Areca vs HP SAS expander

[Jbiss]

With Norco now coming out with new cases that included the Areca SAS expander, I was wondering if anyone had a change to compare it to the HP SAS expander. I need to grow my storage capacity and I'm debating going for a a case with the Areca SAS expander included like the DS-24E or the RPC-4224 and buying an HP SAS expander from Amazon or eBay.

This will end up being a new build so I'll be buying all of the components for the server (motherboard, processor, RAM).

I haven't found any good comparisons yet of the two SAS expanders. Does anyone have the Areca SAS expander? I've seen quite a few good reviews for the HP one on this site.

UPDATE: Things I would like to take into consideration, the HP SAS expander needs an HP RAID controller to update the firmware (P410 for example). I don't know about the Areca SAS expander but I already own an ARC-1880i RAID controller.

 

[xnoodle]

You said this is a new build, but some parts are slightly unclear.

Reason I ask is the DS-24D/E is a JBOD chassis, there's no room for a motherboard, it's half depth. So if you were looking to connect both choices to a existing machine, you'd need a new RAID controller with SFF-8088 connectors. You could reuse your existing ARC-1880i but you'd need to either get some SFF-8087<->SFF-8088 converters or connect the 1880i to a HP SAS expander and then in turn connect another expander to that externally.

The problem with the DS-24D/E is the pricing; for that price, I'd rather spend 50% more and get double the storage with redundant power supplies (SC847 45 bay chassis).
The problem with the RPC-4224 as a JBOD chassis is you'd need to finangle a way to power the SAS expander.