LSI LOGIC SAS 9207-8i Storage Controller LSI00301

NOTE: Picture on the box I received was of an LSI Logic SAS 9207-8e (note the "e" at the end, instead of an "i"), even though the sticker on the box said 8i. This worried me until I opened the box and found that it is the correct card (internal SAS ports vs external). My guess is the manufacturer just doesn't bother having separate boxes printed for every variation of their cards and uses the stickers to differentiate the actual models.I bought one of these for my unRAID server (running version 6.1.8) to hook up more hard drives as my motherboard only has 6 SATA ports. I shoved it in an x16 slot, which it feels a little weird doing with an x8 card but seems secure enough with just the backplate screw. Works fine with no configuration needed and, in fact, there really doesn't appear to be anything you really *can* configure in the card's BIOS. I guess that makes sense for just using it as a SAS/SATA (non-RAID) card.One of the SAS breakout ports doesn't lock the cable in and the cable came loose after installation, preventing half my drives from showing up on the first boot. I'd just spent a great deal of effort routing data and power for 12 total SATA devices though so I wasn't about to pull the card and cable out to determine which was at fault, hence not docking a star as it could be a problem with the third-party cables I bought. It works fine with the cable plugged into the port, it just doesn't lock in place like it's supposed to. Not a problem if you're never moving the machine or fiddling around with the cables inside it.

High-performance, no-frills 8-port SAS controller. LSI boards are the gold standard for FreeNAS - well supported and reasonably affordable. This one only supports "IT" mode (no RAID), so I didn't have to mess around with re-flashing it to the best image for ZFS. I swapped it into the PCIe slot on my motherboard, connected the two SAS-to-SATA breakout cables to the card (sold separately), and connected my new drive array. FreeNAS booted up and immediately recognized the controller and all 8 attached drives (they map as /dev/sd<num>, i.e. generic SCSI drives). Performance so far has been great. I run my ZFS pool with encryption at rest (via GELI), so I think the I/O bottleneck right now is the AES-NI performance of my Core i3 CPU. That said, I can sustain over 100MB/s write throughput without issue, and that's more than good enough for my needs.

Had a few SAS drives that needed to be checked for repair and checks. Worked great and without any problems

TBH, the frustration saved from having to screw with the sata plugs on my motherboards is worth the price, but it's a requirement for a few 2U server chassis conversions I was doing (where the internal fans blocked those plugs). Faster throughput isn't bad either, and probably the point...but routing inside a case is a pita for me.

Price is good, no need to flash to "IT" mode, Only negative thus far is the heat-sink gets really hot even with no hard drives attached.

A great card to add additional SATA drives. I did a lot of reviewing and saw that there is no need to flash the card to IT mode and it has the bandwidth to allow up to eight drives to be connected without significant impact to transfer speeds. Mine is sitting in a 16x slot so with the graphics card sitting in the other I have 8 lanes for this card. Windows 10 saw the drives immediately without issue and did not need drivers. Plus, I had no issues setting up mirroring for two 4TB drives; these are the first drives connected to the card so I can add 6 more if I get the second mini SAS cable. Each mini SAS connection will support four drives. You get two mini SAS ports on this card. Be sure to get the correct cables for the card; you will need mini SAS to SATA in order to connect SATA drives. CableMatters has a nice mini SAS to 4 SATA cable that I used.

I needed more SATA ports than were available in my motherboard and bought this because it has 8 SATA 3 ports and a PCIe 3 x8 connection so there is no bottlenecking. The heatsink gets pretty hot so I installed a 40mm fan on it which keeps it cool.

I bought a 2nd hand Dell R510 12 bay to use as a Freenas server, only to find out the H700 RAID controller doesn't have drive passthrough. Direct drive access is an absolute must-have for using Freenas. So I bought this controller and it's worked flawlessly. I pulled out the H700 RAID controller, pop this into one of the rear PCI-E slots, and BAM! Everything just.... worked. It was really simple. All the internal cables have enough slack to reach the back instead of the middle of the case.