Correction, don't know why I cannot edit post

The T7920 parts will be used or refurbished as some people say to get that extra dollar!!

I see the system can take to following CPU's

Platinum 8xxx 

Hello,

I think it boils down to how many cores you need to have for your daily tasks, because if the ones you have now are hitting the sweet spot for your tasks, the obvious answer ( from that list ) would be a Gen 2 Gold 6248, that would have practically the same wattage and even a few more cores

Gen 2 xeons are 2 years newer than Gen 1. But they're a bit expensive, too

As for the drives, you need a separate controller if you want to keep the SAS. Separate controller and transform the flexbays to accept sas with a conversion kit

Great, so I can also use Gen 2 CPU's?

Do you have a part number for the SAS controller and conversion kit?

You can also use Gen2 ( systems sold right now have only gen2 as option ), but ideally you should get a later motherboard revision to play safe, if the idea is sourcing a barebone.

For the sas controller... there are 2 models that dell markets for this workstation :

Broadcom MegaRAID® SAS 9440-8i 12Gb/s SAS (6Gb/s SATA) PCIe controller, 8 ports,
Software RAID 0,1,5,10.
Broadcom MegaRAID® SAS 9460-16i 12Gb/s SAS (6Gb/s SATA) ) PCIe controller (4GB cache with Flash
module/Super Cap backup) Hardware RAID 0,1,5,10

This is the video showing how to convert the standard flexbays

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2iGi0FEAgs

But as for the part number of the cable, you can take it from here

https://www.itcreations.com/product/113231

Thanks for the SAS information