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Considerations when buying an LSI HBA? (self.selfhosted)
submitted 15 hours ago by philanthropicoctopus to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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Hi everyone

I'm looking to expand my storage. I have a case capable of 8 bays and I don't think I'll exceed that soon (currently at 3 drives).

I bought a m.2 slot with a bunch of sata ports on it but it doesn't work. I've researched and read an HBA is a much better solution anyway.

If I'm going to get the HBA I might as well run all 8 ports on it.

Aside from the clearance on the card in the case, are there any other considerations I need to he aware of? I justbeant to get something that works from the get go. For my uses I have a good amount of apps and I stream media from the server

CPU- i5-10400f 2.90ghz

MOBO - asrock h570m-itx/ac

RAM - gskill f4-3200c16-8gvkb

GPU - Quadro k620 (gm107gl) rev a2

CASE - Jonsbo N3

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[-] randombullet@programming.dev 1 points 1 hour ago

I've bought mine off TheArtofServer. You can ask the seller questions and they'll happily help. Not to shill but the guy is super passionate about the HBA business.

I currently went overboard and got a tri mode LSI which is quite pricey. But it allows me to mix and match SATA, SAS, and U.2/3

Broadcom 9500-8i Tri-Mode is the model.

https://www.ebay.com/str/theartofserver

For sas and sata only I have a LSI 9305-16i for my big server. The 9305 runs quite cooler, but you pay more upfront.

[-] nitrolife@hikki.team 1 points 7 hours ago

If you're installing an HBA at home, it's better to immediately install something like a Noctua NF-A4x10 on it. You should also immediately check the type of hardware initialization. If the system boots into EFI and the HBA is old and only supports BIOS, there may be problems. Otherwise, everything works perfectly with almost every device.

[-] afk_strats@lemmy.world 8 points 14 hours ago

I have mine running in a consumer case and, despite it having a heat sink, I found it was overheating and turning off. Consider your airflow and put a fan near or on it if possible

[-] tophneal@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 hours ago

Same thing happened to me, but with a rosewill case. Luckily there’s a 3d file for my card clip a fan to the heating and keep it cool. Unfortunately ALL the noctuas already in the case weren’t enough. OP be prepared to have a dedicated fan for the card

[-] MuttMutt@lemmy.world 8 points 15 hours ago

If you are intending to run software raid then you want something that can be flashed to Initiator Target or IT mode. There is a JBOD function for some RAID cards and you DO NOT want that because it does not send all the same data that software raid wants from the dive. You also do not want to waste money on a card with RAM or Battery Backups since they are really designed for hardware RAID.

A SAS3008 card will really be what you are looking for.

https://www.ebay.com/shop/lsi-sas-3008?_nkw=lsi+sas+3008

With a SAS backplane or expanders you can connect 256 drives.

[-] philanthropicoctopus 3 points 14 hours ago

Great thank you

Will thus work for zfs truenas aswell

[-] happy_wheels@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 14 hours ago

LSI has really good compatibility with TrueNAS and any Linux system tbh.

[-] philanthropicoctopus 3 points 14 hours ago

I just about pulled the trigger on it and saw my board only has one pcie which us presently occupied. Back to the drawing board!

[-] MuttMutt@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Then it's probably time to switch boards. Anything that will expand drive connections will need a PCIe slot. Using an adapter that goes into an m.2 is probably going to have issues. Using USB based devices is asking for trouble.

[-] MuttMutt@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago

Yep. I'm using one myself.

[-] areakode@riskeratspizza.com 4 points 15 hours ago

Been a while since I've used an HBA, but make sure you get one that allows JBOD or supports being flashed with JBOD firmware. A lot of LSI cards only support traditional RAID.

[-] philanthropicoctopus 4 points 14 hours ago

I'll look into this. I'm confused with what a raid controller and hba are and which one I need for zfs

[-] philanthropicoctopus 2 points 15 hours ago

Ah, I'm running truenas which uses zfs

this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2026
15 points (94.1% liked)

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