Cost Comparison for Rackmount Solutions
16 or More Bays (as of December 13, 2012)

Technology Comparison

Price Comparison, Tower

Price Comparison, Rackmount

In this comparison of popular storage solutions, SAS Expander enclosure costs are neck-and-neck with SATA Multilane and SAS without expanders, despite being the newer and superior technology. This is because the expander solutions requires less cables, no adapters and less controller ports.

	SAS Expanders	SAS (no expanders)	SATA Multilane	Port Multipliers
	16-bay Rackmount ($2099)	16-bay Rackmount ($1449)	16-bay Rackmount ($1449)	12-bay Rackmount ($800) 4-bay Rackmount ($400)
	LSI 9286-8e ($760) see also: Areca ARC-1882x	LSI 9280-16i4e ($949) see also: Areca ARC-1882ix-16	3ware 9650SE-16ML ($840)	4-Port PCIe ($170)
	16 x Hitachi 2TB ($1680)	16 x Hitachi 2TB ($1680)	16 x Hitachi 2TB ($1680)	16 x Hitachi 2TB ($1680)
	1 x 1m SFF-8088 ($47)	4 x .5m SFF-8087 ($110) 4 x 1m SFF-8088 ($188)	4 x .5m SFF-8087 ($110) 4 x 1m SFF-8088 ($188)	4 x 1m eSATA ($30)
		4 port 8087-8088 ($109)	4 port 8087-8088 ($109)
	$4586.00 total cost	$4485.00 total cost	$4376.00 total cost	$3080.00 total cost
	$286.63 per drive	$280.31 per drive	$273.50 per drive	$192.50 per drive
	$143.31 per TB	$140.16 per TB	$136.75 per TB	$96.25 per TB
SAS Expanders = comparable cost + the latest controllers + potential for expansion

Still have questions about SAS Expanders? PC PitStop has answers.

Cost Comparison for Rackmount Solutions 16 or More Bays (as of December 13, 2012)

SAS Expanders

SAS (no expanders)

SATA Multilane

Port Multipliers

Cost Comparison for Rackmount Solutions
16 or More Bays (as of December 13, 2012)