Pros: When it works, it works great. Care must be taken in the setup of the initial HDD array first. There are Youtube videos on how to setup the Cachecade properly. Watch them first or you will risk blowing out your install.

Cons: I downloaded the Oct 2014 PDF of certified SSDs that LSI endorses for the use of Cachecade; however, many of them are very high priced and since 2014 are no longer available due to the fast moving SSD brands and flavors available. I tried the Samsung 850 EVO with the latest firmware (2.x ending in 3835) and MSM (ver 15); and when the SSD Virtual Drive is enabled fir use as a Cachecade drive, it immediately generates a series of log entries -- error 113 'unexpected sense PD {drive number} CDB = followed by a bunch of numbers' A call to LSI Tech Support was very helpful. The advice was to work solely off of the hardware compatibility list - but in the absence of that, the support-guy recommended the Samsung 840 EVO (which is no longer for sale in most stores) or the Samsung 840 EVO PRO. So I have ordered 2 of them for testing. Support also said that the CDB errors are responsive in nature and that the controller is logging that its commands to the drive are not working. Hence, this explains why after enabling the SSD as a Cachecade the Windows 2008R2 server freezes when opening Windows Explorer the file manager, or crashes. In the meantime, these other drives have been tested and DO NOT WORK generating the same CDB errors after being enabled on the controller.-- AMD Radeon SSD R7 series (Radeon-R7SSD-240G) Patriot Blaze PB240GS25SSDR P-1520SD PE000341 SANDISK Ultra II SDSSDHII-240G PNY CL4100 Series SSD7SC240GCL4 240GB SATA III Again - check the Mfr Hardware Compatibility List FIRST when choosing your SSDs

Pros: Enables the use of SSD's in an either RAID 1 or RAID 0 mode to act as a optimization, cache. It's not a replacement for the battery backup unit.

Cons: LSI has all these "add-on's" that are nickle and dime-ing customers to death. The Battery Backup Unit (BBU) is separate and must be replaced annually, the cachecade feature is another add-on, and wait, there's more -- if you want to do recovery, you need to buy the LSI00246 part "MegaRAID Recovery Software". I mean really, this should all be part of the cost of the card. It's like they got their pricing model from car dealerships it's so slimy.

Overall Review: Works great, so far it appears to have improved performance quite a bit. Now the bottleneck is the network, not the SAN/RAID.

Pros: Works as expected on correct raid controllers

Cons: None.

Overall Review: Be sure to purchase the hardware key if your LSI controller has the port for it, there is a software license from LSI if you have a more modern card like the 9261. Newegg does not carry the part number. I had to source from CDEW.

Pros: None currently

Cons: Make sure you get the correct key. For some reason newegg only carries one of three different keys made for different models and then will change you restocking fees if you get the wrong one.