Hi, I've been window shopping my first nas build for a while and a potential issue I've had is with picking out an appropriate HBA card setup.

 

For perspective, Im thinking of building in a Define 7 XL, and assuming a typical motherboard with 6 sata ports on it directly, id need 12 connected via other means to complement it to hit the 18 total potential far hard drives.

 

What my issue is, is that Im looking for new (as in not used) sata controllers/HBA cards and im not sure which card I should really get.

 

I've looked at the wiki and at other builds but the wiki seems to have many options that are now discontinued making me think perhaps its not updated often and with respect to other builds, people often use cards that are really expensive new and fractions of that cost used from ebay etc and that price difference scares me off.

 

Thats why Im hoping to hopefully find a card/s I can get that will help me with this that both doesnt  break the bank and has enough connections.

 

I suppose it'd be useful to define what I mean by not breaking the bank, so I guess Il say I dont expect whatever solution be it one card or multiple to cost more than the case.

 

As it may be relevant I am in Canada with Canadian pricing.

 

Thanks in advance for your suggestions/input.

I have used 9211-8i, 9217-8i before，they cost less than $25 in China and work well with the unraid,  the only issue is they run very hot, regular air flow in the normal case is not enough for them, I have to install a small fan using PCI mount kit to blow directly on them;

 

now I'm using lenovo R430-8I (LSI-3408), it cost around $80, but runs much cooler, no addtional fan is needed, personally I will recommend it

On 8/18/2020 at 2:22 AM, trott said:

I have used 9211-8i, 9217-8i before，they cost less than $25 in China and work well with the unraid,  the only issue is they run very hot, regular air flow in the normal case is not enough for them, I have to install a small fan using PCI mount kit to blow directly on them;

 

now I'm using lenovo R430-8I (LSI-3408), it cost around $80, but runs much cooler, no addtional fan is needed, personally I will recommend it

How can you be sure they are legitimate? The price discrepancy seems so high between new prices and those prices.

 

The best value I could find for what looked like a good fast, reliable new card was almost 400 dollars for a Highpoint RocketRAID 2840A

Most people buy used off of eBay and flash cards to IT mode. The Art of Server on eBay has a bunch. Tested working and flashed to IT.