The original post: /r/homelab by /u/karnac01 on 2024-09-07 22:59:50.

Hello Homelab community,

I recently purchased Dell R730xd 24SFF with 2 SFF in the back. Each drives are 1.2TB. The plan is to install XCP-NG and run passthru on all 26 SFF drives to TrueNAS VM (maximize storage). Hopefully looking at approx 29TB on ZRAID-2. I also plan to run several other VMs for my Homelab as well. I like to install Pci-e with either dual or quad (preferred) M.2 NVMe drives. One m.2 to boot the XCP-NG OS, and three as datastores for VMs.

For M.2 drives I was thinking 2x 256GB for OS and 2x or more either 1TB or 2TB (using multiple PCiE cards) as datastores for VMs.

My question is has anyone used Dell 6N9RH Ultra Speed Drive Quad NVMe m.2 PCIe x16 Card and what their experience they had using it. Have you used two PCiE cards? Any issues using the card? RAID setup (either hardware or software)?

Also anyone recommend another type card and compatible M2 NVMe drives?

I am also looking for other recommendations setup types. Thanks everyone.