Supermicro BPN-SAS3-846EL1 4U 24-Bay SAS3 Backplane

The Supermicro BPN-SAS3-846EL1 is a 24-port, 4U SAS3/SATA3 expander backplane engineered for high-density storage in Supermicro’s 4U chassis lineup. This single-expander backplane (EL1) supports up to 24 x 3.5-inch SAS3/SATA3 HDDs or SSDs across hot-swappable bays, delivering SAS3 (12Gbps) connectivity from a host controller to each drive. Designed to fit 4U SC846-class enclosures, it provides the drive carrier interface and interconnects needed for dense JBOD or direct-attached storage configurations without onboard RAID logic. By consolidating drive connections behind a single backplane, it helps simplify cable routing and scaling when expanding storage. Typical applications include data-center storage arrays requiring high capacity in a compact footprint, backup and archival storage, and media libraries where 24 drives are deployed in a single enclosure. The EL1 designation identifies a single-expander topology within the BPN-SAS3 family, with dual-expander EL2 variants offering higher interconnect bandwidth in cascaded configurations. This backplane is built to pair with compatible Supermicro controllers and 4U chassis, leveraging 3.5-inch drive carriers and hot-swap bays to maximize uptime in mission-critical storage environments.