adn2377

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  1. Hello, I am a 40+ years old guy but very recently started to dabble into the "SAS RAID Controller" world. I have created sort of a home server (in name), where I would like to use such a card. In the beginning I bought a Dell Perc H200 card (without knowing what I buy exactly), my initial desire being to have additional SATA ports and - maybe - also create a small RAID. From that moment on I have spent many hours on the internet reading things. I learned that usually a card such as these will NOT function simultaneously with RAID and non-raid drives (to my deepest sorrow) and I managed, following some guides found on the net, to flash my card to IT-mode. I am not sure how to change back to a RAID mode if I wanted to now, but for the moment this seems a good use for the Dell Perc 200 - just additional SATA ports. I borrowed from a friend a HP P420 card that was unable to boot with its own BIOS active (I had to disable Storage boot Option ROM) and then my Windows 2016 Server boots and also directly sees the card. Found out that a Windows utility exists for that HP, I install it and see that: - I can change from RAID to HBA and vice-versa from it (reboot needed); - I can make all the management to my RAID arrays if I wanted any (and I do now) - I found a mention of an additional MIXED mode (beside RAID and HBA), that should allow (in my understanding) to simultaneously present to the OS both RAID arrays AND single drives (No Raid) but have no option to switch to it. BINGO! After my following search, I found out that such a feature is only active on the newest Gen10 SAS Controllers from HP. And of course, tough luck! They are all very expensive... So I turned my attention towards LSI-based cards again. Is there anything comparable possible with an affordable LSI? I saw a few mentions regarding LSI 3108, but those are also kind of new and - of course, also EXPENSIVE. Searching if this is possible using (for example) a LSI 2208 card left me with a couple of hours spent and no clear conclusion... What I would search for in such a card: - To have the option to present to the OS, in the same time, both RAID array(s) and single drives (NOT drives with RAID-0, but directly physical drives); - To have of course reliability in that configuration; - To be able to be configured from a Windows environment, not only from Bios/boot (Like I said, I currently use a W Server 2016) - To have all RAID modes available (inclusive RAID 6, 60). - To not be very expensive (not over ~~100 Eur when bought from China for eg.) Otherwise I probably should look for another HP P420, since (without mixing) seems ok with the rest of my needs. Please tell me if I could find something like this between the LSI cards... Thank you!