Pros: Very fast array creation and initialization. SATA 6Gb/s and SAS 12Gb/s interface capability. Will happily confirm the array integrity after a sudden power loss, unfortunately had to do it a few times before I broke down and bought the LSICVM02 addon kit, another $200. Read and write speeds are pretty amazing on this controller and the rated I/O performance feels like it's there. SSD Guard feature ensures that TRIM is monitored and maintained.

Cons: LSI has a tendency to nickle and dime their customers to death. The card is $589. If you want the security of array integrity in the event of a power/hardware failure that's will require the BU and CacheVault units, another $200. The battery requires that you ALSO purchase a PCI slot mounting card for it to reside in (BBU-Bracket-05). I said bump that and zip-tied the battery to the back of the server case. If you want to utilize any of the "advanced" software configurations in the MegaRAID Utility that will cost you even more. I never checked how much cause I was over it at that point.

Overall Review: I'm using this controller in a Dell Poweredge R710. The array is RAID 5 and consists of 5-Samsung 840Pro 256GB SSDs. I am running HyperV Server 2012r2 on that array and it is hosting 10 Windows server VMs. Everything runs great.

Pros: Purpose built drive with specific NAS applications in mind. SATA3 interface with a healthy 64MB of cache and a swanky red and white label.

Cons: D to the O to the A! I bought 5 of these drives to build a new freenas box for work. Two of the five drives worked. Two! No matter which way you slice it that's a hella bad failure rate. All of the drives were manufactured on September 3rd of this year. I have requested a refund on these drives so I can order some Seagates. I simply will not trust my reputation on the job to a drive with this high of a DOA rate.

Overall Review: As I was writing this review I had one of the "working" drives running a quick SMART test in parted magic and it failed with incorrectable errors. So make that 4 out of 5 that failed. I won't bother to test the 5th