Start a Conversation

Unsolved

A

1 Rookie

 • 

1 Message

28

April 16th, 2024 14:56

Dell Precision T5820 - SAS Drive can't find cable connection for SAS Controller on PCI

I have recently bought a Dell Precision T5820 Intel Core i9-10920X, 32 GB, 1000 GB, SSD Workstation.

- One HDD slot is occupied with the 1TB SSD.

- The 2 lower Bays I installed a 8TB WD red 3,5 inch HDD and a 5TB 2.5 inch HDD.

- The last upper drive to the right seems only to have a SAS Connection.

Nowhere in the Manual is this mentioned nor any sticker on the Bay. No SATA Drive works there. So I bought a SAS drive and changed BIOS setting to "Raid One" as advised.

Now Dell Support claims I need a separate SAS Controller.

Most solutions connect all internal drives via SATA or SAS to this PCI Controller card, but in this workstation I can not see where these SATA connectors are, which I would have to connect to the extra Controller card, nor any type of SAS type of connector can be found. I took the Computer apart and on the backplane of the 3.5 inch bays I could also not find any SATA nor SAS connectors. it seems to be built in to the Motherboard. So how do I connect a SAS Controller card with a SAS Drive bay?

On some models of 5820 there seem to be connectors on the backplane, which you can change to 4 SAS Drives with connectors, but there are none in my Computer.

If you can't connect this single SAS HDD bay, why didn't they install 4 SATA bays from the beginning that works and only change to 4 SAS if you want to change the backplane? 

Or does the SAS Drive work though a SAS PCI Controller card connection without direct cable connection?

Does it have to be a certain model of SAS Controller card or setup?

5 Practitioner

 • 

5K Posts

April 16th, 2024 22:09

To support SAS, the Precision 5820 could be configured with either Broadcom MegaRAID® SAS 9440-8 or Broadcom MegaRAID® SAS 9460-16i as storage controller. 

Currently, your flexbay are connecting to motherboard miniSAS HD ports.  The upper flexbay supports PCIe NVMe and U.2 drives.  The lower flexbay supports SATA drives.

The lower flexbay can connect to MegaRAID SAS controller above with proper cable to support SAS drives.

The upper flexbay needs a different backplane and connecting to MegaRAID SAS controller to support SAS drives.

No Events found!

Top