Pros: Potential for high bandwidth with collection of SSD's. Eight ports allow for options. SFF-8087 connectors/cables reduce cable clutter. Seems stable

Cons: Somewhat of a challenge with non-server, non-workstation uefi motherboards. I wanted to flash to IR firmware, which requires booting into dos, which my motherboard (Asus p8z77-v le plus) does not support (seems legacy bios option is gone with recent bios update). LSI does not (as of August 2012) support EFI Shell version of sas2flash, so that wasn't an option either. Ended up building a computer from spare parts with an older motherboard to flash the card. I also found that in my case it was not possible to enter the card bios with a usb keyboard, worked fine with ps2 thankfully. The card seems to run very warm, though I'm not sure how warm as MSM is not reporting chip temp. The card has also tripled boot time. I am sure many of these issues are related to running it on a consumer board. Also, in IR mode, it only supports up to 2 raid volumes.

Pros: Seems well made. Allows for high density/high bandwidth storage. LED's are not too bright. Fan can be adjusted or turned off for SSD's. Very easy drive access.

Cons: Doesn't include 15pin SATA to molex adapters listed in description (not listed in package contents list either, though box says "device power: 15pin SATA power x 2)" Strange. You cannot really use 90degree SATA cables because of connector spacing. Drive activity lights don't work in conjunction with my LSI HBA. The screws for mounting the device in the computer case are way too short, you will most likely need to find your own screws, though if they protrude even a small amount into the cage, they will interfere with the drives.