I didn't use a controller before, originally I had the drives plugged directly into the motherboard, however, I've moved the system into a new case that can handle more drives. This case has the backplane that I'm now using the 8087 to 8087 cable to connect the backplane to the LSI 9240-8i card.
The case has 20 bays, however im only using the first 8, the two cables that connect from the first 8 bays then go to the 2 connectors on the HBA, it only has two ports.