and when 8 isn't enough... get 8 more

I have this one. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Syba-SATA-Port-PCI-E-Controller/dp/B00ESFEI2E/ which looks the same as this version in the US https://www.amazon.com/IO-Crest-SI-PEX40071-Controller-Profile/dp/B00ESFEI2E/

I just found this new 10 port one though, but sure about compatibility https://www.amazon.com/Ableconn-PEX10-SAT-Port-Express-Adapter/dp/B0177GBY0Y/

IO Crest 8 Port Sata using the Marvell 88SE9705 chipset
Would not recognize all of the drives, further researched pointed to the Windows Driver issues.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ESFEI2E/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Ableconn PEX10-SAT 10 Port SATA
This card is a work horse, I have had no issues with it under Windows 10. Chipset ASMedia ASM1062 + 2x JMicron JMB575
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0177GBY0Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


IO Crest 4-port SATA III PCIe
Chipset Marvell 88SE9215
I am running two of these cards with out issue with Windows 10
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AZ9T3OU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use an I/O Crest 8 Port SATA III in my NAS box.

Pros:

• Pretty cheap, you can generally find one for under $70.
  
  
• Supports up to eight drives on one card. It does this by being two Marvell 88SE9705 chips on one board.
  
  
• FreeBSD likes it! I've been running this card since FreeBSD 10.x, currently running it on FreeBSD 12.1
  
  

  Cons:
  

  
  

• Only the first four disks are visible to BIOS/UEFI, the second Marvell chip isn't visible until the OS brings it up. So it's no good for a 5+ disk boot array.

Oh I know this crappy card, had to return it back before I even opened it fully. See that massive capacitor near PCIe connection? Check if yours is still attached and not wobbly, mine had fallen off during delivery. I have noticed that amazon is cluttered with rebranded versions of these cards.

Edit: if you are looking for cheap alternative, this is the one I got in its place back in 2018, still alive and kicking in my unraid box:

Syba SATA III 8 Port PCI-E 2.0... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ESFEI2E?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I personally use Debian because I've been Linux for over 20 years and it's what I'm used to (plus I use the desktop portion of the server to run OBS), but in your case I would say FreeNAS would be the way to go. It's a lot more straightforward, there's minimal overhead, and there's not a lot you need to worry about doing manually.

As far as PCI express lanes being used up that shouldn't really be an issue if you buy an add-on card later on. An 8 port SATA III card runs on a PCIe x2 slot.

2 second search on Amazon

4 Port http://www.amazon.com/IO-Crest-Controller-Non-Raid-SI-PEX40064/dp/B00AZ9T3OU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450459232&sr=8-1&keywords=sata+pcie

8 Port http://www.amazon.com/IO-Crest-Controller-Components-SI-PEX40071/dp/B00ESFEI2E/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1450459232&sr=8-8&keywords=sata+pcie

After some research it looks like it would be better performance overall if the card was PCI-E 2.0 x2 or x4. The one you linked is x1 and will definitely work but all 4 hard drives connected to it will share the same PCI-E x1 lane (assuming they were all in use at the same time). Looks like this card may be better maybe? -https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AZ9T264/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T2_99ADzbJY3M7A2 or https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ESFEI2E/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_dp_T2_EjBDzbPASSG90

My use case scenario for this server is just to install Unraid and storing several TBs of media for plex streaming (plex server located on same network but different machine btw). So, that being said - in your opinion does the speed difference there even matter for the most part? The drives will all be WD RED. I may add an SSD or two for caching down the road but I would connect those straight to the onboard SATAs if I went that route.

Thanks in advance for helping with all this and sorry if I missed something obvious.

A few things to understand, hardware RAID involves using hard drives that are the same size, otherwise you can't do it. You can however connect a bunch of hard drives to an HBA or Host Bus Adapter so they all show up as individual drives. It depends on the OS you are using to do this. Cache on a RAID controller only matters if you are doing hardware RAID. You could start with something like this to keep it simple: Or you could go with an Dell H310 and configure your drives as JBOD (Just Big Old Disk) which means they are all individual drives, either way you won't have any redundancy, something hardware raid offers.

https://www.amazon.com/IO-Crest-SI-PEX40071-Controller-Profile/dp/B00ESFEI2E/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1494048102&sr=8-5&keywords=IO+crest

Is it possible I could use the space for this SATA expansion card instead of a GPU?