normal SATA III 6 GB/s SSD as a scratch drive.
The other solution is a PCIe adapter card for a 2nd m.2 NVMe SSD, however in the x99 BIOS I can either select the vertical onboard m.2 connector (populated with the Samsung 960 Pro) or enable an ASUS Hyper Card. The manual warns against using both a Hyper add in card and the onboard m.2 NVMe connector with a 28 lane CPU (6800k CPU). The onboard m.2 connector shares resources with PCIe lane 5, I understand.
So, if I have 2x SATA Express connectors on the ASUS x99 motherboard... will a SAS 12 GB/s SSD work, if I use an adapter cable as listed above on NewEgg Canada ?
What SAS SSDs would work?
Am I misunderstanding some concepts?... (SAS drives are a little over my head right now)

BlackDragon
 
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The name of the cable is a little misleading. It’s not for SAS devices, it’s for SATAe devices, which use the SFF-8482 SAS connector. SATAe never took off, so you probably never find anything to utilize those ports except legacy SATA devices.

SAS Express isn’t a thing as far as I know, so there are no SAS devices that will work on your motherboard without adding a SAS adapter.
 
The name of the cable is a little misleading. It’s not for SAS devices, it’s for SATAe devices, which use the SFF-8482 SAS connector. SATAe never took off, so you probably never find anything to utilize those ports except legacy SATA devices.

SAS Express isn’t a thing as far as I know, so there are no SAS devices that will work on your motherboard without adding a SAS adapter.
I have 2 SATA Express SATAe ports on my motherboard... looking to do better than SATA III 6 GB/s with them... will a SAS 12 GB/s SSD work with the x99 Deluxe motherboard if I use the cable?
The connector on the far right will connect to my motherboard.... what does the connector in the middle connect to? The one on the left is like a SATA Power connector...
 
No a SAS 12GB/s drive will not work with your motherboard. The middle connector on that cable is for SATAe devices.
 
No a SAS 12GB/s drive will not work with your motherboard. The middle connector on that cable is for SATAe devices.
got it... thanks... asking saves wasting money and finding out you were wrong...
exploring a 2nd NVMe SSD on an Add In card is the better solution.
Thanks Ryan_975
 
The cable you linked will work with U.2 NVMe drives (with 2 lanes instead of 4). Early consumer drives used it (Intel 750) before M.2 NVMe was available. These days, only enterprise drives still use it.
 
With the x99 platform, you should be checking how your PCI-e lanes are shared. You can drastically educe your expected throughput if you are sharing an NVMe card/adapter in a PCIe slot with your GPU. Remember that an NVMe is a PCIe 4x device for your system and you likely can bifurcae 4 of them in a 16x PCIe slot. A single NVMe on a card like this would most assuredly be faster than a couple of SAS/SSD drives anyways.

As far as compatibility, if you aren't booting from it, chances are your drive will work fine as a really fast scratch drive once you get into your OS.

That said, I used one of these on an X79 board and got decent performance from the drives. Note that the NVMe is PCIe connected and the M.2 SSD is connected to the motherboard through a SATA cable).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075ZNWS9Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
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The cable you linked will work with U.2 NVMe drives (with 2 lanes instead of 4). Early consumer drives used it (Intel 750) before M.2 NVMe was available. These days, only enterprise drives still use it.
was looking at those too... there are some U.2 SSDs that look interesting if they can be found at the right price used.
 
The cable you linked will work with U.2 NVMe drives (with 2 lanes instead of 4). Early consumer drives used it (Intel 750) before M.2 NVMe was available. These days, only enterprise drives still use it.
So you are saying something like the Intel P3500 U.2 SSD would work... eBay has a 800 GB model for about $145. 00 CAD used... which is perfect for trying out to see if it works, as a fast scratch drive.
 
The cable you linked will work with U.2 NVMe drives (with 2 lanes instead of 4). Early consumer drives used it (Intel 750) before M.2 NVMe was available. These days, only enterprise drives still use it.

Are you sure? It doesn't seem to be possible given the electrical differences between the 68-pin U.2 (SFF-8639) and 29-pin SATAe/SAS (SFF-8482) device connectors.

Notice that SATAe repurposed the SAS/SATA signal pins for the two PCIe lanes, while U.2 devices puts all four PCIe lanes on pins that don't exist for SATAe and doesn't even use the SATA/SAS pins.
1587290500150.png
 
Are you sure? It doesn't seem to be possible given the electrical differences between the 68-pin U.2 (SFF-8639) and 29-pin SATAe/SAS (SFF-8482) device connectors.

Notice that SATAe repurposed the SAS/SATA signal pins for the two PCIe lanes, while U.2 devices puts all four PCIe lanes on pins that don't exist for SATAe and doesn't even use the SATA/SAS pins.
View attachment 238877
Looks like you are correct, though I see no reason why they couldn't have rewired it (seems unlikely). I thought the pinouts would be the same seeing as all the cables I've seen use U.2/SFF-8639 connectors instead of the one specific to SATA Express (which looks to lock out SAS drives). They must be using the U.2 connectors on account of cost/availability. I thought no SATA Express drives were ever made, but I did find out that a single retail device exists (Toshiba THNSF5256GJC7), so I guess it will work with that and that's about it.

On another note, while most people think SATA Express was a complete flop, it's actually heavily used, just not with the SATA Express ports. A lot of newer Intel platforms use SATA Express for all of their SATA ports.
 
Looks like you are correct, though I see no reason why they couldn't have rewired it (seems unlikely). I thought the pinouts would be the same seeing as all the cables I've seen use U.2/SFF-8639 connectors instead of the one specific to SATA Express (which looks to lock out SAS drives). They must be using the U.2 connectors on account of cost/availability. I thought no SATA Express drives were ever made, but I did find out that a single retail device exists (Toshiba THNSF5256GJC7), so I guess it will work with that and that's about it.

On another note, while most people think SATA Express was a complete flop, it's actually heavily used, just not with the SATA Express ports. A lot of newer Intel platforms use SATA Express for all of their SATA ports.
SATAe was a meant to bring PCIe to the drives. In that regard, it flopped.
 
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