Reddit mentions of 3WARE Cable Multi-lane Internal Cable (SFF-8087)

I use a flashed LSi 9211-8i. Works like a charm just plug and play.

The card just stock is RAID only however flashing to IT mode makes it JBOD (just a bunch of disks)

I bought this one here http://www.ebay.com/itm/291641245650 it is pre flashed in IT mode. I actually am helping a co worker with unRaid and referred him to this card and works beautifully.

You will need SFF-8087 adapters which are about 13 or so on Amazon

I bought these https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBYS2U/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_4Zpyzb7G3Y8Z1

I've looked a little into HBAs, since you mentioned them, and I'm definitely intrigued! Probably a dumb question, but I had trouble finding an answer: Would I be able to use an HBA in addition to the onboard SATA ports or does it replace them? If I were to follow your setup, I'd need to do the following:

• Pick-up a IBM 1015M off Amazon, eBay, or get a one pre-flashed to it mode.
  
• Pick-up two SFF-8087 mini-SAS to SATA cable (Amazon)
  
• Flash the IBM 1015M using the steps outlined on Serve The Home to convert the firmware from LSI9240 to LSI9211-IT mode.
  
  Does that seem correct or did you follow a different set of steps?
  
  Once again, thanks for taking the time to help me out with this! If I can get an HBA working, it seems like it would be a major improvement, allowing me to get the most out of my setup! :D

Thanks for the reply something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/3WARE-Cable-Multi-lane-Internal-SFF-8087/dp/B000FBYS2U

​

that cable will connect to only the 1 port on the dell h200 perc and will connect to the SAS back panel using those 4 cables?

Please do not waste your money with those adapters. That's not what you need, and you'll be wasting your money.

The motherboard you linked has 6 onboard SATA3 ports, and a onboard Intel RAID controller. If you want to go cheap, then you could use 2 ports for a RAID1 device for your OS, and the remaining 4 SATA3 ports for a RAID5 device.
If you still want to get a separate RAID controller, then read on.

• SAS backplanes physically accept both SAS and SATA drives. SATA backplanes do not accept SAS drives. You do not need any adapters when installing SATA drives on a SAS backplane, but some older servers and external enclosures would require interposers when using SATA drives on SAS backplanes to prevent false drive failure messages.
  
• A decent RAID adapter would be the LSI 9240-8i. A better one would be the LSI 9260-8i. You mentioned you're only planning to use 4 drives, but having the extra port available is useful if you ever need to add more drives. If you're set on only using 4 drives, then use the LSI 9240-4i or the LSI 9260-4i.
  
• If you get a RAID controller, you'll also need to get breakout cables. Those will work on the LSI controllers I listed above.
  
• Each controller can usually support 4, 8, or 16 drives directly attached to it (depending on how many ports it has onboard), but they can support many more drives if you use SAS expander cards.
  
• Other controllers (like 3Ware) may be a little cheaper and will work just as well, but LSI controllers are usually supported with minimal issue on just about any system, and tend to be rock-solid.
  
• You may find cheaper versions on eBay, but note that if it's a Dell/IBM/HP-branded card, it may have some custom firmware and may be more difficult to update firmware.
  

If data read/writing speeds are important to you raid10. Its the cheapest route too.

If redundancy is what you want raid 5. A raid 5 can support 1 hard drive failure. Raid 6 can support 2 hard drive failures but requires an extra disk (total 5 disks). You will probably have to buy a card for it. I believe this is the current one I'm using for my raid6 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002IT4YH6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 you will need these cables https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBYS2U/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 there is an optional battery to help prevent data loss on power failure. I didn't get the battery tbh. You will also need the megaraid storage manager to finish setting up the raid once you use the web bios to set it on hard the card itself. It will give you an opportunity to launch the web bios when you power up your PC.

You'll have to choose from there what is best for you.

This amount of storage is begging for ZFS on Freenas. A 15-drive RAID-Z3 would yield 48TB of storage with triple-redundancy. For any kind of data storage, ZFS provides much higher levels of data integrity than other file systems, but with this much data, it's practically essential along with proper server hardware and ECC memory.

A Freenas build would substitute:

• http://www.supermicro.nl/products/motherboard/Xeon/C220/X10SL7-F.cfm
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Chip-Processor-3-3-BX80646E31230V3/dp/B00D697PEG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1381905598&sr=8-2&keywords=e3-1230
  
• http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=6DD6A77EA5CA7304 x2
  
• http://www.amazon.com/IBM-Serveraid-M1015-Controller-46M0831/dp/B0034DMSO6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381905555&sr=8-1&keywords=ibm+m1015
  
• http://www.amazon.com/3WARE-Cable-Multi-lane-Internal-SFF-8087/dp/B000FBYS2U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381907723&sr=8-1&keywords=sff-8087 x2
  
  The SSDs could be used as dedicated L2ARC and ZIL devices to intelligently accelerate reads and writes.
  
  This seems to give a value of ~250W for the power requirements; I gather one PSU should be sufficient.
  
  EDIT - Freenas is designed to be booted from a USB-flash drive; this can be connected directly to a header on the motherboard. The M1015 acts as dumb SATA ports, and not as a RAID controller. When rebuilding a degraded array, unlike a conventional RAID volume, a ZFS RAID-Zn volume only writes data to the new disk in proportion to how full the volume is. And the array described above would easily saturate both gigabit ethernet adapters on the motherboard.

https://www.amazon.com/3WARE-Cable-Multi-lane-Internal-SFF-8087/dp/B000FBYS2U

Why not just use the onboard SATA ports of your motherboard?