this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2024
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This is a part from an IBM server dated 2008 that I want to reuse in my new computer. It essentially converts from 1 SAS port to 4 SATA ports. I’ll use the raid card to connect to it via SAS, but I do not know what the power port is and what the connector on the top is either

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[–] [email protected] 108 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I actually worked on the team that designed these! If I recall correctly, the top connector is for the motherboard BMC. It should work fine without being connected. The right hand side as others said is power.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Oh, that's cool.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Why the hatched ground plane instead of solid?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago

That is not a plane if you look close. That is thieving. The board layout had no copper there, but this can make the plating process more difficult to get consistent across the board. Usually this is added by the fab house to help them manufacture the board.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That sounds like more trouble than it’s worth. You can get a SAS to SATA breakout cable for < $20 on Amazon.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Absolutely this. Save trouble.

If absolutely in need of a backplane, look for old chassis parts from super micro on eBay.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

God they’re so expensive now. I bought a 24-port backplane for $37 like 3 years ago and the same one is now $120

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The one on the right looks like a 14 pin molex connector. You can buy the plug by itself and make a connector, but finding the pinout is going to be a bitch. As for the one on top, it looks like maybe a USB2.0 motherboard socket.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The one at the top could also be a connector for a serial port for debugging or so.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

+1 on that. The User's guide of a similar device (source) mentions a 10-pin CPLD connector Reserved for IBM use

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

As often with IBM, everything is proprietary 😅

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

If it can't be found online, could start poking with a multimeter.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Looks like a cpu/gpu type power connector. Even if its a standard plug does not mean its a standard pin out ! Craft computing on YouTube had what looked like a standard plug in his server but it had a 12volt and ground switched, so would have caused some real damage

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Looks like a usb, and a molex power connector. You'd have to break out a multimeter to figure out what's active and what's a ground though, and then have to bit bang your way to figure out what each connection does.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Same question on reddit a while ago

As suggested there, I recommend to use a multimeter to identify the power socket pins. Roughly half of them should be ground. Most or all of them should correspond and be connected to the SATA power connector pins on the other side.