LSI MegaRAID Internal Low-Power SATA/SAS 9261-8i 6Gb/s PCI-Express 2.0 w/ 512MB onboard memory RAID Controller Card, Single

Pros: I've had this HBA running a 7-drive RAID 6 array of WD RE4 drives in a Xen host running OpenSUSE (12.1 currently) for 1.5 years. It's been stable and trouble-free throughout on a decidedly non-server class MBA (MSI 890GXM-G65).

Cons: -1 egg because LSI took unreasonably long - until April 2012 - to release management tools compatible with the 3.0 linux kernel (it worked without issue but couldn't be monitored in the interim). Battery backup units, without which performance defaults to painfully slow write-through, cost ~$150 and last around a year.

Other Thoughts: Bought this HBA after ones from Areca (ARC-1680IX-8) and Highpoint (4310?) proved unstable.

Pros: load windows without drivers the win 7 boot cd sees the card
witch is great

Cons: a lot of trouble with ssd drives in raid 0 boot drives keep dropping out with lost config from raid only seems to work with kingston ssd best

Other Thoughts: i called lsi they say this will not work with Crucial m4 confirmed dont work with this card that cost a lot of money
ps marvel controlers will not work with this samsung ssd will not work too this is a shame who is to blame here

Pros: This is of course a good card. I have 2 servers running this card and everything is working good.

Cons: You might be buying this card because of the 9260i-8 and its different connector location. Beware, this card DOES NOT support audible alerts. The 9260i card (both -4 and -8) support this feature but I think they left the speaker off the 9261i-8. Had to get confirmation from LSI because I find this really hard to believe. This is a 500$+ card and does not have audible alerts, but its cousin does.

Pros: - Very fast read speeds sustained well above 1GB/sec.
- Very fast initial RAID 6 array configuration and initialization.
- no fan makes it silent... but... (see cons)
- Works with consumer level drives. At least the ones I tested.

Cons: - VERY slow sustained write speeds. Even slower than a single drive alone. Seeing right around 70MB/sec sustained writes (without caching on with no BBU).
- VERY slow migration to add drives to the array. Longest one took 97 hours using bios-level migration.
- External server email support is NOT in the windows version of the LSI software. Shawn Matthewson from LSI Customer Service said: "I am currently working on a way to use MSM with web based mail." on 7, April. But I have not heard since. To use SMTP email right now, you need your own, 'local' SMTP server.
- Software far more complicated then it needs to be.
- All of the best features require another license. The FastPath, etc. RAID 6 did work without the license though but... Alarms don't. For this price, that should all be included... Bad enough the BBU is extra.
- Without a fan, gets VERY HOT! Good ventilation is REQUIRED.

Other Thoughts: Using: 8x 2TB 'green' class consumer 5400RPM drives in a RAID 6 array 12TB (10.9TB Usable)
- 3x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI
- 5x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3EG HD203WI
- Windows 7 64-bit, NTFS GPT

This system streams large files to multiple computers. Write speed wasn't important for me and the read speed is phenomenal. With performance drives, I can only imagine. However the slower-then-single write speed gives me pause. I have the 3ware sister card to this one in another system without this particular issue. Curious.

I got this on a very good sale. But otherwise it may not have been my choice. For what I need it for though; it's working fine. Hopefully working with Customer Service and their programming department may pay off in the long run (for everyone). Or I'll switch to some flavor of Linux (was my initial plan anyhow actually but... used existing server instead...)

All in all; nice card, but not what it can be. I gave three stars.

Pros: I have used a number of the MegaRAID controllers mostly with SATA drives but some SAS. They work well. I've tried them with a number of motherboards and have had no compatibility issues. Systems have been running Windows 7 Pro and Windows Server 2008 R2. Motherboards from ASRock, ASUS, MSI.

Cons: none

Other Thoughts: For my application (analyzing 1200 to 14000 microscope images in a single run) I have found that using WD VelociRaptor 600g 6gps (10000 rpm) can be measured at about 92% of the speed I get from more expensive 15000 rpm SAS drives.

Pros: When it works, it’s fantastic. Great read and write speeds with RAID 5.

Cons: I’ve had this card in four different motherboards trying to find a good match.

Other Thoughts: First motherboard was an Intel G41 chipset board. It worked in that board, but since the PCI-e slots were only 1.1 the speed was not up to what it could be.

The second board was an Intel G55 chipset board. In this board it would work fine up until you hit the RAID stripe size, then it would jump randomly from huge read speeds to almost nothing. It seems that all P/H55 chipsets only run at half the PCI-e spec. This causes major problems with this card.

The third board was an Intel H67 chipset. The motherboard would not even post with the LSI card in. Stay far away from H/P67 chipsets and any RAID cards.

The fourth (and final) motherboard I’m trying is actually one on the compatibility list. SUPERMICRO MBD-X8STE-O I have high hopes for success with this board.

My advice, be very careful what motherboard you pair this card with.

Pros: - Great linux support
- Amazing I/O
- Works great with LSIiBBU07 Battery Backup

Cons: - Windows installation would only recognize my Cheetah 15.7k drives as 10k drives... throughput seemed to reflect a drive bottle neck perhaps

Other Thoughts: Used in a virtual cluster after poor linux support from a pair of Acrea cards. We miss the ethernet interface from the Acreas, but then again, we love that these actually work.

Pros: Exceptional speed for RAID6. Excellent SSD RAID performance even improving connected SATA II SSDs.

Cons: Had it in 3 systems. Causes lots of problems if you want to boot from it. I had 2 virtual drives and if any USB or eSATA mass storage device was plugged in it would fail to find the boot volume. Windows Backup cannot bare metal restore to it at all. Card runs extremely hot with the battery attached even in a wide open case. At higher temps the battery stops working. BIOS level config tool is counterintuitive and is missing options.

Other Thoughts: Not worth the money. Plenty of other cards could run 8 SATA cables at high speed and would be easier to deal with for hundreds less. I regret buying it.

Pros: We purchased this card because it supports SSD drives. Created a RAID 6, with 6 SSD 30GB, Vertex Turbo drives. The system runs extremely fast.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: One advantage this card has, the SAS/SATA micro port attachments are on the back of the card. For our server, that was the best card, as the built in cables from the server, were not very long, to get a card that has short cable.
Our unit was a 1U, SuperMicro 1026T-URF sold here.

The card does not come with cables, so if you get it, make sure you get the micro SAS/SATA cables required.

We used this on a SuperMicro 1026t-UR server, which comes with the server, so all worked well.