LSI LSI00144 PCI Express SATA / SAS MegaRAID SAS 8704ELP

Pros: Solid performing card with great features and management tools for the price. LSI (which now owns 3ware) has terrific technical support and has been in the storage controller business for years. I purchased this card to get off of the flaky built-in Intel Storage Matrix controller that came with my motherboard. My avg. read throughput on a 4 disk SATAII RAID 0, went from ~150MBps to 197MBps using HDTune to test. Win 7 support with latest drivers seals the deal.

Cons: 100 bucks for the battery backup unit for this card seems steep, but I have a UPS on my computer so hopefully it wont be an issue. Just know what you are getting into if you dont have a BBU for your write cache. If you have a dirty shutdown you will most likely get corruption on some part of your volume.

Overall Review: I cant wait to install a couple SSDs on this bad boy here in a few months when the prices drop a bit...should really scream.

Pros: Vendor did sent the correct card the first time. Vendor was responsive by phone and email. Vendor paid for 2 RMA shipments to them due to bad/wrong cards being sent out. Vendor says they'll refund my money (not verified yet).

Cons: First card I got was correct, but it failed to post, meaning the card had never been put into a mobo and tested before being sent out. The 2nd card sent wasn't even the correct brand and clearly had QLOGIC written across it, rather than LSI. So I ended up getting a dual ported HBA (2 RJ45 ports). This clearly indicates there is zero quality control at this company.

Overall Review: Yes, I took a risk ordering a used part and it didn't work out, but $25 isn't much of a gamble. I recommend buying from this vendor and buying this type of wares only when you can afford several weeks of delay and it's low risk to your business if it doesn't work out. Even though the vendor failed to deliver a working card, they tried and handled themselves professionally. I'll look them up again when I need to.