Poweredge 6950 SAS A & SAS B Controllers

Hello damauli

You have the cable intended for the SAS 5/i controller. The SAS 5/i only has one connector, so it can only connect to SAS A and support 4 HDDs. The PERC 5/i has two connectors, and support 2 cables that allow it to connect to both SASA and SASB on the backplane. If you have a SAS 5 controller with a single connector then you will not be able to use the 5th slot. If you have the PERC 5/i then you need to get another cable.

This is the part number for the cable that came with a PERC 5/i: NJ877

Thanks

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for a quick response; further digging, I found I have a SAS 5/iR Adapter (part number XG335) and only has one cable connector. I do have the cable that has two outputs from SASA and SASB backplane, one connected to SAS 5/iR and one just hanging. I was interchanging the cable at the SAS 5/iR connector to figure out if it was a bay issue.

So what options do I have if I want to use all 5 bays for HDDs?

1. A new PERC 5/i or 6/i that has two connectors? Would a 6/i work in this box?

2. Or another SAS 5/IR will also do the job as I have number of PCI slots available in this box.

Please suggest a solution with appropriate part numbers so that I could fully use all 5 HDDs. Appreciate your help.

The part number I have for a PERC 5/i is XT257

Does the channel quantity = 2 indicate two connectors?

http://www.serversupply.com/CONTROLLERS/SAS-SATA/DUAL%20CHANNEL/DELL/XT257.htm

Does XT257 have two connectors by default? Trying to make sure I don't buy a wrong part. I want to reuse the cable that I have that will connect SASA and SASB. Dell store doesn't seem to have it, so trying third parties. 

Does the channel quantity = 2 indicate two connectors?

That should be the correct part. The image it is displaying is not the correct card, but the specifications match the correct card. It lists that it has 2x storage SAS interfaces.

Does XT257 have two connectors by default?

Yes, the PERC 5/i comes with 2 connectors. The PERC 5/i integrated comes with two connectors as well, but it is not designed to work in your server. The picture on that website is for the integrated version that is designed to be used in an integrated storage slot. I suspect that is the correct part, but they are displaying the wrong picture. The part number I provided is for the non-integrated version, and that is the number they are referencing for the controller.

Thanks

Hi Daniel, sorry for a late response but I'm having a hard time to differentiate between these two adapters and almost all buyers are unaware of the differences between the two. Is there a website that you can recommended for the XT257 2 connectors that will work on my system (PE6950)? Does XT257 come with a built-in memory, like 256 MB? I see few in ebay but having hard time to distinguish (some have batteries and I do know XT257 for PE6950 doesn't need one) and almost every seller knows no difference between the models. :emotion-6:

Is there a website that you can recommended for the XT257 2 connectors that will work on my system (PE6950)?

http://www.impactcomputers.com/dellparts-parts-for-dell-poweredge-parts-for-dell-poweredge-6950-internal-parts-and-assemblies-cards.html

XT257, MX961, and MN985 are all the same card. We change part numbers if we use a different label, packaging, or make any other changes. To my knowledge there is no functional difference between those part numbers. XT257 is the newest, MX961 was the part number before it, and MN985 is the oldest of the three.

Thanks

hi friend:

Finally, Could u add a second hard drive M2 in dell e5450?

I have this problem too and i would like to add another SSD