Which card to get? (LSI 9211-8i)

[Laszlo]

Greetings!

I'm thinking of buying 1 or 2 HBA/Raid cards and my choice will be one of the LSI 9211-8i variants. Most likely I'll be using it for Raid 1/10. There are many cards from different vendors (Perc H200, H310, Fujitsu D2607 rev A11, A21, IBM M1015) and I don't know which might be the best?
I'll possible crosflash it, as I understand this is more problematic for some of the whereas for others it is quite easy. For smart passthrough I need them in IT mode and as it appears, these are in IR mode, right?
Sorry for the trivial questions, I'm a newbie.

 

[pricklypunter]

With stock standard firmware these cards are usually supplied in IR mode. They can be flashed to IT mode if required of course, just follow one of the many, many guides on here and you'll not go far wrong. As for which card is better, they are all using the same Chipset, so are pretty much on a par with each other. What might influence your choice though would be the case/ enclosure that you are installing into. Some cards have vertical ports, located toward the i/o plate on them, some have horizontal ports located at the rear of the card, which are useful in 2U enclosures for example. More important than the exact card you choose, would be the supplier of said card, especially on ebay et al. Stick with a supplier that has a decent reputation in case you have to return it for some reason

 

[nthu9280]

Like @pricklypunter said pick a card layout of SAS2008 based card and try for $35 or less from a reputable sellers. If not go for H220 from itmart in the for sale listing here on STH. It's a SAS 2308 based PCIe gen3 card for $45.
Again be mindful of airflow with any card that pick.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Laszlo]

Thank you guys!