The SAS ports will run SATA drives (as Eric mentioned). The upside of that board is the small premium for an excellent controller (2308). There really aren't any 1150 boards that can touch it in terms of value and potential. But that assumes a longer term view and that you may want to put it to work one day. Storage moves fast, so I like the headroom. But it's all just personal choice. Once you picked Supermicro and ECC you were good to go. ;)