Home Server/Storage/Adding More SATA Ports

The Dell PERC H200, a server-grade SAS card.

Companion page to the "Adding More SATA Ports" section on the Home Server page.

If you run out of SATA ports on your motherboard but require more storage there are a number of options for increasing the number of drives your server can support. The best and recommended approach is to use a SAS HBA with SAS to SATA breakout cables. Each SAS port can support up to 4 Sata drives (or even more if you use an expander). You can find used LSI SAS HBAs on eBay for relatively cheap which have 2 internal ports for a total of 8 SATA drives. Avoid SAS1 cards as they are far too old by now and have some limitations. If your case can no longer support more drives, you may want to look into buying an External SAS HBA, which will allow you to connect drives in an external enclosure directly to your server.

Some videos on SAS controllers and cables. If you are new to using SAS you should watch these:

• Overview of common used LSI SAS controllers on the market
• Overview of SAS cables
• Using a SAS expander to connect 24 HDDs using only one controller

SATA HBAs and port multipliers/expanders are not recommended. They are garbage and not worth buying. SATA port multipliers specifically can cause issues when you try to us any kind of RAID with them.

There are some counterfeit LSI cards on the market, avoid Chinese sellers, sellers with no return policy, etc.

• How to buy non counterfeit LSI.
• Good video on how to spot counterfeits.