PCIe SAS RAID card comparison

This table compares the main features of PCI Express™ (PCIe) SAS RAID cards.

Table 1. PCIe SAS RAID controller cards
CCIN (custom card identification number)	57B7	57B9	57BA	57B3	574E
Description	PCIe x1 Auxiliary Cache Adapter	PCIe x8 Ext Dual-x4 3 Gb SAS Adapter and Cable Card	PCIe x8 Ext Dual-x4 3 Gb SAS Adapter and Cable Card	PCIe x8 Ext Dual-x4 3 Gb SAS Adapter	PCIe x8 Ext Dual-x4 3 Gb SAS RAID Adapter
Form factor	Planar Auxiliary Cache	Combination PCIe x8 and Cable Card	Combination PCIe x8 and Cable Card	PCIe x8	PCIe x8
Adapter failing function code LED value	2504	2D0B	2D0B	2516	2518
Physical links	2	4 (bottom mini-SAS 4x connector required to connect by an external AI cable to the top mini-SAS 4x Cable Card connector)	8 (two mini SAS 4x connectors, one required to connect by an external AI cable to the top mini-SAS 4x Cable Card connector)	8 (two mini SAS 4x connectors)	8 (two mini SAS 4x connectors)
RAID levels supported		RAID 0, 5¹, 6¹, 10	RAID 0, 5¹, 6¹, 10	RAID 0, 5¹, 6¹, 10	RAID 0, 5, 6, 10
Write cache size	175 MB				380 MB
Read cache size
Cache battery pack technology	LiIon				LiIon
Cache battery pack FFC	2D05				2D0E
Cache battery concurrent maintenance	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Cache data present LED	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Removable cache card	No	No	No	No	Yes
Auxiliary write cache (AWC) support	Yes	No	No	No	No
High availability (HA) two system RAID	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
HA two system JBOD	No	No	No	Yes	No
HA single system RAID	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Requires HA RAID configuration	No	No	No	No	Yes
¹ The write performance of RAID 5 and RAID 6 might be poor on adapters that do not provide write cache. Consider using an adapter that provides write cache when using RAID 5 or RAID 6.

Figure 1. CCIN 57B7 Planar auxiliary cache

Figure 2. CCIN 57B9 PCIe x8 Ext Dual-x4 3 Gb SAS adapter and cable card

Figure 3. CCIN 57BA PCIe x8 Ext Dual-x4 3 Gb SAS adapter and cable card

Figure 4. CCIN 57B3 PCIe x8 Ext Dual-x4 3 Gb SAS adapter

Figure 5. CCIN 574E PCIe x8 Ext Dual-x4 3 Gb SAS RAID adapter