RAID Controller and non-server mobo

Pat Macintosh

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Aug 6, 2014
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So recently I just bought an Intel RAID Controller RS3DC040 and a MB GIGABYTE|GA-Z97MX-GAMING 5 MATX motherboard. I was told by Intel Support that the RAID controller would most likely not work on the motherboard I just got. It is a PCIe 3.0 8x RAID controller and the motherboard has a slot for it.

So my basic question is there any reason a PCIe 3.0 x8 card wouldn't work with a motherboard with the same PCIe 3.0 x8 connection?

Also the Intel Support said there may be compatibility issues due to it being a ‘server part’ running in a ‘desktop architecture’. How could this be a potential issue?

The server I'm building is with 15 drives for the RAID. I'm asking this questions because the Intel guy said that I would have to purchase an 'Expander' if I want to connect more than 4 devices to the RAID controller. I just want to see if anyone has any experience with a desktop mobo and a 'server part'.

The idea is that I'm going to have 15 drives in a RAID 5 or 6 with one drive being a hot spare and 2 drives (for the OS) in RAID 1 by means of a software RAID.

So the questions I have (in short) are:

  • -Will a 'server part' work on a 'desktop mobo' as both are PCIe x8?
    -What RAID would you recommend 5 or 6?

Though I'm more than happy to take any suggestions for configuring this many hard drives in a desktop system. Thanks!
 
it will work but that really depends on what kind of OS your gonna run. your second question raid 5 or raid 6, i'll take raid 6 or 10. and about the 15 driver's yes you will need an "Expander" to make it work.
 

popatim

Titan
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Should work but you typically have to mask pins 5 & 6 on the card to get it to work right. Those are the SMbus clock and data buses btw. Same thing we do for some Perc cards.

I'm curious why you chose that card? The connector is not very common. were you going to connect it to HBA's?
 

Pat Macintosh

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Aug 6, 2014
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I picked the card because I thought it supported 4 SAS connections (not internal) like the description says. It actually only has one so I guess I need to get the 'Expander' from Intel too.

I'm connecting 15 Green WD HDD's to the mobo.
 
ahhh i missed the days of scsi raid array....anyway the mostly likey why you'll need an expander because it will only support 15 HD as a SAS connection.....and the reason i told you it depends on the OS is some card doesn't have a driver for other OS'es.....