I´m planning to expand my Unraid server beyond the capability of the number of mb sata, so I know I need an HBA. 
And since I´m planning for the future, I'm looking beyond the normal capability of an 8T HBA, but I´m a newbie rookie at this, so I need some input from someone who knows these things. 

 

The HBA I´m planning on buying is an LSI 9211-8I, with a Lenovo 03X3834 expander card. 
I´ve read that this combo (with the hba flashed to IT) should work flawlessly with unraid, however, I cannot find what cables to buy between the hba and expander card/expander card to my drives. 
The hba has SFF-8087 connectors, but I cannot find what the expander card has. 
It looks the same, but if someone could help me I would appreciate it! (again, this is all new to me, didn´t know about hba´s until a couple of days ago)

 

Is it as simple as SFF-8087 to SFF8087 between the HBA and expander card, then SFF-8087 to sata from the expander to my drives? 
I´m running sata drives, and trying to do this as "cheaply" as possible. 

4 minutes ago, BeardElk said:

I cannot find what cables to buy between the hba and expander card/expander card to my drives. 

SFF-8087 to SFF-8087

13 minutes ago, JorgeB said:

SFF-8087 to SFF-8087

Thanks! 

A new question about HBA and expander cards, does the expander card use any pci-e bandwidth? 
The card I mentioned in the og post requires a 4x slot, but say I just got a 1x available, would I lose performance? 
I´m planning a mobo upgrade as well, but the one I´m looking at got 3 x16 (1x16 1x8 1x4) and 2 x1, I then got 2 GPUs as well, 1 for a VM and 1 for transcoding. 
Is it better to put the transcode GPU in a 1x slot or the SAS expander? 
What config is optimal with the above-mentioned parts?

Edited March 11, 20224 yr by BeardElk

12 hours ago, BeardElk said:

does the expander card use any pci-e bandwidth? 

No, it's for power only.