Supermicro X9DAi upgrade - LSI SAS or not?

[lukeren]

In my current setup I have an IT mode flashed H200 which most of my drives are hooked up to.
I've just acquired a Supermicro X9DAi and was wondering if I could skip the LSI controller, since the board has 10 onboard SATA connections.
Except 2 ports (which are SATA3 and I plan to use for SSDs), they're all SATA2, but my WD RED's won't saturate that anyway, so I'm thinking I'm safe bandwidth wise, but is there something I'm missing? Some feature?

 

[kdragon75]

My understanding is no you won't miss anything unless you get SAS disks. SAS supports some cool things for HA and typically the disks are better suited for servers that need more IOPS more reliable disks (debatable) and things like that.

If your sticking with SATA disks, just use your onboard.

 

[Inxsible]

Correct, you won't miss anything but you might want to consider a few things.

What case are you using?How are you drives currently connected? Do you have a backplane that your card connects to now? If so, once you stop using your HBA, you might have to put in 10 SATA cables instead of 1 or 2 SAS cable connecting your HBA to your backplane. 2 cables are better than 10 when it comes to airflow in the chassis, cable mess inside the chassis.

 

[lukeren]

The cables won't mess with the airflow, it's a new case where the cables are managed on the backside of the motherboard tray.
I'll shelve the controller then, maybe save a few watts :)

 

[Inxsible]

How many watts is your HBA pulling currently? I doubt you will see significant savings in your electric bill.

 

[lukeren]

I have no idea to be honest, but you can cook a steak on it, so I'm figuring it's gotta be something :)

 

[Johnnie Black]

It uses around 6 to 12w, idle or in use.

 

[lukeren]

I'll take it ;)