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I've found a few adapters from SFF-8642/8639/8611 to PCI express.

Is it possible to do the same with a SFF-8087? Either directly or adapting to an intermediate format and then to PCI express?

I have a couple SFF-8087 which are just wasted in my Supermicro motherboard (H11DSI).

Kind regards,

Felipe Almeida
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1 Answers1

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As far as I know, SFF-8087 is a connector used for SAS exclusively. You cannot "adapt" it to PCIe because the SFF-8087 port on your motherboard literally does not go to PCIe lanes directly – it only goes to a SAS disk controller, just like the SATA ports on a PC go to a SATA controller.

(While PCIe is general-purpose and can be "adapted" to become a SAS/SATA/USB port by connecting an appropriate SAS/SATA/USB controller in the middle, the reverse is not true; an adapter cannot bypass the SAS/SATA/USB controller that's already there, unless it was specifically designed for. USB has Thunderbolt for this kind of "bypass directly to PCIe", SAS/SATA generally do not.)

This is different from e.g. SFF-8639 (U.2), which is a connector that does typically provide PCIe lanes from the beginning, just in a different shape, so of course there are adapters that just convert it from one form-factor to another (the same way as M.2 "NVMe" slots are really just PCIe slots and have adapters both ways).

grawity
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