ofmirroreye

glad to help! would also suggest firing up the card without drives connected to ensure that you're in HBA mode. the serverbuilds site has more info on the adaptec cards, if you want to do more research.

the Adaptec ASR 71605 work great and support up to 16 hdds. Press ctrl-A while booting, and you can switch modes from RAID to HBA (IT) or vice versa. no need for flashing. on ebay, they run from $40 (with no cables) to $100 (with 4 cables) a piece. These do require a lot of airflow. So unless you're putting these in a server chassis, you'll absolutely want to strap a 40mm fan on the heat sink. You can use zip ties, or m3 bolts into the extra holes on the heatsink. note: if you already have an lsi card, these use different connectors for the breakout cables (sff-8643).