9271-8i in sata 2.0

[Jonnyomega]

Currently running a home / lab server, that hold virtual server labs for study and can stream and store media. The onboard raid controller is not that great and i am looking for a replacement. There are a few sellers on ebay that have lsi card with the advanced software activated on the cards, usually the 9260, 9266, 9271.

I was looking at the 9266 since it is native pcie 2.0 but i was thinking about future proofing with teh 9271 when i outgrow the lab and need to build a bigger host. I am not sure about the 9271 compatibility with a pcie 2.0 8x board. Just wondering if anyone has experience with this.

supermicro x8dt6 - pcie 2.0
Server 2012 R2
Dual L-5639
98GB ram
onboard intel 5200 chipset - 6x achi sata 2 ( cant be in raid with sas also in raid )
250gb 840 evo - os
4x 1tb wdre2 - sata 2 drives - storage spaces virtual drive ( virtual labs )

Onboard sas2008 raid controller + raid 5 key - no bbu no cache
4x 2TB red drives - rad5 ( movies, music, etc )

either i will setup plex or serviio as the dnla server.
any advice would be appreciated

 

[pricklypunter]

PCI-e 3.0 will back down to PCI-e 2.0/ 2.1 automatically when/ if it detects anything on those lanes that is not PCI-e 3.0, including the controller. The only way to achieve PCI-e 3.0 is if everything on those lanes is 3.0 compatible. So you should have no issue running a version 3.0 compliant card in a version 2.0 slot

On a side note, I use Plex at home, it's fine running in a VM