There was a $700 price differenceSo, 3 SSDs + 1 spinning disk Rambo mounted style then 24 drives in the real bays?
Real clean and tight installation.
"namely the single SATA plug each instead of an expander connector"
Why did you opt for a controller that required the per channel cable instead of the expander connector?
3.5" mounted on its side is just the OS drive. The OS drive will be hit so rarely that it didn't really matter.
Francisco