I'd like some feedback on what interfaces I should use for best performance and reliability in my future server.

I got myself a  Supermicro X7DBE+ with plenty of RAM and CPU (for my intended use). I have a bunch (10 right now) of mixed old 1,2 and 3 TB drives, any new ones would probably be 4 TB. Also  3 5-slot Icy-Dock drive bays.

 

My choice of  interfaces are:

1. 6 x onboard Intel Blackford 5000P ESB2 3Gb SATA 

2. 8 x Highpoint Rocketraid 2720SGL 6Gb SAS/SATA PCIe 2.0 x8

3. 4 x Highpoint Rocketraid 2300 SATA 3Gb PCIe x1 (x4?)

4. 4 x Adaptec 1430 SATA 3Gb PCIe x4

 

Why would I, and wouldn't I use any of these interfaces for my array? Right now I'd like at least 12 ports available.

Where should I install my parity and the SSD for cache?

 

I am looking for cables for the SAS card. Would any 8087 to 4xSATA do? How much difference in quality is there? They come from $5 on ebay to $30 in my local shop (and that's only the unbranded ones...)

 

Is there any reason to transfer my Intel Pro 1000 network card? The board got a "ESB2/Gilgal 82563EB Dual-Port Gigabit". I guess that's about as good as it gets...

5 minutes ago, larson said:

1. 6 x onboard Intel Blackford 5000P ESB2 3Gb SATA 

4. 4 x Adaptec 1430 SATA 3Gb PCIe x4

 

These will work fine, RocketRAID are mostly Marvell based and some may have issues, but not sure if those models are affected.

6 minutes ago, larson said:

Is there any reason to transfer my Intel Pro 1000 network card? The board got a "ESB2/Gilgal 82563EB Dual-Port Gigabit". I guess that's about as good as it gets...

Not really, onboard is fine.

2 hours ago, johnnie.black said:

 

These will work fine, RocketRAID are mostly Marvell based and some may have issues, but not sure if those models are affected.

So there is no useful speed increase to be expected if I run an SSD on the 2720 card? Unfortunately the onboard and Adaptec won't give me more ports than I have today, and that's something I really want if I rebuild  my server.

2 hours ago, larson said:

So there is no useful speed increase to be expected if I run an SSD on the 2720 card?

It will be faster for SSDs, though trim might not work, uses the same chipset and driver as the SAS2LP, some users have issues with it, so it's not recommended, but it does work for other users, you'd need to try and see how it goes, but note that one of the problems could be parity sync errors, i.e. possible file corruption.