The expansion slots are the following:

 

2 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots (blue @ x16 mode, gray @ x4 mode) support ATI® CrossFireX technology1 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot3 x PCI slots

 

I want to be able to add another 4 drives to my array. Any advice is much appreciated.

If you think you will not need more than 4 ports I recommend the adaptec 1430SA, relatively cheap on ebay and works very well with Unraid, just make sure it’s using latest firmware for > 2tb support.

If you think you will not need more than 4 ports I recommend the adaptec 1430SA, relatively cheap on ebay and works very well with Unraid, just make sure it’s using latest firmware for > 2tb support.

 

Thanks for the quick response.

 

I currently have a plus license which I think allows 12 drives and the following setup:

 

1 x parity

3 x array

1 x cache

 

Am I allowed another 7 drives? What card is best in this scenario?

Yes, you can have up to 12 devices.

 

Your board should work with 2 x 1430sa, so you can by one now and another in the future, another option would be to by now a 8 port SAS card, most common used with Unraid are:

 

Supermicro SASLP – plug n play, probably one of the cheapest 8 port cards and works ok with Unraid but somewhat bandwidth limited, with 8 disks on the controller it will limit your parity checks to ~80MB/s

 

Supermicro SAS2LP – plug n play, there was a performance issue but was solved and won’t be a problem on next Unraid release

 

IBM M1015 or Dell Perc H310 – IMO one of the best 8 port cards you can buy now for Unraid but has to be flashed to IT mode

 

Johnnie I have one more question. If I go for the Supermicro SASLP am I right in thinking I can slot it into the larger x16 slots? Since this card is x4 i figure i wouldn't want it in the smaller x1 slot.

Correct, it should work in any of the 16x slots.

Thanks johnnie. Ended up going for the SuperMicro - AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 with these cables LSI CBL-SFF8087OCF-05M 0.5m SFF-8087 to Discrete Multi-Lane Internal Forward Breakout SATA Cable all delivered tomorrow.