Lemon tree LSI 9300-8i Compatible SAS HBA Card IT Mode

This HBA card serves the storage-server crowd that knows exactly what it wants: LSI 9300-8i compatibility on the proven SAS3008 controller, flashed to IT mode so the operating system sees every drive raw. That passthrough behavior is the whole point for ZFS and its relatives — TrueNAS, FreeNAS, unRAID — and for hypervisor storage under Proxmox or ESXi, where software manages redundancy and hardware RAID would only get in the way. It is the card people mean when a NAS forum says "just get a 9300-8i in IT mode."

The hardware specifics follow the reference design. A PCIe 3.0 x8 interface hosts the card; two internal Mini-SAS HD SFF-8643 connectors fan out to as many as eight direct-attached drives at up to 12Gb/s SAS or 6Gb/s SATA; and a SAS expander extends the same silicon across large arrays when ambitions grow. The box contains the card alone — no cables — which experienced builders will treat as normal and first-timers should note when ordering, since SFF-8643 breakout or backplane cabling is a required companion purchase. As the foundation of a home-lab or NAS storage build, the formula here is unglamorous and reliable: transparent drive access, standard connectors, room to scale.