PCIe SATA III Controllers?

[RonRN18]

I am about to build a new FreeNAS to replace my older 0.7.1 setup that has been running for several years. My new machine will contain the following hardware:

• (1) ASUS P9D-V motherboard
• (1) Intel Xeon E3-1225V3 CPU
• (2) Kingston 8GB ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1600 (16 GB total with available future doubling)
• (4) WD Red NAS Hard Drive WD30EFRX 3TB

The motherboard natively has four SATA III connections, which is not an issue with my initial setup, but not much for expansion. The motherboard does provide two SATA II connections as well, but I was thinking of moving my four older WD Green 1TB drives to the new system after migrating their data to the new machine and creating another data pool just for media/videos. That means I'll need more SATA ports than the motherboard provides. Is there any particular controller that is recommended? I see most SATA III controllers have either one or two connectors; I'm thinking (2) two connector controllers. Any thing in particular I need to avoid?

 

[ser_rhaegar]

Why not go for the reliable m1015 reflashed to IT mode. Provides 8 SATA ports but requires sas to SATA forward breakout cables (1 per 4 drives). One controller will offer a lot of expansion.

Can get them for a decent price on eBay.

 

[cyberjock]

And why not go with a real server motherboard instead of a consumer manufacturer trying to get into some kind of entry-level server market. I don't know about you, but i'm not cool with beta testing for companies entering a new market.

The m1015 is the tried and true card. Not sure why you are even asking the question when your question has been answered 100+ times with the same answer, not to mention the dozen or so stickies, the manual, the faq, my noobie guide, etc. We always say the same thing... m1015.