SAS HBA Card Compatible with LSI 9400-16i IT Mode PCIe SATA Expansion Card, 16-Port 12Gbps PCIe 3.1, SAS Expander Support, SATA HBA Controller with 4X SFF-8643 Internal for ZFS TrueNAS unRAID NAS

Built around the Broadcom SAS3416 12Gb/s Tri-Mode controller, this HBA card is compatible with LSI 9400-16i and is designed for modern ZFS and NAS environments that demand high bandwidth and rock-solid reliability. With a PCIe 3.1 x8 host interface and four internal Mini-SAS HD SFF-8643 connectors, it delivers 16 internal ports for direct attachment of SAS or SATA drives when used with breakout cables, making it ideal for dense storage nodes and home-lab servers. Shipped in HBA IT Mode (Non-RAID), the card exposes each disk cleanly to the operating system for true JBOD passthrough.

This architecture is preferred for ZFS, FreeNAS/TrueNAS, and unRAID because it avoids controller-level RAID abstraction, simplifies drive management, and preserves end-to-end data integrity. Each SAS lane supports up to 12Gbps, while SATA devices run at up to 6Gbps, providing ample bandwidth for HDD pools, SSD caches, and mixed workloads. The 9400-16i-class Tri-Mode design also offers flexibility for SAS, SATA, and NVMe devices (depending on backplane and cabling), allowing you to reuse existing SAS/SATA infrastructure today and transition to NVMe where needed in the future. Combined with support for external SAS Expanders, you can start with a compact 816 drive chassis and later grow to large arrays without replacing the HBA.

Whether you are building a new ZFS NAS, upgrading an unRAID server, or consolidating multiple JBOD enclosures behind a single host bus adapter, this IT-mode HBA provides the performance, compatibility, and stability that storage enthusiasts and home-lab users expect from 12Gb/s SAS3 hardware.