Pros: * Firmware update from within Linux * sasflash -o -f (firmware).fw -b (bios).rom ; If you are unsure run this w/o the o and it will only helpfully tell you if the firmware blob matches the base hardware, but not flash it if the vendor doesn't match. * Low cost per port. * EFI 'bios' support exists if I later want to use it. * Quality hardware with good driver support for the operating systems I'm likely to use.

Cons: * PCI-e 1.x not 2.x, you'll want a slot with 8x data lanes enabled

Overall Review: The single egg is -0.5 eggs for the older PCI standard (I knew what I was buying, it was still worth it in my case), and -0.5 for the sasflash program giving me nearly everything I needed to know, but not hinting at using -o to bypass the one check that failed.

Pros: Drive was a great value both times I bought them.

Cons: Firmware patch utility seems to fail on all my AMD systems. 32-bit Athlon with an add in SATA card (SILIMAGE 3512 finds the drive, complains: system supports ATA command only, then rejects the drive); and all my AMD-64 systems (strange Hi, I'm exception 000E at 0800:0001845 !). Only a borrowed Intel-chipset + processor system was able to run their firmware patch utility to fix the known corruption issue. Additionally even when successfully patched, the firmware version remains the same; there's no way of telling if the drive is patched w/o pulling the drive and re-running the patch.

Overall Review: The firmware patch requires dos-mode; it'd be nice if they packaged it in a freedos image, or offered a full firmware image that could be flashed via something like hdparm.

Pros: Seems like it would fit, the fan worked on an external hard disk supply with a spare 3 pin fan adapter.

Cons: Factory supplied 'warning' sticker on bottom of CPU, attached with ADHESIVE (instead of using a closed cell plastic and applying it with just vacuum) ** Shipped without LGA 1156 / 1150 backplate. ** I literally cannot properly install this as it is about 3-5 MM too tall to fit inside the 1U enclosure I purchased.

Overall Review: Am I supposed to RMA this (not all parts included) heatsink now? I didn't see a fitting option to have just the missing components sent.