SAS and SATA considerations

[kharan5876]

So I am building a file server. I am now thinking of using the cheap norco case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219021

The motherboard is going to be inside of the case as well.

I basicly have 2 options for connecting the disks. I can use SATA or SAS

SATA:
The mobo I have has 6 onboard ports and 2 pci-x slots so I could get 2 of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009

Total Cost $200

SAS:
I already have a pci-e x8 LSI SAS card
I could get this:
http://usa.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_accessory_detail.php?serno=943
and then add the cost of cables.

Total Cost: $500-$600


What would you guys do? Obviously the SATA way is much cheaper and probably a lot smarter. SAS would give me the option of adding more of these cases externally if I ever need more disks. SAS might also give better performance?

 

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If this server is purely for storage (which I assume to be since you're using a twenty bay hotswap rackmount), SAS won't be really necessary unless you have a pressing need for 15K SAS Savvios or whatever for your OS disks. I'd say just stick with SATA to keep thing simple - and inexpensive - when coming to buying your hard disks later, and most good controllers support both SATA or SAS anyways. If you decide to go the SATA route, you can always consider the WD Velociraptors as well for the fast random access times and sequential read/writes.

 

[kharan5876]

Might use a different case for the actual server and make the norco an external jbod with that SAS expander. My lsi card is an external SAS card, it doesnt have any internal ports.