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Aurora R11, will not recognize add in PCIe SATA adapters
Alienware Aurora R11
My son bought a 16TB Sata drive to add to his machine, and we found out the hard way this system has a ridiculously pathetic on-board SATA (2TB limit on SSD, 1TB on spinning disk). Since Steam will not install games on an external drive, we are trying to make this work. My thought was adding a SATA card that did support 16TB. The problem is I have tired 2 different cards in both available slots. It not only does not see the drive, but it doesn't see the SATA card.
Anyone have any Ideas? Is there some limitation I have missed? Does anyone have a specific card that worked for them I can try?
Alternatively, has anyone had success with an add-in NVME card that could at least get up to 8TB with 4x2TB M.2s?
Thanks in advance
Vanadiel
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August 20th, 2024 13:27
@PyricIX Yes, hopefully you have the ability to check for this.
It sounds like that is the issue you are experiencing, and I do not know if the PSU in the R11 supports this properly or not.
I also don't know if that PSU has traditional molex connectors or not. But if it does an adaptor can work.
Technically speaking you could Frankenstein this and use the power from the USB enclosure to power the drive and a SATA data cable to connect it to the PC. Only do this is you understand the implications of doing this... That would verify the power connector issue.
(edited)
Vanadiel
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August 17th, 2024 17:27
16 TB should work fine, as there's no 2 TB limit on SSD's imposed. The 2TB limit listed in the manual is because Dell has only validated up to 2 TB SATA drives.
This person uses an 8TB HDD with their R11.
Make sure you have not missed plugging in the SATA power cable together with the SATA data cable. Also make sure the drive is provisioned with GTP and not FAT32 or a variant. Otherwise you will not get the full capacity of the drive.
PyricIX
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August 18th, 2024 00:47
I went through that. I can plug a 2 TB in the same slot and it sees it. The 16TB doesn't show. We put it in a usb dock and the pc sees it fine. This is a 3.5, not an ssd. I even tried a different SATA plug and cable.
ProfessorW00d
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August 19th, 2024 01:50
@PyricIX It is a 3.5 what? . . . if it is not an SSD??
You cannot do 8TB with 4x2TB M.2s unless you have a card with a controller because the R11 motherboard does not support bifurcation.
Specifically what 16TB drive are you trying, and what specific PCIe adapter cards have failed?
Vanadiel
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August 19th, 2024 14:39
I am assuming it's a 3.5" traditional platter spinner HDD. I have seen people use 8 TB spinners on the R11, as mentioned in the Redditt post.
I see no reason why a 16 TB spinner would not be seen by the SATA port. I don't have one to test so I cannot verify.
Does it show up in the BIOS screen as a device, or is it showing there's no device connected to the SATA port?
PyricIX
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August 20th, 2024 01:59
@Vanadiel yes this is a 3.5 inch spinning disk. The bios does not list it. If I plug in a spare 500G drive I have, that shows up, no problem. Same cables and SATA port.
@ProfessorW00d the 2 adapters I tried were just SATA controller cards as I thought the system controller was not capable. But those cards don't show up at all.
PyricIX
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August 20th, 2024 15:22
@Vanadiel Thanks. This seems quite likely to be the issue. Let me see what is in the box. I have a ton of Sata cables from previous machines I have built and may have a 4 pin Molex adapter if it does not. I will update when I know more.
(edited)
Vanadiel
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August 20th, 2024 17:31
Do keep us posted. It's an interesting decision they made with the power connector.
PyricIX
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August 22nd, 2024 13:44
@Vanadiel This was absolutely it. I bought this cable off of amazon that terminates that pin and it immediately saw the drive:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0725KBHDH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
per the description:
It is a tight fit because it is not a 90-degree plug, but I believe if I use an adapter on the end of this one, it should be fine as a permanent solution.
Vanadiel
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August 22nd, 2024 17:10
Interesting. We can add that to the how to's list as I am sure this will come up more in the future.
Salma09873
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August 23rd, 2024 09:04
Recommendations KPI
SATA Expansion Card: For SATA expansion cards, brands like ASUS, Gigabyte, and ASRock have produced reliable cards. Specifically, you might want to look for cards that are known to support higher capacities and have good reviews.
NVMe Cards: For NVMe, consider a card like the ASUS Hyper M.2 x16 Gen 4 or the HighPoint SSD7101A-1. These cards support multiple NVMe drives and should work well for setting up high-capacity NVMe arrays.