I run the 2.5-inch versions of R730’s in production with built-in 10GbE networking. Still supported using ESXi/vSphere 7 but migrating to Proxmox with no issues. If going to use ZFS/Ceph, delete any virtual disks first otherwise the PERC disk controller will not find any disks when you configure it in HBA mode.

Just make sure to update the firmware to latest version. When updating the iDRAC, update it incrementally otherwise it may brick. Meaning, do NOT go from current version to latest version. Do it step by step.

I’m guessing 2.5" SATA HDDs for laptops?

Most reliable has been Hitachi.

I do use 2.5" SAS drives in production and you guessed it, Hitachi is the most reliable.

This.

It’s a nice switch. Was an upgrade from a Zyxel.

For new, Supermicro has motherboards with embedded CPU and optionally 10GbE and SAS controller. Running a Xeon-D 25W CPU with SAS with no issues.

Configurator at wiredzone.com

Yes it is.

Use to run Arch Linux with ext4. Now run FreeBSD with ZFS.

Still using Xeon-E5 v3/4 CPUs in production. No issues.

/r/homelabsales

Brocade or MikroTik. MikroTik still the cheapest new as well.

OPNSense. No issues.

I know you only looking at Gigabyte/ASRock but may want to look at Supermicro. Built-in IPMI and optional 10GbE & SAS built-in. Configurator at wiredzone.com

Motherboard form-factors from mini-ATX to full ATX.

Hardware RAID is Dead

Should be using software-defined storage, like ZFS. Provides snapshots, rollbacks, compression, and optionally deduplication and encryption. ZFS is both a filesystem and volume manager. Good stuff.