Has anyone tested the X2L with a m.2 SAS controller?

#1

I got excited about using an X2L board to update an old HP Microserver with a rubbish processor.
Has anyone tested this board with an m.2 SAS controller for use in a NAS / Tiny server application?

I’d love to be able to rip out the old mobo and add an m.2 SAS controller to an X2L and connect straight to the backplane and SATA drives in the HP microserver.
Looks like it might not work though as the m.2 controller I have found is M-Key and the slot/connector on the radxa X2L is E-Key.
Although delock seem to make adapters from a male Key E to a female Key M:
https://www.delock.de/produkt/64137/merkmale.html?g=1817
Or male Key E to PCIe x4

Does anyone think these options might work?

Also the UK distributor / Sales agent is https://arace.tech
Their domain was created in April 2023 and they are using a let’s encrypt certificate on their website. There are no customer reviews yet, it looks a bit like a scammers site. They do list a Hong Kong address.
Can you confirm that they are a legitimate and not scammers?

Thanks
Sam

#2

Arace is an official Radxa distributor. They even have an account on this forum.

#3

The X2L has a M-keyed M.2 slot on the other side and this is the one you want to use since featuring 4 PCIe lanes:

Once this M.2 slot is occupied you need the optional eMMC for an OS to reside on.

#4

Hi, Sam

This is Martin from Arace, we are a new partner of Radxa but we our team has experience in distributing electronic gadgets for many years. You can trust us. I am just wondering why using let’s encrypt certificate is not good?

#5

Thanks for the reply. I spotted that about 10 minutes after I posted!

#6

It’s so not much of an issue now as a lot of reputable merchants are switching to using letsencrypt certs as they are free. But it’s still nicer to see a digicert or globalsign cert. All scammer fake merchant websites do use use let’s encrypt certs.

My process for deciding whether to trust a retailer for the first time is:

  • Look at ican/whois: how long ago was the domain registered or transfered? If it’s less than a year especially 6 months thats a red flag for me.

  • Look at trustpilot reviews

  • Look at who issued the merchants SSL certs

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