  Yes, all 12 drives can operate at 6Gb/s. If you wanted to get the full 12Gb/s out of SAS drives then you would populate a maximum of 8.   Yes, the 8 ports utilize a form of port sharing. If you populate more than 8 drives then the 8 ports can split. You can populate up to 16 drives per controller to attain 6Gb/s. If you populate more than 16 they will operate at 3Gb/s. Each port can support up to 4 devices. Thanks
We have a range of R730xd servers with 2 x H730P RAID controllers, each with 8 x 6gbps SSDs attached. The servers are sold as "12+12" drive servers, and the chassis has bays for 4 more drives per controller. When I read the H730P spec, I see it is described as an 8-port controller, which triggers some questions. 1) Are all 12 drive bays in each 'section' usable? I'd assume so since the server is sold as "12+12". 2) Are all 12 bays per controller handled by the H730P, or are 4 of them attached to ports on the motherboard? If so, which of them, and are they feature limited (caching, RAID support, performance, ...)? Best regards,Brian  
H730P with more than 8 drives