SAS port - eSATA HDD?

[massmedia]

I've got a motherboard / storage issue that I'm a bit confused on and could use some insight.

My (windows 7 pro) workstation has a quite new ASUS (dual-LGA2011-socket) server motherboard with several SAS ports. I've filled out all the available eSATA ports which are connected to various hard drives, hot swap bays etc.

I'd really like to hook regular eSATA HDDs up to those SAS ports and I've read that SAS ports are backwards compatible with eSATA.

Unfortunately when I hook up eSATA HDDs with eSATA cables to the SAS ports... no joy. Should what I am trying to do here work in theory?


side note:
Could it be a problem arising form having only one CPU socket filled?
I know that half of my PCI slots are not usable because they require the 2nd CPU slot to be filled.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

SAS ports are sometimes compatible with SATA, but you usually need some kind of breakout cable.

Model of motherboard and type of SAS port, please?

 

[massmedia]

Hi, thanks for that bit of info.

Asus Z9PE-D16/2L Server Motherboard
The manual says that the SAS connectors are PSAS connectors

From the manual:

SAS connector - PSAS connectors are for the SAS signal cables for SAS hard disk drives that allows up to 6Gb/s of data transfer rate.

If you installed SAS hard disk drives, you can create a RAID 0, RAID 1... yadda yadda...

 

[massmedia]

The SAS ports are the blue ones on the left edge mid-way up in this image:

regular eSATA hard drive cables fit in there perfectly but I don't know what's going on as far as "pins" lining up & such

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Does Device Manager show any kind of Non-Intel (probably LSI) RAID or SAS controller?

Based on my reading, it looks like you need to have a PIKE card installed to enable those ports.

 

[massmedia]

Hi Dave...

I have taken another look at the manual under the PIKE RAID card section and it does seem to indicate that installing a PIKE RAID card is probably necessary to enable RAID through the PSAS connectors... that section indicates I should look at the section that i quoted earlier for info on installing drives to those SAS ports. So I think you've solved it for me!

some other info fyi:
Device manager> Storage Controllers shows:
*Intel C600 Series Chipset SAS RAID (SATA MODE)
*Intel C600 Series Chipset SATA AHCI Controller

And in the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Enterprise software it shows
that I do in fact have 2 SATA drives hooked up to 2 other SAS ports (located elsewhere on the motherboard)... which kind of proves that all I need is some active SAS ports and I can hook up my SATA drives no problemo.

So it looks like all I need to do is plug in a PIKE card like you said.
Thanks for helping me figure this out! Very much appreciated!