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I have a Supermicro X8STi-F motherboard and would like to know if I can use SAS drives on it. I am not concerned with RAID right now, just if the drives will work. Or does the fact the motherboard is SATA imply that it only handles SATA drives?

Thank you kindly.

winarm
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8 Answers8

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For SAS, the two connector segments (power and data) were merged, which makes it possible to attach a SATA drive to a SAS controller using the continuous(SAS) connector known as a SFF-8482 connector, but you cannot hook up a SAS hard drive to a SATA controller.

Wikipedia reports

3.0 Gbit/s drives may be connected to SAS backplanes, but SAS drives may not be connected to SATA backplanes

I assume this is a reference to servers that support both drives. There are signaling voltage differences for sure so even though the Wikipedia has no detailed reference, it is not possible.

gioele
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Dave M
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    Can anyone please confirm is this still valid to this day? I am asking this because connectors have become smart and maybe there's a chance that both are not compatible. – Inderjeet Singh Mar 05 '21 at 13:17
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Shorter version:

SAS on SATA Backplane = NO.
SATA on SAS Backplane = Mostly YES.

RJFalconer
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JustinShoffstall
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    I purchased a SAS drive (by accident) for my SATA desktop PC. Are there any PCI type of cards that will allow me to use my SAS drive? – Caroline Beltran Feb 10 '20 at 00:36
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    @CarolineBeltran Yes, you can get a SAS HBA card, and they can be quite cheap second-hand on ebay. But generally you'll want to do your research as there is quite a variety of cards (and cables) available. Unless you have a specific reason to need SAS on a desktop machine, you are likely better off returning the drive and getting a SATA one instead. – Bob Jun 10 '20 at 18:49
  • While I also was sure this would be the correct answer, there are cheap (apparently passive) interposers ( https://www.amazon.com/Genuine-Dell-UF070-Interposer-SFF-8482/dp/B00E0OFHM8 ) to connect SAS drives to SATA... something, and the Q/A section mentions this something can be "either a SAS controller or a SATA controller". Can you confirm? – Pietro Battiston Sep 19 '20 at 12:24
  • The interposer mentioned by @PietroBattiston will not "do the trick". This is mentioned by a Greg Schulz' rating of the article and the Q/A section of the article. It seems it merely allows to use a SATA-style power connector when no SAS-style power is available, but the controller/HBA still needs to be SAS. (I'm not an enterprise HW person, but sounds about right to me) – ArchimedesMP Jun 27 '22 at 22:45
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This might also help those who want certainty and more info:

http://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/_whitepapers/tech/sata/sas_sata_unprlcompat.htm (from early 2000s)

[T]he SAS interface will also be compatible with lower cost-per-gigabyte SATA drives, giving system builders the flexibility to integrate either SAS or SATA devices and slash the costs associated with supporting two separate interfaces.

The SAS connector is [..] form-factor compatible with SATA, allowing SAS or SATA drives to plug directly into a SAS environment whether for mission critical applications with high availability and high performance requirements or lower cost-per-gigabyte applications such as near-box storage.

SATA connector signals are a subset of SAS signals, enabling the compatibility of SATA devices and SAS adapters. SAS drives will not operate on a SATA adapter and are keyed to prevent any chance of plugging them in incorrectly.

[T]he similar SAS and SATA physical interfaces enable a new universal SAS backplane that provides connectivity to both SAS drives and SATA drives [..]

SAS consists of three types of protocols, each used to transfer different types of data over the serial interface depending on which device is being accessed. Serial SCSI Protocol (SSP) transfers SCSI commands, SCSI Management Protocol (SMP) sends management information to expanders and SATA Tunneled Protocol (STP) creates a connection that allows transmission of the SATA commands. By including all three of these protocols, SAS provides seamless compatibility with [...] SATA devices.

Also these example product spec:

https://www.attotech.com/products/adapters/sas-sata-raid and http://www.avagotech.com/products/server-storage/raid-controllers (LSI-as-was)

"ExpressSAS 6Gb/s SAS/SATA RAID Adapters provide high performance data protection to direct attached SAS and SATA JBOD storage [..]"

"Support for 6Gb/s and 3Gb/s SATA and SAS drives to balance cost and performance"

Community
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Stilez
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SAS and SATA use different signaling voltages. Using SATA on a SAS backplane will function but the opposite will not, as a consequence of the voltage ranges.

jldugger
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0

Maybe this SAS to USB converter would help.

https://www.amazon.com/SAS-Adapter-Enclosure-Converter-Docking/dp/B09YNTPTYS

user792019
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  • Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Jun 10 '22 at 19:15
  • While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - [From Review](/review/late-answers/1128854) – DarkDiamond Jun 10 '22 at 20:01
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well I have SAS on my SATA ports but they drop out after a few hrs ( SATA backplane modded with plastic chock removed )

so I guess there is a bit more to it than the physical connectors

MasterCATZ
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I'm in the process of hooking up a SAS hdd to a SATA USB controller with UASP protocol.

Just waiting for the USB SATA UASP adapter to arrive.

Theoretically, UASP protocol can handle SCSI over USB. UASP = "USB Attached SCSI Protocol"

The only issue is that under Windows 7 and 8.1, the HDD must come with UASP drivers for it to work.

Under Windows 10 however UASP is enabled without drivers and works by default.

You can always install Win 10 under VMWARE and access the drive under Windows 7 or 8.1 that way, in theory...

Ep000001
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You have it backwards, you can use SAS on SATA, but not SATA on SAS, you can buy adapters that work just for this.

Kevin Panko
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daroutergod
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    Actually, *you* have it backwards. SAS only connects to SAS. SATA can be attached to either SATA or SAS. (I have SATA laptop drives attached to my SAS server right now) – Ricky Jan 27 '14 at 21:47