Verdict And Conclusion
I have used LSI products in mission critical situations for at least a decade. The performance of their products has always been top notch along with their support. This leaves no questions in my mind when it comes to being able to rely on something. Not to mention in being confident that solutions I provide will do what it says no questions asked.
Its very rare that I end up with a piece of hardware that surprises me to this degree. Its not abnormal for hardware to best your expectations somewhat. However when the performance of a piece of hardware is strong enough to really show the lack of performance in the platform its connected to. To me this is really impressive.
Outside the general performance the amount of configuration choices is vast. The hardware and software accessories further the capabilities of this hardware. Allowing you to grow into hardware in some situations.
The Price for this card is along that lines of what you would expect to see for workstation and server grade hardware. Though the numbers add up quite quickly. The card itself in kit form currently costs $690, single card generally lists for around the same. So its worth buying the correct kit form of the card so you can avoid the additional cable cost. To add on the CacheVault Accessory kit its another $255. If you plan on putting the power pack in a card slot its another $35. Now for the software licences CacheCade Pro costs $270. MegaRaid FastPath costs $165 and includes a hardware key to be installed on the card, in physical form. This brings the grand total for the this card under the configuration used for this review to $1,415.
While price wise this is high for most enthusiast users. If your break it down to just the card which would be more than enough for most gamers and overclockers. Then its does become an option for a top end setup. While some functionality is lost, the biggest being the advantage from the BBU/CacheVault kit. The essential data protection functionality will still be intact. With only marginal performance decrease, depending on paired hardware.
Pros
- high reliability
- low latency
- easy to use software management
- large cache
- Remote management
- highly customizeable settings
- Health monitoring and failure notification
- Easy to install addon’s
Cons
- WebBIOS is not very user friendly when used for reconfiguration
- Documentation for hardware key for this card missing
- Some features require additional software liscences
Final Words. When it comes down to a verdict on this cards theres are two.
If your looking for a good strong card for SandyBridge E workstations and servers. There is no question that this card is something you should consider. Even in its most basic form. That is really the best partner for this hardware.
If your looking at this card for a SandyBridge or IvyBridge desktop setup its a little less straight forward. While Ivy Bridge will benefit more from it than SandyBridge will. This card almost feels like to much for most applications in these systems. Not that this is a bad thing. If your planning on upgrading in the near future and it fits your needs. Than I would say yes go for it. However there isn’t any plans for an upgrade to something that can make good utilization of it. I just don’t feel like this is the best solution. Mostly since you just wont be able to appreciate the true performance of this product. Don’t let this deter you though if your looking for something purely for data protection. As there is no doubt that your data is well protected with this controller.
So for a final score I am giving it a 9.7/10 rating. There is no doubt I would recommend this card in situations fitting of it. If this card isn’t what your looking for target market wise. LSI does offer a broad range of other controllers that may better suit your what looking for both price wise and feature wise.
SCORE
9.7/10
