Replacement for 9211-8i's?

I'm getting ready to rebuild my home storage server, plex server, backup server, etc. I've got a number of 9211-8i's (2008 chipsets) running in IT mode for my server and backup server. What is the good replacement for these on the cheap? I'm looking at hooking up 12x 6tb IronWolf Pro's and 6x 1tb SSD's with tiered storage setup.

Some things to note-
Not a high availability server, I generally have a clone of the server running at an offsite location that is sync'd nightly, so I don't run a RAID setup at all, just one big span of the drives.
Biggest culprit for space and use is Plex, about 10-12 concurrent users at any given time and ~50 total users.


Things I've looked at so far;
Newer 2308 chipset but still limited to 6gbs
Newer 3008 chipset, seems to have good performance and 12gbs

Am I better off going with two cards or should I be getting one card and a SAS Expander? Is the Intel expander still one of the better ones or are other options out there?

Using a second HBA is always faster than an expander and with Sata disks also guaranteed trouble free. LSI/BroadCom 3008 (12G SAS/6G Sata) is one of the best.

For the cost jump and cable/adapter change aspect I’d go with the 2308 over the 3008. 6gb/s means per lane/drive not total ~ 12gb/s isn't really needed with consumer drives unless you’re stringing a large amount together (30+ drives) or using nvme/U2 drives

Additionally many of the 9207-8i use the sff-8087 so you can use the same cables as your 9211s.
There are oem variants such as the h220 that’ll might save you a little cost if you want to flash them yourself to it mode, theres a good list here: https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...and-hba-complete-listing-plus-oem-models.599/
The 9207-8i’s cost about $50/each, if you’re using 18 drives total I would get two cards, split the ssd between them (2 on each card), and put the last 2 ssd on the mobo sata.

Keep in mind whichever you choose the newer cards run hotter with dual controller chips and are intended to have airflow over them depending on the traffic load.