LSI 9207-8i is the fastest and most compatible card.
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I’m eyeballing a cheap 9280-4i4e card on ebay.
What I’m thinking of doing is adding some storage to the HP290 Plex server because I’m also rocking MotionEye on it now. So I’m thinking a low profile raid card external to a little thrown together DAS/jbod style compartment. I’m think for now I’m just going to use an 1u case I have and velcro some drives into it. All I would need it to get a switch on the psu of the 1u.
Given this is just running Manjaro I’m not sure if I would need to make sure it’s flashed to IT mode or not.
Any thoughts?
edit: probably just get the 9200-8e…seems to be low watt/cost effective
Here are some pics of my setup with an LSI 9211-8i + HP 487738-001 SAS expander. An advantage of using the SAS expander instead of multiple HBA cards is I’m only using up one PCI-e slot (for the HBA). The SAS expander is on a mining riser which uses 6-pin PCI-e power off your PSU. There are other versions that use Molex power off your PSU.
This setup was recommended to me by @Mthrboard on Discord. It works fantastic. If you’re considering a SAS expander, the HP 487738-001 is the recommended model and what most people go with. For clarity, I’m pasting a snippet of info @Mthrboard shared with me when I was getting everything ordered.
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Hey man, I’ve been doing research and having difficulty understanding what is needed compatibility wise, etc. considering the small amount of time I have for my server build right now.
If I have an HP Prodesk 400 and just bought two of the 8Tb SAS drives from the reddit thread you posted, and the cables from Amazon that were recommend, what do I need to look for compatibility wise in choosing a card, or what card would you recommend me getting?
If you don’t want to answer, that’s fine, I’ll try and keep reading when I can.
Are you trying to put the 2 HDD in the ProDesk 400? IIRC they only have 1 HDD slot…
Well, I’m trying to use one of these PCIe <-> SAS expander cards to supersede the SATA port limit. Do you mean that there’s only one HDD slot to attach a bracketed HDD in? If so, I’m pretty much planning on having them lying about in the case, or on top, attached in some janky manner. Which, I’ve assumed will be mostly ok considering the machine isn’t going to be moved. But maybe I’m wrong?
If I have the PCI-e slots but want to add more SAS drives than my 9702-8i can handle does it make more sense to add another 9702-8i or a sas expander card? What are the downsides of using a sas expander card instead of another HBA?
I would probably just get another 9207-8i, as it would be technically faster (although that probably wouldn’t matter) and the cabling would be simpler.
If you got a SAS expander, you’d have to get 8087->8087 cables to connect the expander to the host controller in addition to the additional cables you need to connect the drives.
General question, but is there anyway in unRAID to check the temperature of the HBA cards? I have the 9207-8i if it is card specific. Thanks!
No, there isn’t. Are you having any performance issues?
I’m having VERY random freezes (can take anywhere from hours to WEEKS) and trying to narrow it down. 
Put a fan pointed at the HBA, see if it resolves your issues.
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I have Dell PowerEdge R820
I am trying to connect 16 Seagate ST4000DM000 4TB SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB 5900 RPM 3.5 Drives
I bought 9202-16E Dell Lsi SAS9202-16E 6Gbps Dual Port HBA Low Profile card and installed it on the 2nd Riser which is the low profile riser. The card will post and I can enter the raid configuration.
I purchased for of these breakout cables to connect the drives HD Mini SAS 36 Pin SFF-8644 (Host) to 4 X SATA (Target)
The problem is that in the raid configuration under SAS Topography none of the drives are listed. I’ve tried three different external power supply units to power the drives. I seems like the drives never start spinning. I can’t seem to figure out what I’m missing. The 9202-16E says that it supports SATA drives.
I’ve also tried using 1 breakout cable and only connecting 4 drives but the same result. I’ve checked the cable plugged into the external port of the card clicks when I push it in. I’m not sure what else to do.
Thanks for the suggestion. It turns out to be a lot of bad luck.
I purchased 12 4TB drives on ebay that are 2014 drives and it turns out 4 of them are DOA. In addition, one of my modular SATA power cables was bad. Lastly, one of the SATA ports on the breakout cable is bad.
When I connected with working drives to working cables it all worked as expected.
That is quite the string of unfortunate events.
I was able to OBO a Dell HBA330 for $60. Flashing it is SAS3, which offers a touch of future-proofing once drives come back down from the moon. I opted for that vs a cheaper SAS2 8i. If you are using sata 6g 3.5’s, then SAS2 is plenty. If you ever might go SAS3 or all NVMe/SSD, then I recommend the Dell, and following STH’s flashing guide for it.
I recently picked up a HP H240 card. They are pretty cheap (like $25) and support SAS3.
It was difficult for me to get into the card to configure things since I don’t have an HP system, but it came configured at a HBA anyway, so there really wasn’t any configuration to do.
more info here:
Many thanks for the clear recommendation. Would you also recommend the LSA 9207-8i as the optimal card for the Dell PowerEdge T110 II?
Yes, I would!