Which RAID controller to get for 1U NAS

[Kev]

So it was a total impulse buy but I got the deal
Supermicro 1U Dual LGA2011 Barebone with 10gbps - $299. My plan was to put in 7 x 2.5" 2TB Samsung-Seagate Drives for my raid array, running FreeNAS. Which Raid controller should I get and do I really need one with something like cache vault? Would something like Intel RS25DB080 RAID Controller MD2 SAS SATA PCIe 3 0 New Retail Box | eBay work well with FreeNAS and would it be overkill?

 

[PigLover]

With FreeNAS you really don't want a raid controller - you want a simple HBA. FreeNAS will do the raid in software via ZFS.

Since you are planning to use spinning drives and not SSD something based on LSI SAS2008 chipset would be perfect. LSI9201-8i, 9211-8i, IBM M1015, etc. Any of these can be found on eBay for less than $100.

 

[Kev]

I guess I would pass through the card in esxi to freenas and I'll be golden correct?

 

[namike]

Kev, that is correct. Using the PCI pass through function of ESXi. Just make sure your mobo and CPU support VT-d. Shouldn't be an issue in your case.