I was going to post this in a new thread, but seeing as this thread speaks about the Intel cards I thought I may just keep it in here.
It's been a (very) long time coming but I am finally ready to take the plunge and buy a bunch of new kit for my storage server upgrade .
I have already previously bought a Norco 4224, a HP SAS Expander (thanks to odditory).
I am only using this for home use, mainly to store media and watch movies, so IOPS performance isn't really an issue for me. I don't really have the time nor confidence for ZFS… My media collection is kind of important, so I'm happy to pay the extra money and just get a hardware based solution.
I'd like to buy a cheapish HBA that is capable of RAID 6, and ideally I would like it to have two internal SFF-8087 ports. However, my budget is kind of stretched as it is so depending on how much more it is, I may have to settle for one SFF-8087 port.
Also, I would like to purchase a card that I can easily get again in Australia in case the card fails (not all cards are readily available here).
I naturally took a look at the LSI 9260-8i and 9260-4i and liked them. I found this thread and I am looking at what appears to be the Intel equivalent. These cards about $100 cheaper or so in Australia in comparison, and seem to be much more readily available so they make sense for me to get this over the LSI models.
http://ark.intel.com/products/42875/Intel-RAID-Controller-RS2BL040
http://ark.intel.com/products/42874/Intel-RAID-Controller-RS2BL080
However, I have a few questions.
1. Firstly, the maximum amount of "devices" the Intel website says it supports is 16 and 32 respectively, whereas the LSI controllers list 128 maximum for both 4i and 8i. I don't understand why this is the case?? Is there a different firmware I need to flash the Intel card with? The Matrix PDF that was posted earlier in the thread does not have this mentioned.
2. I assume the Intel cards support Online Capacity Expansion and all other features the LSI cards do?
3. Are there any other advantages of getting an LSI branded card over the Intel card?
Thanks in advanced