A method and system for testing a remote I/O sub-assembly. The method including: allocating source memory, destination memory and DMA queue memory location in a memory of the remote I/O sub-assembly; writing a pattern of test data into the source memory location; writing a set of descriptors simulating data transfer commands into the DMA queue memory location; wrapping a first remote I/O port of the remote I/O sub-assembly to a second remote I/O port of the remote I/O sub-assembly with a remote I/O wrap cable; (e) configuring a DMA engine of the remote I/O sub-assembly to point to the DMA queue memory location and to the first and second remote I/O ports; and loading each descriptor of the set of descriptors into the DMA engine and transferring data from the source memory location to the destination memory location based on the descriptors.