LSI MegaRAID SAS 9265-8i RAID Controller Review

LSI MegaRAID 9265-8i

We're not going to spend a whole lot of time today going on the packaging. Most, if not all, 9265-8i's will be sold over the net.

LSI has information all over the box - front, back and sides.

Everything is packaged well inside with the controller separate from the accessory package.

Speaking of the accessory package, you get two cables, a low profile adapter bracket, several manuals and finally a software disk with drivers and more manuals.

Here we get our first look at the LSI 9265-8i controller. This is a passive cooled controller so you'll want some air flow going to the card. Our sample is currently sitting in an open case with a little breeze coming from a fan mounted around 8 inches away, but the smaller your enclosure, the more air you'll need.

The two SFF-8087 ports, each with four 6Gb/s lanes are at the front of the card. This is a little different than most of the controllers we see with the cables coming off the back. The design let's you use a shorter depth case, but you will be somewhat tight for space when using a 2U enclosure with a vertical PCIe stack.

LSI covered the card with surface mount components; they are just about everywhere with very little surface left open.

A daughter board holds the cache on the back of the card.

Two brackets are included. We used the full height version, but 2U users can easily switch to the half-height bracket.