Add USB 3 to R620

Question

Hi,

I have a R620 and want to try adding USB 3 to expand capacity. I have a StarTech PEXUSB3S23 to try but it needs power to achieve USB 3 speeds. Does anyone have any suggestions where I can get power inside the chassis? This is only for home lab, not enterprise.

Looking at the mobo diagram on here my idea was to try and use the J_BP0 connector but that isn't standard 8 pin PCI gfx card size so I can't work out what connector it might be. Does anyone have any idea? Or any suggestions where else to take power from? I don't have an optical drive but I can't for the life of me work out where it would have gotten it's power from!

Thanks!

Dell-DylanJ · Answer

Good morning,

Before you add the card to the server, be advised that unvalidated PCI cards can create problems. I've seen a large number of PCI USB controllers cause servers to fail to POST. I looked at a diagram of the motherboard, and the only power connectors I see are the backplane power connectors. I wouldn't recommend tying into those, and I'm not sure what voltage or current those connectors operate at.

Do you mind if I ask what the end goal is in having the extra USB ports? There might be other options.

Blackberry944 · Answer

Dylan is right.If the server was not designed to have the card, it should not be installed :( But I have a suggestion, as we had a similar need.  We had a IOSafe that was USB only, supported USB3.0, but that was not of any use when it came to backing up to it.  So to fix that we just got a Optiplex 3020 that had USB 3.0, and shared the drive on the Gigabit network. Much faster than the USB 2.0 and we didn't have to mod the server.   Hope that helps

Dell-DylanJ · Answer

With that being the case, I would second Blackberry's idea of using a cheap PC for network storage. The other possibility would be to use one of those consumer NAS devices like a MyCloud. I have one at home that I let serve as an archive for various things I do with my home lab. I suppose it would really come down to how much storage you need, and how much growth or flexibility you would need. A dedicated box would obviously offer a lot less in that area.

BurntSky · Answer

Thanks for the advice both. I am trying to expand the storage, cheaply, as it is only for a home lab. I think that the idea of a cheap PC as storage on the network might be the best route to go down.

BurntSky · Answer

I have had a Qnap NAS for about 6 years now and am looking to move away from that to be honest. For the money, and considering the lack of expandability, it's not really flexible enough for what I want. I definitely think a dedicated PC is the way for me to go! Thanks for the opinions.

syhaunguyen · Answer

J_BP0: Hard-drive backplane power connectorI believe it has 12V and 5VDo you think so, I am going to test it, use power from this connector to external hard drivers.

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