LSI MegaRAID SATA/SAS 9280-8e 6Gb/s PCI-Express 2.0 w/ 512MB onboard memory RAID Controller Card, Single

Pros: The card was automaticly support by WHS 2011. The drivers automaticly installed so you could not get any more plug in play than that. The bios webgui made setting up this card a breeze. It only took about 5 mins to setup the raid and most that time was clicking on the drives and adding them to the raid. This card works flawlessly with the Habey Enclosure.

Cons: None at all

Other Thoughts: If you are doing a media server do not cheap out. Performance is the key to being able to stream full quality HD video to multiple locations:) And when you are reaching 13TB and more a good raid card is a must.

Pros: Excellent performance--I have this card running an 8x 2TB hdd RAID 50 array. It gets sequential read speeds of over 400MB/s. Some sequential reads and writes are faster than my RevoDrive. The software for RAID setup is very nice, and Windows 7 automatically installed the needed drivers.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: This version is more expensive than the card with internal connectors, but if you plan on setting up an external RAID array, the extra cables and connectors needed cancel out any savings.

When getting a RAID card, you are paying for performance and driver support. Don't cheap out, LSI cards and drivers are the best.