What HBA card?

[chris7797]

I currently have a PLEX server that has a I5 10400 with 32Gb of ram and a quadro P5000 GPU running Windows 11.  I have gotten to the stage I need to add some storage. I am looking to run 6 drives in a Raid 6.  That would get me 56Tb of free space and 28 Tb of redundancy.  This is all new to me but i know I need an HBA card. I want to go with a HBA card and I believe I want a SAS HBA with a sfs 8087 type connector to reduce cabling.  That is where I dont know where to go.  I need a card that works with windows, it seems that is something to watch out for and i would like to stay under $125.  Should be able to connect a minimum of 8 drives but a 12 to 16 would work too.  

 

Since I have you all here what is everyones opinions on using refurbished drives I can save a minimum of 100 bucks a drive if I go that route.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Do you want hardware or software raid? Windows doesn't do parity raid well in software, so you may want a RAID card here.

 

I'd be tempted to get bigger drives, but not sure about the models your using. Whats the price per gig?

 

Look at something like a lsi 9300-16i. Pretty cheaper, and the newer cards support win 11 better.

 

 

[Needfuldoer]

What motherboard do you have?

 

3 minutes ago, chris7797 said:

Since I have you all here what is everyones opinions on using refurbished drives I can save a minimum of 100 bucks a drive if I go that route.

Buy at least one more than you need, to keep on the shelf as a spare. That way if one of your drives goes bad you're not working without a net until a replacement comes in.

[johnt]

LSI 9300-16i

 

Supports SAS or SATA with correct cables. The cables are usually purchased separately. 

[AbydosOne]

51 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

lsi 9300-16i

40 minutes ago, johnt said:

LSI 9300-16i

I'm going to recommend against the 16i and go for an 9300-8i unless OP really needs 16 drives. The 9300-16i is just two 8i dies and a PCIe switch on one card which makes it HOT and therefore needs to be specifically actively cooled.

[johnt]

32 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

I'm going to recommend against the 16i and go for an 9300-8i unless OP really needs 16 drives. The 9300-16i is just two 8i dies and a PCIe switch on one card which makes it HOT and therefore needs to be specifically actively cooled.

This is absolutely true. I believe we’ve spoken about this before and the newer versions of the 16i are single chips, but it’s unclear to me if it runs cooler. The Op mentioned more drives than 8, which is why I recommend it. It’s also very easy to find, as opposed to the 8 drive HBA models which are manufactured by a ton of different companies. The 8i is super confusing to purchase as a newb since you essentially have to buy these cards used or pay through the nose for one. You could see super micro on the picture and god knows what shows up. I have an internal case fan blowing air over my card and it runs perfectly.

[chris7797]

The drives i was looking to get are https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B1X3W7D/?coliid=I11KQ25LM11JFN&colid=2BRI7I7EF4HBC&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1

14tb drives for $130 each.   I purchased 2 so far they have between 20k and 30k on hours on them.  I have been using one for about a year with no issues and check it with christal disk and still shows as good. 

 

I did want to do a software raid because i had heard if the card dies you need the same exact model to recover your infomation?  I thought a software raid was safer?  I was going to go with either 6 or 7 drives and my plan was if one ever died replace it with a brand new one. Hoping that by the time one dies the new ones woudld have dropped in price.