PCIe SATA Expansion card suggestions

Framework Desktop
1

I’m about to receive my Framework Desktop mainboard (Batch 17 - already got shipping email to Germany) and I’m shopping around for PCIe SATA expansion cards. I’m currently running Proxmox in a Jonsbo N1 (jonsbo[dot]com/en/products/N1.html - sorry limited links with new acct) case which comes with a backplane supporting 5x 3.5” HDDs. I’m currently only using 3x, but definitely don’t want to limit myself to only 4 of the slots in the future, for example.

I’m running ZFS (software zraid) and don’t plan on changing that, so I don’t need an actual HBA / would only run it in IT / passthrough mode.

So far I’ve found the following general suggestions that should work well with recent Linux kernels:

1. JMicron JMB585–Based PCIe or M.2 adapters
2. ASMedia ASM1064–Based ones

Specifically I’ve found these two products which would fit my use-case using the JMicron controller:

It looks like the ASMedia ones are generally 4 port and I need 5-ports, but I’ve also read that the ASMedia controller is a bit newer and better supported by the Linux kernel. So if anyone has a suggestions for a 5-port version using that controller that’d be great.

Also I’m curious if anyone’s used one of these M.2 slot → SATA adapters with the Framework Desktop mainboard. Can you still use the bottom M.2 slot as your primary boot device then? Is there any advantage or disadvantage of this vs. using a classic PCIe SATA adapter card?

2

I’ve done just that on my build - placed an NVME SSD in the bottom slot and a ASM1166 SATA adapter in the top one to be able to use a Blu-Ray drive and 2 SATA SSDs in ZFS mirror. Works perfectly so far, I’ve used this one:

What I was unable to get working was a SATA RAID adapter in the PCIe slot, the system froze on boot with that installed - still looking into that.

Edited;
It seems that the issue I had encountered is already tracked:

3

Interesting, thanks for sharing. Are you booting off of the M.2 ssd on the bottom then?

What SATA raid card were you using?

4

Yes, I’m booting from a WD_BLACK SN850X in the lower NVME slot with no issues.

I’ve tried both of these and none of them worked - I think both use a Marvell 88SE9128:

5

It sounds like you are after the ASM1066 rather than 64 - it has 6 ports

I’ve been using this generic PCIe card (there are many similar) and had no problems passing through drives - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005225588036.html

6

I ended up getting this generic ASM 1166 based one. Fingers crossed it works.

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/aw/d/B0CTCK8SZW?ref=ppx_pt2_mob_b_prod_image

7

I like the ASM1166 ones, I’ve used a few in the past but do note that they’re capped at PCIe 3.0 x2 lanes when most are sold attached to PCIe x4 connectors.