Hi all, I was wondering if the smart folks here would be able to suggest a controller card for me.
I have a bunch of mechanical WD Green, Red, and Purple drives that I'd like to hook up to my Windows 10 machine. Eventually I'd like to be able to use it with one of the popular SAS expanders or a SAS enclosure, but initially I'd like to use it only for disks. I'm not going to be using all the disks at the same time - they're mostly archives: collections of files, music, movies, stuff like that. It would be nice if it supported SATA600, but I am not sure that is necessary given the types of drives I'm connecting. I'd like for it to have some external ports as well as internal - external for hooking up to an eventual expander or enclosure. My PC is currently sitting on its motherboard box on a shelf, everything's free-standing, so I'm not too fussed about how the wires are going to be run right now. And I'd like the adapter to work on pcie x1 and have compatibility with Windows 10 21H1. The more ports the better - 8 internal SATA ports would be used up right away, so I'd like to have a bit more. 16 or 24 if possible. I'd also like to be able to mount the drives from within a Linux VM (not sure if that makes any sort of difference). I'd like to spend around $200 at most, but hoping for something like $50-$100. What should I be looking out for?
To recap:
Usage: bunch of mechanical drives containing music and movies, using one drive at a time for the most part
Must have:
- SAS expander capability
- Compatibility with Windows 10 21H1
- works in pcie x1
- budget: up to ~$200
Want:
- better than 8 SATA ports if possible inexpensively
- SATA600 not exactly necessary but good
- External SAS ports if possible
I have a bunch of mechanical WD Green, Red, and Purple drives that I'd like to hook up to my Windows 10 machine. Eventually I'd like to be able to use it with one of the popular SAS expanders or a SAS enclosure, but initially I'd like to use it only for disks. I'm not going to be using all the disks at the same time - they're mostly archives: collections of files, music, movies, stuff like that. It would be nice if it supported SATA600, but I am not sure that is necessary given the types of drives I'm connecting. I'd like for it to have some external ports as well as internal - external for hooking up to an eventual expander or enclosure. My PC is currently sitting on its motherboard box on a shelf, everything's free-standing, so I'm not too fussed about how the wires are going to be run right now. And I'd like the adapter to work on pcie x1 and have compatibility with Windows 10 21H1. The more ports the better - 8 internal SATA ports would be used up right away, so I'd like to have a bit more. 16 or 24 if possible. I'd also like to be able to mount the drives from within a Linux VM (not sure if that makes any sort of difference). I'd like to spend around $200 at most, but hoping for something like $50-$100. What should I be looking out for?
To recap:
Usage: bunch of mechanical drives containing music and movies, using one drive at a time for the most part
Must have:
- SAS expander capability
- Compatibility with Windows 10 21H1
- works in pcie x1
- budget: up to ~$200
Want:
- better than 8 SATA ports if possible inexpensively
- SATA600 not exactly necessary but good
- External SAS ports if possible