Compatibility of a 9400-16i HBA with desktop/NAS drives

[Le.Patator]

Interesting! I use the X12SDV at work (with more cores) and it is a very nice board with a lot of features. The A2SDi-H-TF is indeed a very good choice, especially of a "low power" NAS with the ability to have multicore performance.
My "concern" is the possible evolution of the system if I need more unified storage: for example, an A2SDi-H-TF with an HBA is OK for the internal HDDs and virtual machines (and for the (mirrored?) boot device, whether NVMe or SATA - I have a 128GB Crucial M4 if needed!). Size is not really an issue in the case (Fractal XL), but I really like the low power consumption of the board and the number of cores.
Now, what if I need more storage and would like to add an additional "extension" with like 10/12 drives (same architecture like Synology or QNAP NAS)?
Some years ago, I read some information about having an empty case with a PSU and a SAS expander, together with an "external HBA", such as in this topic:

recommendations for an external enclosure?

hey all, i currently have 8x2TB drives in my freenas box, and i'm looking to add some more storage in an external enclosure, since i'd like a dedicated pool to put my vmware datastore on. i'll be getting external HBAs for both boxes, but i still need to figure out where to put my drives...

www.truenas.com

In my mind, I need at least two PCIe ports in the NAS: one for the internal HBA and one for the external one (or an HBA "-16ie, quite expansive). Or I should use conversion brackets like this providing I have enough internal ports on the HBA?

https://www.amazon.com/CableDeconn-SFF-8088-SFF-8087-Adapter-Bracket/dp/B00PRXOQFA

Well, it is not planned to be the main use case in a short term, but for the price, I would like to be ready if needed. But perhaps I miss something...

 

[Etorix]

What is your target?

For me, 16 drives in a home NAS is HUGE. As I understand, the plan is 2*8z2, starting with one vdev. With 16 TB drives, which should be about the sweet spot for TB/EUR, this first vdev is 96 TB raw, about 80 TB usable—and no HBA yet, all motherboards discussed above can handle that. Add a second vdev a couple of yers from now, with slightly larger drives (20 TB?) in accordance with the market at this time, and you'll have 200 TB of usable space. Zero-point-two-PETAbytes.
More drives means more power, and more noise. If you're planning to go above 16 drives, forget about the XL case and look into 3U/4U rackmount chassis with SAS expanders.

 

[Le.Patator]

I do have a precise target, unfortunately. My short-term goal is to have a "big" unified storage space to sort my data. Then, to really have a NAS to access files, save them, etc. I like to have upgrade paths and I thus liked the solutions from Synology and QNAP, consisting in adding a "dumb" box to their NAS if needed, the drives being accessible to the main unit.
Some years ago, I explored some bigger solutions (Norco 24-bay rackmount chassis for example at ~300€ with an interesting shop in the Netherlands (RI-VIER.nl if I remember well, which do not exist anymore unfortunately) but gave up due to the lack of french suppliers for motherboards and CPUs and overall cost. But now, I have a bit more money and needs. :)

In fact, my idea would be to have "room" for expansion, given the fact that I already have multiple 8TB drives. And I will need the 2 vdev from the "start" due to the amount of data (I can also sort them by "class"). Having directly the room for 3x8drives in RAIDZ2 would be nice, of course.

The other point would perhaps be the weight and size (without the drives!!!), since I will be alone to manipulate all these things. But perhaps the Meshify 2 XL is almost the same size of a 24-bay rackmount server vertically, I need to compare... And I would gain "hot swap" capability for the drives.

I liked the Meshify 2 XL (or Define R7 XL) solution since it is a standard case, which can be easily found on french retailers. As soon as you want to go to server-grade hardware, it becomes the desert.... I spotted some Silverstone rackmount cases a few years ago, but I do not know if there is a new top-notch rackmount case for home NAS like the Norco RPC-4224 was some years ago...

EDIT: seems that the Supermicro rackmount cases are of top quality, way better than Norco (way more pricey too!). Something like:
-SAS2: https://smicro.eu/supermicro-cse-846ba-r920b-2
or
-SAS3: https://smicro.eu/supermicro-cse-846be1c-r1k23b-2
could be very nice. Quite heavy, but high-quality redundant power supplies and backplanes provided...

EDIT2: after a walk in the forest, thinking about servers... I think you're right Etorix, a Meshify XL + C3xxxx or Xeon-D board will be enough for my current needs and more reasonable (noise, power, heat, etc.) in my current location. If I need more horsepower in the coming years, I will think about something bigger. Now, let's chose the good model. Thanks again! :)