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TJF
Asked: 2010-02-26 13:24:43 +0800 CST

External mini SAS to external mini SAS (x4 vs x8)?

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I'm ordering an Enhance Tec E8 external harddrive enclosure with with a Mini SAS 8088 connector. I plan to use 8 drives in a RAID 5. The RAID Controller I'm looking at says it has 2 x4/x8 hybrid ports, however all the ext mini SAS to mini SAS cables I can find say x4. Does that mean the x4 can only address 4 harddrives and I'd need to get two x4 cables to take use of all 8 harddrives or am I misunderstanding something here?

Thanks!

Tom

hard-drive raid sas

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I looked up that unit, and I suspect you are talking about the E8-MS unit. That unit has two Mini-SAS ports on it, which you would use SFF-8088 cables to connect from the controller to the box. Those cables are designed to support 4 drives each, not by arbitrary decision, but by the physical wiring of the cables. If the controller says it supports x8 ports, then it must be referring to a special cable they make/sell to connect to 8 drives. However, you will still need 2 SFF-8088 cables to connect to the E8-MS unit.

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