LSI MEGARAID 9265-8I 

The MegaRAID 9265-8i arrived inside a similar box like their previous 9260 models at the front of which we see a product picture and several small icons referring to the main product features/usages.

A features list is placed at the right side.

The product specifications are available over at the left side.

At the rear of the box LSI explains what the MegaRAID family of controllers is and their capabilities.

The card is safely placed inside a formed piece of cardboard.

Aside the 9265-8i controller card the box also contains a low-profile PCI bracket, two mini-SAS to SATA cables, two quick installation guides and the software CD.

The MegaRAID 9265-8i requires to be installed in an PCIe 8x slot and measures 168mm in length.

The main difference between the previous 9260 family and the 9265 is the extra board placed at the rear to house the larger cache.

The dual core ROC 800MHz processor is right beneath this heatsink.

The two SFF8087 internal connectors allow you to hook up to 8 SATA/SAS drives directly and up to 128 drives by using an extra expander.

As you can see the PCI bracket (both of the bundled ones actually) is perforated to allow hot air to exit from the case.

We also got a Fastpath hardware key to use with the 9265-8i in order to see what performance gains one can see by paying an small premium.

Installation is very easy you just need to mount the key on the two pins placed right beneath the SFF8087 connectors. Unfortunately due to a somewhat obvious incompatibility with our main rig or the Kingston drives we used for testing we were unable to successfully test Fastpath (no matter what we did the card just wouldn't recognize all 8 drives with the key installed).