28 - 03 - 2024
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CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

megaraid 9271 8ib

   Some of you may wonder why we decided to test the MegaRAID 9271-8i an 6Gb/s solution instead of shifting our focus in testing the latest 12Gb/s SAS/SATA RAID controllers and the answer is actually very simple. You see aside the fact that the available 12Gb/s cards and drives out there are the very first attempts/models and thus performance will get a lot better sooner rather than later there's also the price issue and so currently such solutions are quite a bit more expensive than 6Gb/s ones (especially the drives) and certainly not suited for regular consumers. Naturally we will focus in 12Gb/s solutions quite soon but for now we just wanted to show that a very good 6Gb/s SATA/SAS RAID controller still packs quite a punch. Back to our review it's been over a year since we tested the MegaRAID 9265-8i 6Gb/s 8 port SATA+SAS RAID Controller so when we finally received the 9271-8i model several months ago we had very high expectations from it. Well after wrapping up all of our tests I’m sure it's very easy to see that although the 9271-8i outperformed the competition in most tests its performance didn't really blow us away. Certainly since both the 9265-8 and the 9271-8i use the same LSISAS2208 Dual-Core RAID on Chip (800MHz PowerPC) and the same 1GB 1333MHz ECC DDRIII SDRAM we didn’t expect miracles. On the other hand however keep in mind that if a card can perform so much better than others in single drive mode then in RAID configurations that gap will only grow larger. That being said perhaps what i personally liked most with the new 9271-8i was the lack of an extra PCB for extra cache something which should keep the card cooler and help avoid any overheating issues.

 

   Enterprise-grade devices never come cheap but they do offer more in terms of performance, features and reliability and so with a current price tag set at USD532.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 530Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) as we speak the latest LSI MegaRAID 9271-8i 6Gb/s 8 port SATA+SAS RAID Controller is certainly not ment for everyone. However for professionals who are not yet willing to take the large step towards 12Gb/s solutions either because the standard is still fresh and expensive or because they already happen to have 6Gb/s drives the 9271-8i is a very powerful option with many features and the level of quality and support only LSI can offer. Because of all of the above we think it's only natural for the LSI MegaRAID 9271-8i 6Gb/s 8 port SATA+SAS RAID Controller to walk away with our Platinum Award.

platinumPROS

- Quality
- PCIe 8x 3.0
- Excellent Performance
- Dual SFF8087 Internal Side Connectors (8 ports)
- Up To 128 Drives (Via Expander)
- Low Profile
- SATA+SAS 6Gb/s
- RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50/60
- Support For Cascade Pro and Fastpath Software
- Support For CacheVault Kit
 

 


CONS

- Price (For Some)