1) hardware RAID in a DAS situation seems easiest for that. there could be filesystem issues (XFS, NTFS, EXT4?!?). introducing a network could offer options by abstracting the filesystem. introduces complexities though.
2) probably, at a minimum a good side panel intake fan will help, along with good front to back airflow. no glass side panels then. some may recommend pcie slot coolers. I would probably zip tie an old CPU or chipset fan somewhere on the card first, myself, if desperate.
3) you could start with less powerful. sounds like we're dealing with large SATA HDDs. a SAS2008 is fine for that if you're going HBA. a SAS2208 could handle the HDDs in RAID. depends on your tolerance for tinkering i suppose. if you're gonna tinker anyway, you know what to do - save some money for it.
4) i would think so, but possibly marginally less. A SAS2208 is probably 65nm fab process or so. Like an X520 - 82599, it's just old and hot. but still effective.
5) probably mostly the fab process the chip is built on. i doubt activity adds that much. I could be wrong.
6) pass!
7) I don't know but that sounds like a lot of disks.
I'm still on 9211-8i series for SATA so I'll skip the recommendation. Great questions.
2) probably, at a minimum a good side panel intake fan will help, along with good front to back airflow. no glass side panels then. some may recommend pcie slot coolers. I would probably zip tie an old CPU or chipset fan somewhere on the card first, myself, if desperate.
3) you could start with less powerful. sounds like we're dealing with large SATA HDDs. a SAS2008 is fine for that if you're going HBA. a SAS2208 could handle the HDDs in RAID. depends on your tolerance for tinkering i suppose. if you're gonna tinker anyway, you know what to do - save some money for it.
4) i would think so, but possibly marginally less. A SAS2208 is probably 65nm fab process or so. Like an X520 - 82599, it's just old and hot. but still effective.
5) probably mostly the fab process the chip is built on. i doubt activity adds that much. I could be wrong.
6) pass!
7) I don't know but that sounds like a lot of disks.
I'm still on 9211-8i series for SATA so I'll skip the recommendation. Great questions.