The answer to these is unfortunately hours of information... To sum up as best I can, you can run these or any server or home system setup in several ways... I go with JBOD and a backup, which is Just a Bunch Of Disks... It's like certain raid setups in that the drives all get added into a virtual mega drive... You can also have disk redundancy with a more traditional RAID setup, where the disks are cloned and checked to make sure no bits got corrupt... Both JBOD and RAID can be supported with these boxes, but, before you take this leap, I'd suggest building a test box first... Use either your current motherboard or a different computer, it doesn't matter... Most current boards support raid so you can play around with the board sata ports for testing different raid setups... Grab some (5 to test all raid modes) cheap 500gb drives and see how striping can speed up your file copy speeds dramatically, and how raid redundancy works... Both together would be a RAID 10 setup, but there are many...

WHILE you do that, what I'd truly suggest is to get a sas hba controller card... With this, you can also get expander cards to open up 4-40 new sata connections... Sata drives take little power, 1-5w idle and maybe 20-30w max when spinning, so your power supply doesn't need to be a huge wattage...

This way, you can truly learn all the things the storinators can do, and it's surprisingly easy... All for a combined 300-600 dollars worth of gear to start you off... These professional builds are for mega companies that just need the numbers, and have more money than sense, or for those who don't get computers but need the tech.. you can max out a system with 4 of these cards

https://www.amazon.ca/Highpoint-Rocket-750-40-Channel-PCI-Express/dp/B00C7JNPSQ

And that's 160 sata ports each card supports 40 sata drives... That and a 1500-2000w psu and you have a makeshift storinator.... As long as you're not accessing all drives at the same time, this will work... there is NO easy answer for what's the best way to store data... If you want the most overkill, get a bunch of those rocket 750 cards i posted, and setup a raid 10 or JBOD with parity check, then double that on a backup system... Then also invest in a google $10 a month cloud account and back it up online... It's part of the "3-2-1" backup solution...

At risk of making a word wall, to answer sas or sata, sas drives are faster enterprise drives... Not needed for our needs, but they are better built if you want more overkill... The BEST thing about sas is, it's compatible with sata drives... That's a one way thing; sata controllers can't read sas drives, but sas controllers can read sata... And each sas port can break out to 3-4 sata ports, hence why the rocket750 can do 40 sata drives... It's also safe to use sata power splitters if you need the extra connections, however stay away from molded connectors... You'll want the kind that look like they snapped together... Yeah, it's a lot to take in, but the amount of choices is silly...

I'd say get a big ass case, or even a 4U rack, no tower or cage needed as you can rest a 1-4U rack just like a computer case, and put in any motherboard and cpu, but focus on maxing out pcie lanes... Get as many sas hba and expander cards as you want and skip on a graphics or sound card... Run full onboard ... Stay away from thunderbolt connections as well as they use pcie lanes... Heck, run with no video at all and just admin it remotely... Max out your psu to a 1200-2000w monster as you'll need it once you get up there in drives... I find the power balancing is better on them... Get an LTO7 or LTO8 drive, any one, as they're all made by IBM, and backup your data to both a hard drive backup and a tape backup, and also backup to cloud ... From there, it's a horrible addiction of buying hard drives in some mad need to have enough space to download the internet...

Tldr; honestly, get a rocket750 and start from there, learn about RAID, JBOD, and the basics of redundancy, backups, and you're the only one who in time will know what you needed; speed, total space, access. Choice is the spice of life, and your meal is 1,000,000 scoville in this game

Looks like if you trade in your tray and move up to 32GB of RAM you'll be spending about $1000-$2000 to go to a 12 core box. If you get on eBay you can probably do better. Whole 12c systems probably go for under $2000 at this point.

Perhaps the more important thing to look at is the compatibility table. This is the oldest MacPro supported by MacOS today. No one knows when, but at some point Apple is going to stop making updates for the towers. When they do Avid and Adobe will be close behind.

5 years after release Apple start to consider hardware vintage, and the 2010 MacPro has crossed that threshold. The good news is the 2012 MacPro largely shares the architecture of the 2010 and was on sale through much of 2013, but the end of support is worth considering at this point. I think you'll see support through 2018 since they're basically the same as the 2012 towers that were sold through most of 2013. After 2018 you're probably out of luck.

Keep software support in mind as you consider spending money on an aging system. Sometimes the math doesn't check out.

---

In your shoes I'd go for an SSD boot, a USB3 PCI card, 24-32GB of RAM and a GTX970 to be a good investment for Adobe use. Also start saving up for a bigger upgrade.

After some research it looks like it would be better performance overall if the card was PCI-E 2.0 x2 or x4. The one you linked is x1 and will definitely work but all 4 hard drives connected to it will share the same PCI-E x1 lane (assuming they were all in use at the same time). Looks like this card may be better maybe? -https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AZ9T264/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T2_99ADzbJY3M7A2 or https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ESFEI2E/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T2_EjBDzbPASSG90

My use case scenario for this server is just to install Unraid and storing several TBs of media for plex streaming (plex server located on same network but different machine btw). So, that being said - in your opinion does the speed difference there even matter for the most part? The drives will all be WD RED. I may add an SSD or two for caching down the road but I would connect those straight to the onboard SATAs if I went that route.

Thanks in advance for helping with all this and sorry if I missed something obvious.

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/RJGFsJ
Ok. for video editing the most money should mostly be put in the CPU. This build has a very good CPU and a good amount of ram. It has a Gpu that could be downgraded but It can help for rendering a little bit. The keyboard and mouse are not great but that is not an issue. Upgrade l8er. it has a boot ssd and a mass storage harddrive. having a boot ssd is the best upgrade ive ever made to my pc. You could even add a footage ssd l8er for faster editing. This would be a great editing machine and would serve your purposes well. Let me know if you have any questions. also hmu with those skate clips once you start editng them. Also, that firewire thing PCI card https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-FireWire-Adapter-Digital-PCI1394_4/dp/B00006B8C3

I bought one with 24GB RAM and no hard drives for $299 from eBay back in 2015.

The one on Craigslist is overpriced, for sure. In fact, here's a hex-core Xeon with 12GB RAM for $189.99 (add $43.08 for shipping to a Denver zip code)- http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-T7500-CAD-PC-Xeon-6-Core-2-66GHz-X5650-12GB-RAM-/172642233077

For just under $500 (including shipping to Denver), you could build one with dual hex-core Xeons and 48GB RAM from the same eBay seller-http://www.ebay.com/itm/Build-Your-Own-Dell-Precision-T7500-12-Core-2-93GHz-X5670-No-OS-Wholesale-/382099410600

As far as the machine itself, I have a Xeon x5687 in mine and it's my daily driver (Windows 10). Plex only uses 1-3% CPU if it's not transcoding and I don't even notice it. I run VMWare Workstation 12 Pro and it doesn't break a sweat running multiple VMs at once, so I'm sure it would do fine running ESXI.

(Transcoding is another story due to the lack of cores, which is why I converted all my media to x264/AAC for playback on a Roku 3. I've since upgraded to the Nvidia Shield and haven't come across a file yet that requires transcoding. There's definitely better CPUs out there for transcoding, but it would be an upgrade to your NUC. If you did the dual 6-cores, it would do really well, I think.)

It's not a terrible machine by any means. Keep in mind the tower is huge though. I use an old Samsung 32 inch 720p TV as one of my monitors and it is taller than that.

It runs pretty quiet but I did install SpeedFan so I could manually ramp up the fans when doing CPU intensive stuff such as video conversion (SpeedFan didn't detect the fans until I went into options and clicked a box that says "Enable DELL support (use this function only on DELL notebooks)". After checking that, clicking OK, and closing/relaunching SpeedFan, it detected the fans and allowed me to control them).

You can install a very cheap storage controller and plug it into 1 of the PCIe slots for SATA III capability. I've got an 8TB drive and my 1TB SSD connected to a cheap (under $30 new) Syba card- https://www.amazon.com/Syba-SD-PEX40099-Port-SATA-Controller/dp/B01464550K (If you decide to go this route, you will need to install Windows on an SSD using the onboard controller, install the drivers for the card, and then disconnect/reconnect the drive to the PCIe Sata card. Not sure on how that card would work with ESXI, though.)

I filled the onboard controller with 3 X 2TB refurbished HGST Enterprise drives off eBay that sold for $40 each back in 2015 and have 15TB total storage. Not including the SSD and a 750TI I slapped in for light gaming capability, I spent under $650 for 24GB RAM and 14TB of storage.

Would be even cheaper today, especially with the used workstations with E5v2 Xeons hitting eBay now. Don't spend $400 on this one.

For anyone who finds this later - I decided to go with the RAID array despite it not being a financial slam dunk. What happened is that I lucked out finding an adapter that allows you to put two 2.5" drives in a 3.5" front drive bay (link) on sale at newegg for $10, so I bought two. My system board has 6 sata ports and a built-in raid controller. I was looking that that vs software RAID solutions and I found Storage Pools in Windows. Hardware RAID solutions are traditionally inflexible (pun intended), and Storage Pools allows you to add drives to the pool as you go. So I set up a 4x500gb storage pool with parity. Turns out the performance on Storage Pools in Windows with Parity is god awful, and some more searching led me to r/DataHoarder, which recommends the software solutions of DrivePool ($30) for concatenating the disks, and SnapRAID (free) for writing parity information. So that's what I'm going with for now.

Like Storage Spaces, Drivepool allows you to add more disks to the pool at any time, which means I can use some of my smaller disks as well if I can get the ports to plug them in. I'll need a PCI SATA adapter, but those are pretty cheap. I'll then need a place to mount them. I can buy more drive bay adapters, some slot mounting adapters, or make my own.

So far I'm at least $50 in the hole, and maybe more depending on whether I get that expansion card and/or mounts. So let's say $90 for an array that'll be about 2.5TB, maybe. I can get a 4TB HDD for $120 or an 8TB for $200 when they're on sale, which seems to make them clearly better deals. I get slightly more data security with the RAID array, but it seems like old laptop hard drives still don't have a specific use.

Order some wall mounts (generic tripod thread - tons of amazon) - a USB 3.0 Extension cable for each sensor (5M Cable Matters active model for $16 works great) and you'll be good. This will allow you to mount your two sensors in opposing corners for Roomscale tracking - provided your room is of adequate size.

You can extend the rift's own cable(s) with a 6ft HDMI extension cable, and 6ft passive USB 3.0 extension cable. Anything beyond that will likely give you problems. Get some velcro straps to tie both of those extensions together and it'll double as a breakaway cable were you to tug on it too hard.

Maybe consider grabbing an add-in PCI-E USB 3.0 card. I ordered this Startech.com USB 3.1 card for $35 because USB 3.1 controllers can handle 10Gbps of throughput, which theoretically means both of these ports should be able to run at the full 5Gbps 3.0 mode, so it could handle both sensors with ease.The amazon reviews have some Rift users implying it works great.

Also - you'll get Robo Recall for free, it's a great action game to get started in. It'll set the bar pretty high for you - but it's a very comfortable (and often intense!) experience.

This site has a decent variety of beginner FPGA tutorials that would probably be interesting: https://www.fpga4fun.com

I would absolutely not recommend trying to use a bitcoin miner on an FPGA for a couple of reasons:

1. It's going to be very difficult for a beginner (or even an intermediate) hardware designer to be able to jump in and understand how this whole thing works and try and change things in it. If you actually want to learn how to design hardware on an FPGA, it's much better to start slow and learn the fundamentals of design than to jump in the deep end.
   
   
2. Mining bitcoin on an FPGA is not competitive anymore, especially on a small FPGA like this one. For instance, when I tried it on a DE0-nano (which is a larger and faster FPGA than this one), I got 9-10 MH/s. Compare this to a miner I found on amazon which costs $45 and can get 15GH/s. This miner is on the very low end of bitcoin miners, and yet it gets 1000x the hash rate over my FPGA for a lower price (the DE0 now goes for around $70 I think). Suffice it to say, you have no hope of making money with this device.
   
   
3. The FPGA targeted by the link you posted has several times more LEs than your FPGA, so you will have to port the design to the smaller FPGA. As discussed in point 1, this won't be easy, especially for a beginner.
   
   In short, I recommend learning FPGAs by starting small and working your way up. And (I know this is going to be hard, but it will help) try to resist the urge to test everything on the device. Unlike writing code on a desktop or even a microcontroller where you can open a debugger, debugging an FPGA is like working with a black box, in that it's really difficult to get a good idea of what's going on inside it. Instead, before your design ever goes on the FPGA, you really should simulate it using something like Icarus Verilog or Verilator or even modelsim to find the bugs in your design, and only when you're sure it will actually work, put it on an FPGA. I recommend checking out zipcpu's blog where he gives examples of how to simulate a design effectively. My life would have been so much easier if someone had told me this when I was first starting.

Ah, excellent. That makes things look simple, and there are D8 cameras on ebay with DNR and TBC for less than 100 (with returns lol).

One last question about this please: I have an ancient laptop (9 yrs old) which has a firewire port but is pretty slow. Would I be better served just buying something like this for my new computer? Firewire ports are ancient nowadays. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006B8C3/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Youve helped me more with a few posts than I learned in over 6 hours of research. THANK YOU!

>That's PCIe. I don't see a little green connector.

Perfect. It might just be a cutout to make it fit the systems that I mistook for a connector. I'm not sure how they were mirrored, I just know there were 2 drives in total, of which I now have one (for forensic purposes). They were in an old HP server (model eludes me unfortunately) The sysadmin rebuilt the server on top of the second one, so it's temporarily running without a mirror until I can get the data off and get it back to them so he can rebuild the RAID. I feel the sysadmin knows what he's doing though so the fact that he said it should work standalone makes me a bit more confident.

I understand there's unknowns but appreciate the help. I think I might just bite the bullet and purchase this one https://www.amazon.ca/IOCrest-SI-PEX40097-Port-PCIe-Controller/dp/B00XI4OL82/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=SAS+HBA&qid=1567090932&s=gateway&sr=8-3 from amazon, if things don't work out I can always just return it and say it didn't work.

So it worked...

I followed the basic concepts described here: http://www.malos-ojos.com/?p=823

But I used a slightly different EEPROM reader: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I1EU9LG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I1EU9LG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have a Mac Book Pro so I had to find a driver for the reader. For that I used ch341eeprom found here: https://github.com/command-tab/ch341eeprom

I downloaded the ch341eeprom package from github link above and unzipped the contents, then from MacOS Terminal...

>mac-os-prompt$ cd ch341eeprom-master/
>
>mac-os-prompt$ brew install libusb
>
>mac-os-prompt$ brew link --overwrite libusb
>
>mac-os-prompt$ ./ch341eeprom
>
>ch341eeprom - an i2c EEPROM programming tool for the WCH CH341a IC
>
>Version 0.5 copyright (c) 2011 asbokid ballymunboy@gmail.com
>
>This program comes with absolutely no warranty; This is free software,
>
>and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions:
>
>GNU GPL v3 License: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
>
>Usage:
>
>-h, --help display this text
>
>-v, --verbose verbose output
>
>-d, --debug debug output
>
>-s, --size size of EEPROM {24c01|24c02|24c04|24c08|24c16|24c32|24c64|24c128|24c256|24c512|24c1024}
>
>-p, --speed i2c speed (low|fast|high) if different than standard which is default
>
>-e, --erase erase EEPROM (fill with 0xff)
>
>-w, --write <filename> write EEPROM with image from filename
>
>-r, --read <filename> read EEPROM and save image to filename
>
>mac-os-prompt$ ./ch341eeprom -v -s 24c256 -r cpi_rom.bin

(I used 24c256 b/c this is the type of EEPROM chip used for the Concord 4 https://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/en/24LC256 this wrote the contents from the chip to a file named cpi_rom.bin)

>Searching USB buses for WCH CH341a i2c EEPROM programmer [1a86:5512]
>
>Found [1a86:5512] as device [26] on USB bus [20]
>
>Opened device [1a86:5512]
>
>libusb: info [darwin_claim_interface] no interface found; setting configuration: 1
>
>Claimed device interface []
>
>Device reported its revision [4.03]
>
>Configured USB device with vendor ID: 1a86 product ID: 5512
>
>Set i2c bus speed to [100kHz]
>
>Read [32768] bytes from [24c256] EEPROM
>
>Wrote [32768] bytes to file [cpi_rom.bin]
>
>Closed USB device

Then I downloaded the following Hex Editor: http://www.suavetech.com/0xed/

I opened the cpi_rom.bin file using the 0xed Hex Editor app. Then I read the values for the following offsets.

System Master Code: 0x03E2 - 0x03E3

Installer Code: 0x03E5 - 0x03E6

Dealer Code: 0x16F2 - 0x16F3

Hope this helps others.

>Why would you consider software raid for enterprise level applications / software and not hardware raid?

If he could afford hardware raid this crappy little file server would not even exist haha. Of course that would be ideal, just not in the budget. And this isn't an enterprise level arrangement, this is just a small business running one small application using consumer grade equipment.

I am actually planning on using this "Semlos New PCI SATA Internal Ports RAID Controller" for connecting the drives, which is not a RAID controller at all despite the description. It is only SATA II, but I think the drives I got won't even max that out, much less SATA III. It has 2x1.5Gbps channels, so each drive is getting 750Mbps. The drive specs say they are doing 554 MB/s / 512 MB/s sequential. Unless I misunderstand, there is plenty of room there? But, feel free to correct me if I have that wrong, this is all kinda new to me.

>Also, you sure it's the disk IO that's the issue, and not say network since you are using SSD's (Assuming your motherboard has sata 3.0 ports for those SSD's and not sata 2.0)?

Nope, I am pretty sure the CPU is bottlenecking in addition to the NIC. I ordered a new Gigabit NIC, as stated in my post, and that should also help things I believe. The rest of the network is on CAT6 with gigabit router and switching, but also consumer grade. The router is running DD-WRT though.

>Also, Access is horribly slow anyways, not really meant to be an enterprise level database software handling large volume.

Completely agree with you, but once again this is a small database with not very many users. It isn't heavily accessed all the time, which is why I have been trying to figure out why it is so slow. Some forms just take forever to load, and I didn't build it and am not allowed to modify it. If I came up with very clear and specific design modifications that would increase the performance I could definitely get the author of the DB to implement the changes. But due to my unfamiliarity with Access as a whole and this DB in particular, I am unqualified to do so.

It's as easy as looking at Focusrite's website for supported chipsets and finding a card with one they support.

I've played this game before, it really isn't that bad. There's even a bunch of positive reviews on Amazon from people using that FireWire card with the Saffire Pro 40.

If all you want is a 4-port SATA card that will only take a PCIe x1 slot, look for something like this Syba card.

Now, going with a PCIe x1 slot is going to bottleneck you a little - max speed is 500MB/sec, and a 7.2k drive can usually give you upwards of 150MB/sec, so four of those could see some slowdown, but overall there won't be a ton.

That being said, if you've got the room for an x8 card, going with a SAS HBA is probably a better bet.

From what I've heard, some people have had some issues with Marvell chipsets for NAS usage. If you're considering FreeNAS, you should really look at their hardware compatibility list to find out what the best choices are.

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-USB-PCI-Card-USB/dp/B071DFQ6TW/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1518789016&sr=1-1&keywords=PEXUSB314A2V&dpID=51YC0J0B4BL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

It's definitely pricey, but the peace of mind knowing it just works is such a nice thing to not worry about.

Generally you don't want more than two sensors per controller, else you'll exceed the bandwidth the controller can carry. You want a maximum of two on a 3.0 controller, and a maximum of one on a 2.0 controller. If you're running three sensors on one controller, that is your issue, most likely. Pop that USB card in and plug two of the sensors into that instead, tell us how that works. If your native controller is 3.0, don't worry about putting your third on 2.0, use the laptop's native 3.0 controller for it.

The older PC may not have had USB 3.0 at all, and if your newer machines are trying to run three sensors through one controller, they'll both share the bandwidth problem.

If you can afford it, this one (or one like it) is optimal: https://www.amazon.com/Sonnet-Allegro-4-Port-Windows-Compatible/dp/B00GRGCV2G/

That has a separate controller for each individual port. You can plug a sensor into all four without a hitch. Some have posted that sensors work better with a dedicated controller, even if a controller can still handle two 'well enough'. I don't know how true that is.

Would you be happy with just using the rear panel USB? You have 2xUSB3.0 on the back plus 2xUSB2.0.

If you want more external USB2.0 ports (using your remaining internal headers) then you can buy a USB2.0 panel that gets mounted in a motherboard slot case bracket. I find that internal USB2.0 headers are useful for devices like coolers and fan controllers though.

https://www.amazon.com/USB-4-Port-Bracket-Dual-Headers/dp/B0027YYMQA

If you want something dead simple, something this would work just fine:

Syba SD-PEX40099 4 Port SATA III PCIe 2.0 x1 Controller Card https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01464550K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_d4-XzbJDEYTR4

I actually use these in unRAID. These are not gonna be blazing fast SAS3 speeds capable of maxing out read performance across 4 disks all at the same time in a software raid environment but they will work perfectly well for what you described and are cheap!

Edit: I linked the 4 port as that's the one I use. You can go even cheaper and get a 2 port or go extreme and get a 10 port. For me, I don't run raid or use parity so as long as a given controller can max out my drive, that's all I need. It's not like we're running Plex servers full off 1TB M.2 drives :)

In the past I ran LSI SAS 9201-16E's in my JBOD rack chassis. I'm simplifying everything, going down to tower chassis with larger drives. No more SAS cards, cables, expanders.. I wanted less drives, less chassis, less complex.

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-storage-pod-4/ lots of good hardware recommendations in there.

Edit: ok, maybe not lots, they just use the http://www.amazon.com/HighPoint-Rocket-750-40-Channel-PCI-Express/dp/B00C7JNPSQ card and it's definitely out of our league.

In the last version they were using CFI-B53PM port multipliers, those are cheap and very good apparently.

Yeah, that's the one distinct disadvantage of the consumer AM4/Z390 style platforms. They offer enough lanes for most typical users, but when you start tacking on a lot of I/O, GPUs or networking they quickly find themselves staring at a PCI Express lane wall. Platforms like X399/TRX40/X299 offer more lanes, but come with their own set of disadvantages (primarily price).

I did a little bit of looking around and could not find any information indicating that your specific board supports lane bifurcation. It's possible that there's a modified BIOS floating around which would enable it, but I didn't see anything on the sites I checked. My thinking was that if it were supported, you might be able to utilize a 2xNVMe M.2 -> x8 PCI Express card such as this ~$50 one from Supermicro, which would leave you with a fairly adequate x8 configuration on your GPU as well. The downside is that it's "only" two ports and requires that bifurcation support to operate. You could also plug a generic $15-20 single NVMe M.2 -> PCI Express x4 adapter into that second slot, for use with a single drive. It'd be at full speed, and your GPU would again operate at the lower x8 link state.

It's still worth exploring the use of additional SATA SSDs on any remaining open ports you may have - they can be configured in RAID 0 through the BIOS or through Windows itself.

I use an I/O Crest 8 Port SATA III in my NAS box.

Pros:

• Pretty cheap, you can generally find one for under $70.
  
  
• Supports up to eight drives on one card. It does this by being two Marvell 88SE9705 chips on one board.
  
  
• FreeBSD likes it! I've been running this card since FreeBSD 10.x, currently running it on FreeBSD 12.1
  
  

  Cons:
  

  
  

• Only the first four disks are visible to BIOS/UEFI, the second Marvell chip isn't visible until the OS brings it up. So it's no good for a 5+ disk boot array.

Get your self one of these and this. Gives yourself 4 clean powered USB 2.0 ports. A lot of the software issues with the stick can be fixed with this.

If the stick is hard to move with no spring, don't wait, don't think, don't ask, just return it for a new one. It should be buttery smooth.

I love mine, cant stop telling people to get one.

If the throttle is gummy on the lowest setting; wait, wiggle it, work it some, it smooths out, then gets gummy again, then smooths out, for up to a month.

Its big, all the HOTAS are, there is a guy out there on the internets printing a custom 3d thingy that can help with your thumb not reaching the top of the stick. Cant find it, best i can do

They most definitely use hardware raid these days, here's why:

Basically universal compatibility

More reliable than software

Better performance (not taxing CPU constantly)

More SATA ports avaliable with them.

To answer your question, don't risk it.

If you really want the security/performance from RAID, get a controller like: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BUC3N74/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_KqfUAb5WJFBT1

I'm in the early days of my build with the Intel S2600CP2J and have yet to load an OS (Mint 18 Cinnamon). I've noticed so far that thermal fan management doesn't seem to be happening after POST, but I am still digging around the BIOS settings. I picked up this USB 3.0 card and haven't checked it's functionality yet.

My biggest issue so far, is figuring out which front panel items are supported. Since the Intel board is very much geared toward server setups, very few common desktop front panel items are supported. I've only been able to get the power / reset switches and the 2.0 USB's working. The HDD and power button lights are not working even though the manual has a signal output for those items. The front headphone and mic ports are not supported by the board but I don't care as I never use those anyway.

I plan on finishing the build this weekend and would like to make a post highlighting my successes / failures.

I purchased this on Amazon yesterday and it just arrived a few hours ago. It was exactly what I needed! Now I have all 3x sensors including my Rift running on USB 3.0 without any warnings or issues!

Edit: And the best part, it doesn't require external power so my build still looks clean. My previous card was a dud so I requested a refund and bought Just Fab's instead.

Any idea if the bios chip is accessible by any means? If it's on the bottom and relatively easy to access you can flash it using a USB adapter system. I ended up buying one for my tech kit when a server of mine failed a bios update too. It works like a charm and since it sounds like the bios is already corrupted you don't have any further risk.

Here's an Amazon link to the programmer I bought: Gikfun USB Programmer CH341A

And here's a link for the adapter you'll also need, although research and make sure it's the same chip type: Signstek SOIC8 SOP8 Flash Chip IC Test Clips Socket Adapter Programmer BIOS

EDIT: Hyperlinked words to shorten post.

It depends on the age and features of your motherboard.

Re-soldering is an option, if it’s directly mounted on the backplane (the rectangular window where USB, integrated audio jacks, integrated video ports, etc.)

If you’ve broken something in a port mounted elsewhere in the chassis, chances are something like https://www.amazon.com/RIITOP-Female-Connector-Adapter-Bracket/dp/B01KJPUI5W/ would work.

There are also PCI-e cards like https://www.amazon.com/FebSmart-Self-Powered-Technology-No-Additional-FS-U2-Pro/dp/B071P5C6CS/ but it’s possible they won’t work properly before Windows is loaded.

Since you said it’s the motherboard side for you specifically, if you don’t have another 3.0 port on the motherboard, it will be soldering, or the PCI-e expansion card, (assuming you aren’t using a super slim chassis)

If your laptop in question has a thunderbolt 3 port, there is a very good chance you could get it to work with an external pci enclosure.

If not your probably screwed.

Some people have also thought about using the Mini PCI-e slot on laptops and convert it to normal PCI-E 2 1X with something like this
https://www.amazon.com/Mini-Express-Extension-Adapter-Riser/dp/B01FVPITN8

That is still up in the air if it will work or not. Even if it does work you would still have to do some modding on the laptop as most laptop are not built to have a cable sticking out of them from the mpci slot is built onto the motherboard. Not really a viable solution in my opinion.

https://www.amazon.com/Syba-SY-PEX30016-Firewire-XIO2213B-Chipset/dp/B006DQ0KD2/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1482909486&sr=1-2&keywords=firewire+card

pretty sure it's this one, I'm away from my desktop at the moment but afaik pretty much any firewire pci card should work.

I installed a USB-C card in my external PCIe box and it works great; you're good to go 👍

That's interesting that the startech doesn't work for you - I have this one and it works great with my OG odyssey.

> lsi sas

Thank you so much! I was looking at this one - http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Express-Controller-HyperDuo-Tiering/dp/B00BUC3N74/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1426876419&sr=1-2&keywords=4-port+sata - any feedback? What's known to be supported in FreeNAS? Browsed around, but didn't see any listing specifically for support.

You know if there's a list of supported chipset on the ROCKPro64 PCI-e?

With something like this I could connect up to 16 SATA discs and run ZFS with it.

I currently have an old server: Tyan motherboard, intel core2duo, 8GB DDR2 ram, PCI-X (not express, the old PCI-X format), 10 3TB hard drives in RAID-Z2... It's massive, heat a lot for not so much perfs, and I'd like to replace it with a lighter config like a ROCKPro64...

Performance-wise, I only need gigabit speed, about 100MB/s top.

If you have any free pcie slots, you could go with one if these and save yourself the hassle.

USB port bracket worked for me on google.

It's things like this (USB 2.0) and this (USB 3.0 AKA 3.1 Gen1).

The thing I don't quite understand from the spec is why it's 8/6 and 4/2, rather than a fixed number (8 and 4 eg). But I guess if your manual covers more than one motherboard model, the different numbers could apply to different models.

So I would want 2 of something like this? IO Crest 16 Port SATA III PCIe 2.0 x2 Controller Card Green, SI-PEX40097 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XI4OL82/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_pClzDbHH2EXC0

Is there a specific card that is popular in the UnRaid community ?

Paid

Free

Capture Card
The Capture Card is currently out of stock, but you dont Need to have an amazing card.

Okay, so, I put some more thought into this, and you might be able to get away with it.

What you'd need to do is get a motherboard with a socketed in mPCIe wireless card (of which there aren't many, the only AM4 ones I could find were this Gigabyte one or possibly this ASRock one). Then, remove the wireless card, and replace it with a mPCIe->PCI-E 1x riser (something like this or this). Then use that to connect the Intel WiGig adapter. (mPCIe offers both a 1x PCI-E connection and a USB 2.0 connection, to explain the USB ports on both risers)

Although it would be a lot easier to just get an mATX board.

I understand you want to use this simply as a proof of concept for education but the lesson you will be giving others is that cpu mining is neat and possible when it should be discouraged. At minimum you should go on amazon and buy a ASIC USB stick - https://www.amazon.com/GekkoScience-Double-Compac-2-Bitcoin-BM1384x2/dp/B072L5QYT5/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510055060&sr=8-1&keywords=asic+bitcoin+miner

or used s3 asic - https://www.amazon.com/AntMiner-S3-441Gh-0-77W-SHA-256/dp/B00NZDBWKG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1510055060&sr=8-4&keywords=asic+bitcoin+miner

to educate young users with

Look into this mini-pcie to PCIE-1X adapter.

Some cards (such as intel i340 NICs) require the 12V power to be connected, which can complicate things a little, but others only require 3.3v. One thing to watch out for: some companies have a whitelist for what cards can be installed in the mini-pcie slot, you may need to have the bios modified before you can use one of these. Lenovo in particular loves to do this, as does HP.

OK, thanks for the explanation, it appears there are Thunderbolt 3 versions

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SONNET-TECHNOLOGIES-USB3-4PM-Allegro-4-Port/dp/B00GRGCV2G/

If you can't find a motherboard with USB C display port alt, then why not just purchase a PCI-e add on card instead.
https://www.amazon.com/Dual-USB-C-Express-Alternate-Mode-UPD2018/dp/B01MY4WRBU
This one here's the card most people are using to connect their Cintiq Pro's to.

You connect your graphics card's displayport cable into it, then connect your Cintiq's USB C cable into the card.

Just make sure you're using the usb c cable that came with your Cintiq or some other cable that's rated for thunderbolt 3 4k 60hz output. Otherwise you might end up having disconnection issues or other problems.
Good luck now!

I can use my old P4 desktop tower for capture: it has a FW to PCI port-thingy I installed. Is that any good? It's like this one.

What software and video settings do you think I should use for capture?

Here is the post for archival purposes:

Author: Killcraft69

Content:

>So I'm thinking of getting this
I noticed in the reviews a person mention that they couldn't use it because they didn't know how. Is there anything more I would have to do then just plug it in a pc? Is this even a good option? what is the best program for mining

I did some research and apparently that's not universally true. If you have a motherboard that supports bifurcation on the pcie slot, you can use a much much cheaper adaptor like this one https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-AOC-SLG3-2M2-PCIe-Add-Card/dp/B071S3ZY8P

Now I just need to figure out if my motherboard supports bifurcation... Not sure where to find that...

For me it ended up being the onboard Usb controller (Usb 3). I ended up buying a pci-e Usb 3.1 (gen 2) card that has 4 ports. It has 2 separate USB 3.1 controllers on the board dedicated to 2 ports each. It pretty much eliminated lockups and lag. I run all 3 USB cables to the card. Most motherboards have only 1 controller for all the USB ports, and it just can't handle the bandwidth of the sensors and rift. I bought the card for approx $130 canadian on Amazon.
Here is the link for the one I bought.

https://www.amazon.ca/StarTech-com-PEXUSB314A2V-PCI-Card-USB/dp/B071DFQ6TW/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=Usb+3.1+pcie+card&qid=1571503357&sr=8-4

here's what I'd recommend using:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I1EU9LG/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V9QNAC4/

or equivalents from ebay, etc. Then use flashrom from Linux to write a good firmware image back to the board (PM me for download link)

I kept having these issues and I eventually bought a PCI-E USB hub and now it's all perfect.

​

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072PVCDM9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

​

This one specifically, if you want one you know will work 100%.

Motherboards don't usually have Firewire on the rear IO these. The best option is going to be getting a PCI-E addon card for it.

https://www.amazon.com/Syba-Firewire-IO2213B-Components-SY-PEX30016/dp/B006DQ0KD2

Do you have unused USB headers on your motherboard? It's worth taking a look. If so then this or this should help you out.

I got a FireWire PCIe card for my modern desktop for my Sony Hi8 camcorder and it works great with VirtualDub.

Couldn't you do that and not get another machine?

Remember, a USB to FireWire cable won't work because USB is packet based and FireWire is bitstream.

https://www.amazon.com/Syba-SY-PEX30016-Firewire-XIO2213B-Chipset/dp/B006DQ0KD2

Yes, Windows 10. I don't remember installing any drivers, it was just plug and play. I'm on a Ryzen 1700X on an MSI B350-F motherboard.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006DQ0KD2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

By USB headers I mean from the mainboard. You are correct about those numbers - the number of ports on the rear IO. I do wish the mATX boards had more, say eight, but I can buy a USB header to bracket cable if need be (like this, can do USB 2, 3, COM, FireWire, many things really https://www.amazon.ca/USB-4-Port-Bracket-Dual-Headers/dp/B0027YYMQA)

Yes, they do. I think much of that is the chip itself (silicon lottery) but I could be wrong. I did watch Buildzoid's analysis of B350 VRMs and learned a lot, though I can't say I know very much :P and I gathered they are similar for the most part, the MSI and ASRock anyway. I guess it also depends on other bios features like LLC to which I don't know much at this time

I doubt you specifically need a 4th gen or higher CPU, it's just trying to say that you want the speed of a 4th gen or higher CPU, because the average speed of older generations is slower. I would try it with the current CPU and go from there. (if someone knows better and the HD60 needs 4th gen+ instruction sets like AVX2 or FMA3 correct me)

To solve the USB 3.0 issues you could use a USB 3.0 internal add-on card: https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Transfer-Motherboard-Computer-KW-PCI2USB3/dp/B00BTYOKXO/

Yes, specifically for this reason I went ahead and got a dedicated USB 3.1 card and it's made all the difference with the headset and camera occasionally having USB errors. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072PVCDM9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 is the one I got.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00XI4OL82/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

If you want something weird there's THIS thing. I've never USED it but it seems to be FOUR of those chips on one card. I think it might ACTUALLY be four discrete devices, each getting their own PCIE lane. In retrospect it'd have been more space efficient on my system, cause I could have had a lot more on my 16x slot.

That's not going to work for a variety of reasons. Can you get an expansion card like this - https://www.amazon.com/FebSmart-Self-Powered-Technology-No-Additional-FS-U2-Pro/dp/B071P5C6CS/ (Not an endorsement of this particular card)

What computer do you have that doesn't have USB 3.0 ports? It may not be enough to run VR.

Well its a PCI lane so you shouldnt have any speeds issues especially with HDDs. These have SATA3 ports which can handle SSDs

Link: Maybe something like this

Yes, this. Experienced what OP is describing and more. But never fear, amazon always has what you need. Runs butter smooth now.

​

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072PVCDM9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is the Startech 3.0 I was looking at, this is the Startech 3.1 it doesn't mention it as Gen. 2 so I think it's not. I guess that means I'm better of with the 3.0?

Yeah, you can reflash the bios on your own with a few tools from amazon and another machine. If you are going to be messing with running linux or w10 on these machines you probably should just pick them up for when you need to reflash the bios.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072KYK2DR/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00V9QNAC4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I1EU9LG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Yeah, I have 32GB ECC RDIMMs as well - I got it for $70-75/stick and have seen similar prices.

This is probably the AOC "HBA" too: https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-AOC-SLG3-2M2-PCIe-Add-Card/dp/B071S3ZY8P#customerReviews

I've only ever seen this done on a pci card, never an external adapter/cable. For newer PCs I'd recommend using a TB3 card like https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Alpine-Thunderbolt-Components-GC-Alpine/dp/B0722SV69N (this is the one I use) but those HP boxes don't support it. The Dell might work but check that the TB3 header is actually present on your motherboard first. You'll also probably need a BIOS update.

For older motherboards that don't support TB3 addon cards, something like this one should work: https://www.amazon.com/Dual-USB-C-Express-Alternate-Mode-UPD2018/dp/B01MY4WRBU

Both cards work by looping the DP output of your video card back in using a short jumper cable.

Just saw this and it specifically mentions Unraid in one of the customer reviews. It's expensive though - $100USD:

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-USB-PCI-Card-USB/dp/B071DFQ6TW

Might want to ask on the Unraid forums, you'll probably get better answers there.

With some serious effort (including laptop disassembly) you might be able to swap out the wifi card (if it's mini pcie) for a USB 3 card and run thin cables to bring the ports out through the dvd drive slot...

https://www.startech.com/m/Cards-Adapters/USB-3.0/Cards/2-Port-Mini-PCI-Express-USB-3-Adapter-Card-with-Bracket-Kit~MPEXUSB3S22B
^ It isn't cheap and it's more targeted at SFF PCs, but this is the basic idea.

An even slightly more bizarre solution would be to use a regular pcie usb 3 card with something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Mini-Express-Extension-Adapter-Riser/dp/B01FVPITN8

Does that case have any space behind the motherboard for cable management? If so, you might want to stash some cables back there, it would make the build look less cluttered.

> I wish I'd spent a bit more so I could use the 3.0 USB ports on the front of my case at the very least.

You could get a USB 3.0 PCIe card with USB 3.0 headers, such as this one.

Are you talking about getting just the SSD for now to install on their existing machines? I'd check to see if their motherboard has SATA connectors to support the hard drive. If not you'll probably need something like this

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00L2X6DE6/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1419014929&sr=8-2&pi=SL75

Assuming there is no SATA they would probably have a white PCI slot, again, I would double check.

I have this one. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Syba-SATA-Port-PCI-E-Controller/dp/B00ESFEI2E/ which looks the same as this version in the US https://www.amazon.com/IO-Crest-SI-PEX40071-Controller-Profile/dp/B00ESFEI2E/

I just found this new 10 port one though, but sure about compatibility https://www.amazon.com/Ableconn-PEX10-SAT-Port-Express-Adapter/dp/B0177GBY0Y/

https://www.amazon.com/GekkoScience-Double-Compac-2-Bitcoin-BM1384x2/dp/B072L5QYT5/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504126883&sr=8-1&keywords=gekkoscience+2pac

Note - this also is likely to NOT be profitable as a mining device.

> Alienware X51 r1

I mean if you want to get a little "hacky" you can try something like this

https://www.amazon.com/Mini-Express-Extension-Adapter-Riser/dp/B01FVPITN8

I have that board and can confirm the option exists in the bios. I am considering this card to try for a few reasons... it's 8x form factor so it'll fit the motherboard. I'm using a 847 chassis so can only fit half height cards.

I followed the link to your NAS build. Instead of a SAS breakout cable, do you think something like this would work just as well? I am doing a very similar build, but with 8tb HDD's.

Everything but the USB 3.0 ports on the front of your case will work fine, but you can't plug those ports into the motherboard, so they won't work. You could get a PCIe card with USB3 headers if you want, like this. (First thing that came up on Google)

It didn't look like an m.2 exactly (I figured maybe proprietary), but upon further inspection the spec sheet shows it is a half mini PCI-E slot. It is different from m.2, but still a PCI slot all the same. This adapter might just be able to do what you need it to do as, as far as I can tell, the Vive Wireless Adapter only needs a 1x slot. Seems worth a punt.

Edit: I'm no expert on this, I was not previously aware of the half mini PCI-E. I can't quite tell, but it almost looks like it might be a 1x slot all by itself? If it is, then all you'd need is a 1x extension and you might be able to plug the card in directly. Perhaps he could take the wifi card out and see if that's a standard 1x or if it does require the adapter. Uncharted territory here.

A single Rocket 750 supports 40 ports.

you can buys something like this.
http://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Bracket-Built--20-Pin-KW-PCI2USB3/dp/B00BTYOKXO/

There are PCI SATA expansion cards. Like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00L2X6DE6/

I did actually. Just a few weeks ago. The StarTech one. I have 2 sensors plugged in to the StarTech card, one more plugged in to USB 3 on the board and the headset plugged in to the USB 3 port that says VR Ready.

That monitor is just DisplayPort over USB C, only the 5K variant needs Thunderbolt. This card should work fine, no need for anything special on the mobo side https://www.amazon.com/Dual-USB-C-Express-Alternate-Mode-UPD2018/dp/B01MY4WRBU , connect the DisplayPort input on the USB C card to a DisplayPort out from your video card.

http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-EC01-P-Express-Internal-Connector/dp/B0079XWO4G/ref=pd_cp_pc_0

That should work for you. Just make sure you have a PCIe x1 slot open on your motherboard that you can plug a card in to that isn't in the way of anything else.

Yep. I got this one which works without having to do any extra configuration https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006DQ0KD2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have this card in my desktop, which I built from server hardware. The system can boot off of it, it's got pretty damn good performance under both Windows and macOS, and draws only bus power. The price is a little steep – but it just works.

Oh I know this crappy card, had to return it back before I even opened it fully. See that massive capacitor near PCIe connection? Check if yours is still attached and not wobbly, mine had fallen off during delivery. I have noticed that amazon is cluttered with rebranded versions of these cards.

Edit: if you are looking for cheap alternative, this is the one I got in its place back in 2018, still alive and kicking in my unraid box:

Syba SATA III 8 Port PCI-E 2.0... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ESFEI2E?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

He's making it sound a lot more complicated than it really is.

The PCI-E slot on a laptop is an Mini-PCIE form factor which is normally used for the wireless card in a laptop. He took out his wireless card and put a Mini-PCIe to PCI-E 1x adapter such as this here and hooked it up to the video card. You then need an extra PSU on the side to power the video card which you hook up the molex to the 4 pin included with the adapter. Some PSUs will include these on the accessories cable as they were originally used to power floppy disk drives, the form factor is the same. After you have the PCI-E adapter and the video card hooked up to power, you simply use a PSU Jumper to power on the video card, power on the laptop, install drivers for the video card, and hook it up to a display. Then, you have to use ethernet for internet, but that's about it.

Voila, you now have an external GPU for your laptop. It will only run at 1x PCIE Speed, but it should still perform better than anything you have onboard unless you have one of those crazy laptops with a $400+ card stuffed into it on a custom PCB.

My research has gotten me pointed at this:

http://www.amazon.com/Ports-Inateck-PCI-E-Expansion-Version/dp/B00I027GPC

It appears quite affordable, 4 port, no extra power, should work without drivers on mac side and fine under bootcamp... seems like a solid option. Anyone have any opinions on this or any other cards?


Alternatively http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GRGCV2G/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687722&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00I027GPC&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0G5YNS92XRZZA2KJ0YE3#Ask seems functional for people, but there's less feedback and twice the cost so...

2 second search on Amazon

4 Port http://www.amazon.com/IO-Crest-Controller-Non-Raid-SI-PEX40064/dp/B00AZ9T3OU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450459232&sr=8-1&keywords=sata+pcie

8 Port http://www.amazon.com/IO-Crest-Controller-Components-SI-PEX40071/dp/B00ESFEI2E/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1450459232&sr=8-8&keywords=sata+pcie

You should check out this it's only 8x, so two m.2 slots but it's cheap enough to buy two. I picked mine up for $40 on Amazon.

As long as the USB-C supports alternate mode, then it can work, weather it's on the motherboard or not.

Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who tried this in action, but this card has the specifications you need. Tell us once you try it, so we all know~
https://www.amazon.com/Dual-USB-C-Express-Alternate-Mode-UPD2018/dp/B01MY4WRBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520917479&sr=8-1&keywords=pci++usb-c+alternate

You probably should search but ...

You want this: https://www.amazon.com/FebSmart-Self-Powered-Technology-No-Additional-FS-U2-Pro/dp/B071P5C6CS/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=pcie+usb3&qid=1574451858&sr=8-5

As for the GPU, check the Oculus Link requirements.

A few things to understand, hardware RAID involves using hard drives that are the same size, otherwise you can't do it. You can however connect a bunch of hard drives to an HBA or Host Bus Adapter so they all show up as individual drives. It depends on the OS you are using to do this. Cache on a RAID controller only matters if you are doing hardware RAID. You could start with something like this to keep it simple: Or you could go with an Dell H310 and configure your drives as JBOD (Just Big Old Disk) which means they are all individual drives, either way you won't have any redundancy, something hardware raid offers.

https://www.amazon.com/IO-Crest-SI-PEX40071-Controller-Profile/dp/B00ESFEI2E/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1494048102&sr=8-5&keywords=IO+crest

You know you can directly use the motherboard's USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 headers, right?
If I'm not wrong, the Asus STRIX H270F has 2x USB 3.0 headers, while the smaller Asus STRIX Z270G only got one which will be used by the computer case's front panel.

Yeah, you'll likely have a controller for each. Probably several USB2 controllers. My AMD/Gigabyte board has oodles of USB2, but only 2 usb 3.0 ports.

However, your mobo will likely have headers with additional USB ports that may not be connected. If you have them, pick up a bracket to make the ports available.

This is what you would want if you want 3.0 speeds:
http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-EC01-P-Express-Internal-Connector/dp/B0079XWO4G

Im gonna use this and this, cut some holes in the bottom cover, and put a desktop gpu into my 2570p laptop's disk drive bay. Has an I5 3380m which is relatively fast. When under load the Intel HD Graphics 4000 uses 12 watts so it wont be a hugeee power increase.

I tried it with everything but my mouse plugged in and no dice.

I got this

I have this board. I'm not sure if it has voltage boost

https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Transfer-Motherboard-Computer-KW-PCI2USB3/dp/B00BTYOKXO/

Just search for "USB 3 bracket".

I current use https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071P5C6CS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_nbPxDb9PTX69E

Im currently running 6.5 update 2

You could get one of these, which plugs into your headers on the motherboard. Amazon

Or you could buy a hub with 3+ ports attach it to a USB port, and then have more ports. Amazon

Boom.

Do you have a custom build computer with extra USB headers? If so

Is it possible I could use the space for this SATA expansion card instead of a GPU?

They don't seem to be that common but I did find a few. Theres also the option to adapt the header connector to 2x usb3 plugs and route that out of the case (and either plug it into the back of the mobo or to an addon usb3 card since the ones with external plugs seem much more common)

*actually, I just found this one: http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-EC01-P-Express-Internal-Connector/dp/B0079XWO4G/ref=dp_cp_ob_e_title_3

or (although I can't actually find this version for sale right now)

http://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=302&area=en

or

http://usb.brando.com/2-port-usb-3-0-pci-express-card-with-20-pin-header_p02412c046d015.html (although I've never heard of this site before)

and when 8 isn't enough... get 8 more

StarTech.com 4 Port PCI Express 2.0 SATA III 6Gbps RAID Controller Card with HyperDuo SSD Tiering - PCIe SATA 3 Controller Adapter https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00BUC3N74/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_PoW8BbP01KY5E

I live in London

You have the expansion connector near the ATX power for USB 3.0. If you look at pictures of the motherboard, it is a pin connector that’s blue, and says USB 3.0

Then you would just need a USB 3.0 header adapter to add additional ports.

I'm looking at a very similar card to do something very similar. But this card seems to be the best/cheapest/working method I've found. Does anyone know of a cheaper card (or option)? One that works with either a single slot or only pcie x1?

Found it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071S3ZY8P?tag=tinkertryamzn-20

depends on what you need the drive for.

you can either use a USB drive (if it's just for backups), eSATA (your motherboard may have an open slot for one on the back), or buy a SATA card like this

So the Vive Wireless requires a PCIe 1x, but my motherboard doesn't have one. It does however have a mini PCIe slot. Anyone think one of the miniPCIe to PCIe adapters would impact functionality of the wireless unit?

My motherboard: ASRock X99E-ITX/AC

Adapter: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FVPITN8/?coliid=I1K641BVK9YXMM

https://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-Tek-EC01-P-Internal-Connector/dp/B0079XWO4G

There are tons. You can just google "internal usb 3.0 header card" and there are lots of results.

here is one:

http://www.amazon.com/Silverstone-EC01-P-Express-Internal-Connector/dp/B0079XWO4G

I think you're talking about the 9-pin headers generally used for front-panel USB ports, and sometimes for PCI-bracket USB expansions.

I'm talking about on-board usb ports. Nearly all modern motherboards have 'em, and they're soldered on.

USB 3.0 PSI adapter

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Semlos-Internal-Controller-Sil3114-Chipset/dp/B00L2X6DE6/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1504388169&sr=1-2&keywords=4+port+sata

Sata pci

If I buy the two port version of this do I have to use both ports? If I plug in both do I have to raid them or can it serve for two separate drives?

If your PC has expansion slots (PCI, PCI-E, etc) you can get something similar to this:

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-FireWire-Adapter-Digital-PCI1394_4/dp/B00006B8C3

Keep in mind you'll need the right kind of slot and firewire port type.

Edit: Also, I don't think USB to firewire exists, it would be way too slow.

Bbalkenn is correct... either use an adapter and plug it into USB 2.0, or buy an internal usb 3.0 PCI card.

You can get one with or without USB ports on the back of the card.

Are all your PCIE slots full?

Do you NEED the USB cables in the front?

​

Its the most simple to just plug in a USB 3.0 card and have the USB slots on the back.

​

I have 2 of these cards in my 2012

​

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GRGCV2G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

​

​

I added an extra SSD to my spare DVD drive using this method

​

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/faq/mac-pro-how-to-install-second-optical-drive-bluray.html

The Asus boards such as the Z170 deluxe that have Asmedia on the rear panel, have headers on the motherboard that are connected to the intel controller. You can just hook up a cheap USB 3.0 bracket.

http://amzn.com/B00BTYOKXO

PCIe USB 3.0 header should get you there. I found this from silverstone. But if you're populating a PCIe slot, you might as well get some USB 3.0 ports on the back out of it too. That brings us to this. This doesn't say if it's PCIe 2.0 or 3.0. Since you need one in the first place, I'm going to assume your mobo is only 2.0 anyway. PCIe 2.0 x1 is 500MBps or 4Gbps. USB 3.0 is actually 5Gbps. So technically, you're bottlenecked 20% by PCIe. But if you're just using flash drives, it's no big deal. You won't be using any flash drives that are that fast anyway.

I didn't get joy from this card under Linux when I briefly tried it, but Windows might be more accomodating. It's a 16-port SATA controller https://smile.amazon.com/IO-Crest-Controller-Green-SI-PEX40097/dp/B00XI4OL82

take a look at this https://www.amazon.com/SUNIX-USB-C-Express-Alternate-Mode-UPD2018/dp/B01MY4WRBU

It doesn't support USB PD so I don't know if it provides enough power for that monitor (only 1.5A@5v)

You can get better ones for $70.

These do 15gh/s. OP says he's using Antminer U1s which do 2gh/s.

Still not cost effective. Chances are very slim.

IO Crest 8 Port Sata using the Marvell 88SE9705 chipset
Would not recognize all of the drives, further researched pointed to the Windows Driver issues.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ESFEI2E/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Ableconn PEX10-SAT 10 Port SATA
This card is a work horse, I have had no issues with it under Windows 10. Chipset ASMedia ASM1062 + 2x JMicron JMB575
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0177GBY0Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


IO Crest 4-port SATA III PCIe
Chipset Marvell 88SE9215
I am running two of these cards with out issue with Windows 10
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AZ9T3OU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Dual-Port-Card-USB/dp/B071DFQ6TW/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=ya_aw_od_pi&th=1

As I said, probably over the top. But back in the day when Room Scale was the newest shit for Rift, those were the only ones that managed. I got the 4 port ones.

I had a similar problem with my motherboard and Rift S. I have a Gigabyte (Z68A-D3H-B3) motherboard and the integrated USB 3.0 (Etron EJ168) was not working with my Oculus Rift S. I ordered this card https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072PVCDM9/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 and after the card installation the Oculus Rift S device is working properly. (Win10, version: 1903)

They do work, although they don't change the fact most consumer motherboards are limited to 4 GPUs (due to the BIOS lacking 4G decoding). Also, some people have had trouble getting these to work in a x16 slot, so you may want to use a M.2 adapter if your ITX board has a M.2 connector.

EDIT: You can use this on the AM1I's mini PCIe slot, just break the mini card to make it half height and use the x1 slot (not the USB port).

The usb fireware ones are a scam...

You need this card.....i have bought this one and works fine with sony handycams 100% ---->https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-FireWire-Adapter-Digital-PCI1394-4/dp/B00006B8C3/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1496175292&sr=8-6&keywords=firewire+pci

No image quality loss...

It even includes a firewire cable to connect straight to your cam

As far as splicing i used the cheapest cellotape available in the store...i use my bare hands with no gloves...just watch the video i posted on where to apply the tape when joining broken tapes..

In my case i was digitizing a VHC-C tape and the cassete player chew the tape...i had to open the tape as shown in video and fix it

I personally use Debian because I've been Linux for over 20 years and it's what I'm used to (plus I use the desktop portion of the server to run OBS), but in your case I would say FreeNAS would be the way to go. It's a lot more straightforward, there's minimal overhead, and there's not a lot you need to worry about doing manually.

As far as PCI express lanes being used up that shouldn't really be an issue if you buy an add-on card later on. An 8 port SATA III card runs on a PCIe x2 slot.

This is the exact one I bought https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00L2X6DE6/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I'm not big on computers so I'm not sure about all this stuff, from what your saying I guess I bought the wrong one?

I'm glad you haven't had any issues. I have one unit connected to the computer with this TI card I installed last year. The other unit is chained to the primary unit by optical cable. The secondary unit is set as the clock at 44.1 kHz, the primary unit is set to sync via ADAT (all done through Saffire MixControl).

There are two modes of failure: when a project or application (Reaper or Adobe Premiere in my case) opens at any sample rate other than 44.1 kHz, the units stop making noise. This can usually, but not always, be corrected by setting the program to use 44.1 and allowing the program to resample from higher sample rates.

The second is more elusive. If either of the units loses power while the computer is turned on the default Windows audio driver steps in, as expected, but when the units are powered back on Windows doesn't allow the units to make noise even if the Focusrite drivers are selected as primary. If I switch back to the Windows audio driver, I can make noise through the built in headphone jack, but no amount of toggling will bring noise back through the Pro 40s. I don't know exactly how to fix this, but it's some combination of turning the units off, turning the computer off, turning the units on, turning the computer back on one at a time, and crossing my fingers that this will be the time it works.

Barring these two small issues I've got no complaints about the units.