new sata/ahci cards with more then 4 ports (and no sata multiplexer)

[IG-88 545]

there seems to be a new ASMedia SATA chip comparable to the JMB585 (pcie 3.0 2x, 5 port sata)
ASMedia ASM1166, with pcie 3.0 2x support and 6 stata ports, seems to be a alternative to the jmb585 and the one additional port could come in handy when using a 6 x sata onboard solution and wanting to have 12 sata ports and only using one pcie 4x slot, there are also versions as pcie 1x - best option for a pcie 1x slot atm as it can utilize the pcie 3.0 and get up to 1000 MB/s with the one pcie lane (have'nt  seen a jmb585 as pcie 1x card), better then any marvell 88se9215

(sadly no real use for apollolake/geminilake systems as they only support pcie 2.0 but the new elkhart lake  J6413 scheduled for q1/2021 will have pcie 3.0 support and will have two more pcie lanes)

 

pcie 4x cards (only 2 lanes are used), i ordered one of these
https://www.amazon.com/BEYIMEI-Controller-Expansion-Non-Raid-Standard/dp/B08DFK4LZ7
https://www.amazon.com/MZHOU-Controller-Converter-%EF%BC%88Support-Devices%EF%BC%89

 

pcie 1x cards
https://www.amazon.de/ASM1166-GEN3-Erweiterungskarte-langlebige-Play-Erweiterungskarte-PCI-E4X8X16X-Schnittstelle/dp/B08KT9FJZC
https://www.amazon.de/awstroe-GEN3-Erweiterungskarte-Erweiterungskarte-Temperaturwiderstand-PCI-E4X8X16X-Schnittstelle-Default/dp/B08KTCQ6VD
https://www.amazon.de/Erweiterungskarte-ASMedia-Festplatte-Schnittstelle-Durable/dp/B08L6JLZ2V

as i still wanted to use my M.2 slot for sata ports or 10G nic i was looking for mechanical meaningful solutions (the M.2 card i bought with a pcie 4x slot on it was not really usable as it had to much mechanical problems)
there are riser adapter for M.2 to a normal pcie slot (that can be bolted or glued some where and things like cpu cooler or pcie slots will be no hindrance)

 

using a M.2 slot as normal PCIe 3.0 4x Slot with as riser (i ordered the adt-link adapter)
https://www.amazon.com/ADT-LINK-Extension-Express-Extender-R42SF/dp/B08DRDT47K
https://www.amazon.com/NGFF-Extension-Cable-90%C2%B0Right-Angle/dp/B08B3KGNHC
https://www.amazon.com/Timack-NGFF-NVMe-Extension-Cable/dp/B08BXNGKGH

 

same as above but with a 16x pcie slot (imho not needed as the adapters from above have a open back pcie 4x slot so  a 8x/16x card will fit in)
https://www.amazon.com/pcie-NGFF-NVMe-Extension-Cable/dp/B08B3PRJGG
https://www.amazon.com/Extension-Cable-Extender-Cablem-2-Extension/dp/B08B3HRG7L

[flyride 398]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/6G-pcie-sata-3-ASM1166-chip-pci-express-sata-3-0-expansion-6-Port-X4-X8-X16-fast-/224081366566

[IG-88 545]

there are lots of offers, also on aliexpress

atm there seems not much to find about that chipset, asmedia has nothing to say about it on its website and there are no real performance tests out there

just a unpacking and description

https://www.skooterblog.com/en/2020/07/30/review-placa-pci-express-3-0-x4-zydas-com-6-portas-sata-6gbps-e-controladora-asmedia-asm1166-aliexpress/

 

more interesting is that asmedia is usually used as cheap pcie bridge chip in 2 x 4 port ahci controllers and if they have pcie 3.0 as standard now i also think there might be a pcie 3.0 version of the existing pcie 2.0, that only has 2 lanes but with pcie 3.0 it will have ~2000MB/s (irl more like ~1800MB/s) and that would be ok'ish for 8-10 conventional hdd's

we already have seen a 2 x jmb585 controller with 10 ports but with the old pcie 2.0 bridge chip (asm1806) its no use when limited to 1000MB/s but with a better pcie bridge and cards using 2 x jmb585 or 2 x asm1166 (both capable of pcie 3.0) we might have usable and affordable cards as alternative to the lsi sas cards

the successor of the asm1806 seems to be the asm2806

https://www.asmedia.com.tw/eng/e_show_products.php?cate_index=170&item=194

so maybe we will see pcie 10-12 port controllers with pcie 3.0 support soon having a asm2806 or maybe asm2812, at least thats something to keep looking for

Edited October 18 by IG-88