3War Internal SATA RAID Controller Card (9500S-8MI)

PROS: OMG fast performance that only gets faster the better the motherboard you throw at it! built like a tank, the card seems to last forever...CONS: This version cards come without cables so you'll shell out another 100$ to get them. All the AMCC/LSI cards that I have tested MUST have the battery backup module to be useful! Don't buy the card without investing in the battery module.Recommended it? YesI have owned the 3ware 9500S-8MI PCI 2.2 w/128MB ram on the card for 6years now, using it in a personal computer/server configured with a 12 terabyte RAID5 (9.57 usable with 8x1.5TB SATA HD's). Using this card for everything (Gaming, internet server, video streaming from PVR, video streaming from camcorders, multiple gigabit data transfers from other computers on a LAN) on only a 32 bit PCI bus, this card is nearly unbeatable. Mind you it runs 100-150$(now 2011Feb), but if you're a small business/high end computer user that can afford the price of a few HD's then this is the card for you! I have even tried break testing the card (Pulled a HD out while reading/writing) and it performed FLAWLESSLY. See other reviews online for benchmarks of the card. They are very accurate to my experience. I average a sustained read/write of 85-90MB/s in RAID5. Also remember that if you are using a true 64bit PCI interface, such as on a AMD Opteron based Motherboard, then the card runs about 45-60% faster! If you are running a 64bit OS you can turn off autocarving and manually format it to a solid multi-terabyte disk for Windows. This card will work with up to Windows 7, as long as you are using the 9.5.2 or 9.5.3 drivers.I have just upgraded to a used AMCC 9650SE-12 channel card (approx 450$) and if you can afford the price differential I recommend it even MORE so highly. I has all the same features, plus a whole slew more that truly make it a marvel to work with. The feature set is too extensive to get into here, but note the newer card is dramatically faster and more user friendly.