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4K-native SATA HDD non-RAID support in S2600JF and S2600GZ systems with C600 series PCH

jkuro
Novice
2,962 Views

I have a few racks of S2600GZ, S2600JF, and S2600WT systems that currently use 512N/512E-formatted SATA HDDs in non-RAID mode (no Intel HW RAID, ESRT2, or RSTe - just ... JBOD) that we would like to continue supporting for our users for at least a few more years if not longer, but one of my concerns is the future availability of 512N/512E-formatted HDDs as 4K-native HDDs become the norm.

While the S2600WT systems are new enough to support 4K-native SATA HDDs, the S2600GZ and S2600JF systems are old enough that state of support for 4K-native formatted HDDs is not quite clear.

The bit of searching for info I've found only mentions support with Intel RAID (HW RAID, RSTe, ESRT2) which indicates a "pretty definite no" for that scenario but says nothing about our non-RAID HDD use.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000024132/server-products.html Support for 4Kn and 512e Advanced Format Disks with Intel® RAID...

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000006173/server-products.html TA-1085-4: 4Kn and 512e Advanced Format with Intel® RAID and Intel®...

Will the C600-series PCH found in S2600JF/S2600GZ platforms support 4K-native formatted HDDs if used in non-RAID setups (just as plain SATA HDDs) or should I start strategically stockpiling 512N/512E formatted HDDs for the future?.

8 Replies
idata
Employee
2,015 Views

Hello JonKuroda,

 

 

Thanks for joining the community.

 

 

All 3 boards that you list are supposed to support the 4k HDD format. You can find them on the following tech advisory document: http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/ta10852.pdf http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/ta10852.pdf

 

 

What it said that could not work is to use native 512 and 512n as 4k due to translation and compatibility issues. They suggest to use native 4k HDDs instead.

 

 

In regards if non-RAID mode (AHCI) is capable of handle HDDs in 4k format it shouldn't be an issue. The actual embedded controller (either RSTe or ESRT2) are able to handle them as long as UEFI mode is enabled in BIOS.

 

 

Hope this helps

 

 

Jose A.
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jkuro
Novice
2,015 Views

Hi Jose,

I've read those documents. (I referenced them in my original post, though TA-1085-4 that I referenced is a newer version of TA-1085-2 that you shared) and they don't address my question very well.

Those two documents only address 4Kn support found in Intel HW RAID modules/controllers and ESRT2/RSTe embedded RAID controllers

However, I am not using the C600 PCH's embedded ESRT2/RSTe controller but am instead using only the S2600GZ/S2600JF Platforms' C600 PCH's non-RAID SATA Controller which those two documents do not address.

What little those two documents say about S2600JF and S2600GZ systems is that there is no 4Kn support on S2600JF and S2600GZ systems when using the embedded ESRT2/RSTe RAID controllers found in the C600-series PCH, but that does not address my situation with using the C600 PCH's non-RAID SATA Controller.

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idata
Employee
2,015 Views

Hello JonKuroda,

 

 

You are absolutely correct. I got confused and after checking the latest version of the Tech Advisory TA-1085-4 it's clear that there is no 4kn support for both S2600JF and S2600GZ in neither ESRT2 or RSTe. The S2600WT has 4kn support on ESRT2 for SATA drives only.

 

 

Now the big question is if non-RAID (AHCI) mode is capable of support 4kn drives? The answer is no since both controllers for ESRT2 and RSTe are the same ones that handles either RAID or non-RAID (AHCI) modes. So same as before the S2600WT has 4kn support on ESRT2 for SATA drives only.

 

 

Regards

 

 

Jose A.
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idata
Employee
2,015 Views

Hello JonKuroda,

 

 

Do you have any updates, questions or comments in regards to this issue?

 

 

Please do not hesitate to contact us back.

 

 

If you consider the issue to be completed please let us know so we can proceed to mark this thread as resolved.

 

 

Regards

 

 

Jose A.
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idata
Employee
2,015 Views

Hello JonKuroda,

 

 

We will proceed to mark this thread as resolved. If you have further issues or questions just go ahead and create a new topic.

 

 

Jose A.

 

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MBere7
Beginner
2,015 Views

Hello, the site said I can't post a new question, so I selected this post to ask my question..

 

S2600JF PCI-E bifurcation 4x4x4x4

As the manual says: Port 2 and port 3 can each be bifurcated as 2 x8 or 4 x4 or any combination.

manual 5.4.2.14.

 

Also the manual says the BIOS only allows to configure the PCIe Link Speed.

 

Then can I get the BIOS which can configure bifurcation please? 😌

 

Thank you!

 

MBere7
Beginner
1,951 Views

Good job intel!

 

I asked one question, and I got no answer after 5 months.

 

 

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