Help With Selecting HBA Card For My Specific Issue

[Pmarszal]

Hey guys,

 

I have a question on HBA LSI cards. I am looking to purchase the following HBA Card on eBay:

 

LSI 6Gbps SAS HBA 9211-8i FW P20 IT Mode ZFS FreeNAS unRAID + 2*SFF-8087 SATA US

 

I will not be building my massive UNRAID system for couple months and will want to use this card to expand my current Windows 10 PC until prices of hardware go down next year. Am I able to purchase the card and will it run on Windows 10 to expand my SATA capacity. Will i need to reflash the card or the ones on eBay typically come flashed?

 

Sorry for so many questions but am fairly new to this community and my first build

 

Thanks in advance.

[Frank1940]

First thing.  Watch this YouTube video:

 

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQUWwhDU_KQ

 

As I look at this card, I can tell it is not made by LSI.  It is not a strictly counterfeit part as it does not carry the LSI logo on it.  The problem is that it is difficult to determine the overall quality of these boards as they are now being made by a number of Chinese Manufacturers.  (It seems that LSI is making the chip sets and selling them to these manufacturers.)  When you are looking at new LSI cards, you really have to vet the vendors closely as they are your only hope of not being ripped off.  By careful about shopping for the lowest price.  You really are shopping for the highest possible quality board.  Try to find a vendor who has been around for a few years and has a good rep.  Many folks actually prefer to get the used 'flashed' OEM cards that were removed from retired servers.  Those cards were all made by LSI.

 

Second thing. Those look like 1M cables.   Unless you have a really big case, you should be looking for .5M cables.  Otherwise, you can end up with a cabling nightmare/hairball.