THE MEGARAID 9271-8I

The MegaRAID 9271-8i doesn't use an extra PCB for its cache like the 9265-8i did so it's not only smaller and thus can be installed easier but should also be quite cooler.

A large silver aluminum heatsink is placed almost at the center of the card.

The optional CacheVault Accessory kit (Lithium-ION battery backup alternative by LSI) gets plugged into this port. The CacheVault Technology basically copies cached data from the DRAM cache to the Flash in the event of a power or server failure and keeps it there until it comes back online at which point it restores them back to the DRAM cache.

Under the large heatsink we once again find the LSI2208 RAID controller by LSI featuring support for both SAS 2 and SATA III at 6.0Gb/s.

Unlike the 9265-8 the 9271-8i has two 4-port Mini-SAS SFF8087 internal connectors facing on the interior (side) something which is especially useful for rackmount servers (for us it's a lot more convenient compared to vertical ones regardless of case type).

Both the standard and low-profile brackets are perforated to allow hot air to exit the interior faster.

Here we have the lineup for this review from the quite old MegaRAID 9260-4i, 9265-8i, Areca ARC-1882i and up to the latest 9271-8i.