Packaging

I've been reviewing Areca's products for a very long time now, all the way back to the IDE days and the product packaging hasn't really changed that much over the years.

Areca does a really good job of listing the specifications and features on the back of their products. This particular package design is used for the three models at the lower end of the scale with embedded SDRAM.

I'm not sure how many brick and mortar retail shops carry Areca products, but in a retail environment, you can see which model is in the package by the circles on the top of the package, one is usually colored in.

Or you can just look at the other end of the box where a label shows the model number, BIOS of the card in the box and what firmware revision is flashed. Simple enough, I'd say.

Inside the box everything is packaged well with the main card tucked deep inside open cell foam.

Areca includes a paper manual, driver/software disk, low profile adapter bracket and two SFF-8087 to SF-8087 cables.

Areca calls their manual a "Quick" Installation Guide, but this is one of the best manuals included with any RAID controller. You can sit down and read for an hour or more before just realizing that hands on experience is the way to go. The manual is very good, though.