Specifications, Pricing and Availability

Sorry for the massive image for the specification sheet. Areca didn't have the new Gen 3 list on their website at the time of writing so we weren't able to grab a screenshot of a web friendly specification list. Areca did send us their new Gen 3 product brochure in a PDF and that is where the specs came from.

From the specs we see that the ARC-1882i and the ARC-1882i Version 3 are nearly identical. Both use LSI dual-core RAID-on-Chip (ROC) 800MHz processors and pair them with onboard DDR3-1333 SDRAM with ECC. The main difference between the first generation and this new, dubbed 3rd generation is the processors ability to use PCIe 3.0's increased bandwidth.

Areca has six new models in their Gen 3 line up, just like before and all get the PCIe 3.0 makeover. In this collection we find everything from eight channel internal (like the model we're testing today) to 24 channel internal with four channel external ports (ARC-1882ix-24). The entire product line can be further divided, the three cards at the lower end use onboard SDRAM and the three at the higher end of the scale ship with a removable 1GB DIMM that can be upgraded to 4GB.

While every enthusiast and power user out there is already making plans for a purchase, we need to point out this product is first and foremost an enterprise class RAID controller. RAID levels 0,1,10 (1E), 3, 5, 6, 30, 50, 60 and even JBOD are supported. Today we'll take a look at the ARC-1882i through our standard consumer review glasses and then send this card over to Paul who will then breakdown the true enterprise performance.

Online we managed to find the original ARC-1882i for as low as $600. Newegg has this model for $650, but the new Gen 3 PCIe 3.0 version is not available at the time of writing. At $600 the ARC-1882i PCIe 2.0 is an amazing deal and we hope the Gen 3 model will slide right in at that price point. Realistically we expect to see the new Gen 3 launch closer to $750 and stay there for at least a couple of weeks. At this time we don't have any official statements about the retail price and are just looking at previous product launches as a guide.