UnRAID HBA solution

[SaltyPillow]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm building a UnRAID / Gaming box with file hosting duties. I will (at one point, not right now) have up to 22 SATA devices which need to be connected to my Asus TUF X299 MoBo.

I'd like to buy a (or more than one) HBA card to connect all the HDDs (20) to work with UnRAID but I'm not sure which one. Is there a fairly simple and cheap solution out there?

 

I've heard that RAID cards are not recommended due to the way they handle the raw disk access but that some RAID cards can be flashed to another mode which supports the right type of connectivity. Can anyone provide a little more information on this please? 

 

Thx in advance

~eruk2007

[Jarsky]

IMO you're best to use an HBA for software solutions like UnRAID, FlexRAID, ZFS, etc...

For a high number of ports, for value if you can afford it you can't really go past the RocketRaid 750 .

https://www.amazon.com/HighPoint-Rocket-750-40-Channel-PCI-Express/dp/B00C7JNPSQ

 

If you want a cheaper solution though, then a LSI 9211-8i (or similar HBA) with a SAS expander such as the Intel RES2SV240.