A couple years ago, i got into weird flash accelerators for the lulz, and i somehow got the idea to fuse a Sun F80 with a Nytro MegaRAID 8110-4i to kinda get a cheap 8120-4i... and it weirdly works. Add some thermal pads and a couple hours sorting everything up, and i now have an 800 GB 8110-4i for less than half the price of an 8120-4i. And then, i stopped using it, as i got rid of that old PC (Xeon X5650 based rig). I always had plans to use it as a NAS but i always ended up using it as a secondary driver, and even though i did have four 1 TB drives plugged into it (and booting off two of the SSDs), i never managed to get it off Windows.
Now, i want to build a cheap NAS. I have no major needs for a NAS other than storing data and saving my security camera feed. I also already have a server/netbox so it doesn't need to be overly powerful. I've been eyeing the ZimaBoard mini PCs as they, like my cheap Aliexpress box with an i3-N305, are very low cost but surprisingly capable. And i remembered i had that card in my closet, collecting dust.
Now, other than updating the firmware and hoarding the utilities, i haven't done much with it. And other than knowing i want a ZimaBoard and i want to run TrueNAS on it, i'm not even sure if i have the right card. Of course i want to use the integrated SSDs, i was thinking one for boot and three for cache, with maybe even four HDDs connected to it (right now i've bought two WD Red Pro HDDs, and will buy two more soon), but i've been reading on LSI cards and most, if not all HBAs, want to be on IT mode for better ZFS support/compatibility. And this card can do JBOD, but i'm not sure if that is enough to avoid major issues when setting up my NAS.
Now, i want to build a cheap NAS. I have no major needs for a NAS other than storing data and saving my security camera feed. I also already have a server/netbox so it doesn't need to be overly powerful. I've been eyeing the ZimaBoard mini PCs as they, like my cheap Aliexpress box with an i3-N305, are very low cost but surprisingly capable. And i remembered i had that card in my closet, collecting dust.
Now, other than updating the firmware and hoarding the utilities, i haven't done much with it. And other than knowing i want a ZimaBoard and i want to run TrueNAS on it, i'm not even sure if i have the right card. Of course i want to use the integrated SSDs, i was thinking one for boot and three for cache, with maybe even four HDDs connected to it (right now i've bought two WD Red Pro HDDs, and will buy two more soon), but i've been reading on LSI cards and most, if not all HBAs, want to be on IT mode for better ZFS support/compatibility. And this card can do JBOD, but i'm not sure if that is enough to avoid major issues when setting up my NAS.