The LSI MegaRAID SAS 9280-16i4e provides a new level of system reliability, availability, and performance for businesses that are facing storage challenges driven by unprecedented data growth. Offering data transfer rates of up to 6Gb/s per port, this controller card ensures complete investment protection for existing SATA and SAS implementations. 6Gb/s SAS is designed for backward compatibility with 3Gb/s SAS as well as with 3Gb/s SATA hard drives. In addition to the internal ports, this controller comes equipped with external SAS ports which perfectly support external JBOD expansion, allowing you to connect multiple JBODs to server for a scalable and affordable solution to the growing storage requirements. Regardless of the drive speed, 6Gb/s LSI MegaRAID SAS 9280-16i4e can deliver up to twice the performance level in both read and write applications as compared to their 3Gb/s predecessors.
Support Up to 240 SATA and/or SAS DevicesThe LSI 9280-16i4e SGL features hot-pluggable, SATA-compatible SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) ports to provide 6Gb/s data transfer rates for optimum performance, efficiency, convenience and flexibility.
RAID SupportThe LSI 9280-16i4e SGL supports multi-level RAID configuration including RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and RAID spans 10, 50, 60 for better performance, enhanced data security and flexible capacity upgrades.
512MB On-board MemoryThe LSI 9280-16i4e SGL features 512MB on-board DDR2 800 SDRAM for maximum data integrity.
PCI Express 2.0 x8 InterfaceThe LSI 9280-16i4e SGL features the PCI Express 2.0 x8 interface which provides sufficient throughput and full-duplex operation for enhanced performance.
SafeStore Encryption ServicesThe advanced SafeStore Encryption Services protect your confidential data against unauthorized access.
SSD Support with SSD GuardThe support for SSD allows for higher data transfer speed, and the SSD guard delivers increased durability and reliability, prolonging the SSD’s lifespan and providing maximum data security.
Pros: Works. 6 Gb/s SATA. Good drive status info and good performance with low system overhead. Painless setup and config.
Cons: Haven't figured out how to run the server part of MegaRAID Storage Manager software on Hyper-V only O/S, so it requires a full server or client host O/S. Command-line interface works, though. Cheapskate nickel-and-dime add-on licenses for SSD caching and other features. Not compatible with my SSDs perhaps because I haven't purchased the add-on licenses.
Overall Review: Running on an old D955XBK / Pentium D940 as a WHS w/ 8 x WD2003FYYS and soon adding 4 x WD1500EARS. This replaced using 2x soft RAID 5 and I couldn't be happier. Instead of repeated BSODs and useless messages from Windows, I got "Drive X failed", and was able to replace, rebuild array, and carry on. Rebuilding a 4x 2TB RAID 5 array took 5-6 hours, vs. 30 with Windows. Cross-array file copies are > 180 MB/s in some cases, keeping in mind that the server platform is old PCIe 1.0/1.1 x4 = 1 GB/s max I think.