Intel RAID Controller Card 6G SAS PCI-E x8 8 internal ports (RS2WC080)

Pros: - Easy setup, once you figure out how it is done.
- Supports most RAID levels that you would expect from an LSI card.
- Cheap.

Cons: - Very finicky RAID BIOS. In my situation, it wouldn't go into the BIOS if there was a MBR drive installed. Had to unplug all drives that were not on the controller to even get anything to work. I was using a mouse through a hub; the cursor became inverted and locked up RAID BIOS after a while.

- Documentation is for guys with master degrees in computer engineering.

- No Battery Back Up. And as such, the only cache option is write-through, which is slow as hell. Doesn't let you go full derpy and allow you to select write-back without a battery, which may actually be a pro once i think about it...

- 45~mb/s transfer (with 5 drives in RAID 5, no GHS, write-through cache)

Other Thoughts: This does NOT, in any way, belong in a production frame. Period. This card is for HTPCs that need a good RAID 5 setup, but where a loss in data does not correlate to a loss in profit. There are far too many bells and whistles missing to make this card worth the money. So if you are reading this, and are working in a data center, DON'T DO IT. Better yet, you may want to consider a different profession seeing that you aren't looking at the higher end cards that are designed for what you are doing. Otherwise, consider getting cheaper cards if all you need is extra ports.

Pros: Is is a fantastic SMB server controller. It is the top-of-the-line in entry level controllers from Intel. I have it running 20 drives on Intel expander backplanes and haven't had an issue. Cables are nice and included, which save some money. I got this card for about $150 new from a different seller but recommend it to anyone. DO NOT buy a cheap controller, ever. They are all expensive for a reason, and that is reliability. You get what you pay for in controllers and, for a business in need of developing a road map and starting out in the enterprise server market, this is a great unit to work with. No issues with Server 2k8 HyperV or VMWare ESXi. Haven't used it with Linux so can't speak from that area.

Cons: This is still an entry level card. I would recommend it for small and medium businesses that need centralized storage and use this as a data server controller. The speeds on this card are fairly slow but it works well for what it is.

Other Thoughts: This card IS NOT designed for consumer components (see the P5Q post) You should have a server board that has a SGPIO header to allow correct communication for his card. Of which, consumer motherboards don't...usually. (Workstation will occasionally have one) If you are mistaken as to what this card is or are unsure, DO NOT BUY IT. There is no "quick fix" for incompetent IT people that want an easy RAID solution. YOU need to know what you are doing in order to build the array AND keep it operating. This is not the card to buy if you simply want more drives in your "gaming rig" or desktop computer. Leave this product to to professionals and pick up a cheap rosewill or something.

Pros: This is decent entry level card.. connects well to Intel SAS Expander RES2SV240. I have around 20Tb connected to it in two RAID 5 arrays using 2TB Green Drives. + 2 eggs

Cons: 1. RAID to RAID speed while copying files is low, ~45Mb/sec.. -1 egg
2. Very horrible compatibility - it doesn't work with any Asus boards - P5Q-E, P8P67 Pro, P8H67-M Pro with newest BIOSES. Windows 7 OS boots fine, but adapter displays error message: This device cannot start. (Code 10).
Calls to Intel pointed fingers to Asus, and Asus did the same. Overall - very flaky product: -2 eggs
3. Beware that this card doesn't have Battery Backup Unit option - which means that you can never enable any decent cache: -1 egg

Other Thoughts: Untill Intel and Asus will be at least willing to simulate these issues on Testbed, sticking to other brands, including LSI and Adaptec

Pros: This is a great card for managing 8-drive RAID setups. It was easy to install and configuring everything I needed.

Cons: Had some initial troubles with the card that required a firmware update, but the Intel server board I was using was running an ESI version too low for the command-line flash. I had to install Windows on stand-alone drive, flash the firmware, and then reconfigure the hardware to install Windows a 2nd time. Not the most fun experience in the world, but its behind me now.

Other Thoughts: This is an entry-level card. I installed this card in an Intel server board for use with Windows Home Server. Performance has been solid, and performance has been great for what is basically a file server. I would look for a card with onboard cache if planning on building storage for use with application and database servers.