LSI Logic LSI00330 MegaRAID SAS 9271-8i 8Port 6Gb/s PCI Express 3.0 1GB DDR3 Single Controller Card

I ordered the MegaRAID SAS 9271-8i card for the following configuration to run ESXi 6.5 Update 1:AMD Ryzen 7 1800XGIGABYTE GA-AB350M-Gaming 3Ballistix Sport LT 64GB Kit (16GBx4) DDR44 x Crucial MX300 1TB CT1050MX300SSD1 (RAID10)2 x Seagate 4TB IronWolf ST4000VN008 (RAID1)2 x Seagate 2TB FireCuda SSHD ST2000DX002 (RAID1)Corsair AX Series, AX760Fractal Design Define R5Intel PRO/1000 Pt Dual Port-The short story-The card hit firmware errors out of the box. After two attempts at a firmware update I was able to get the card functioning for about four hours before it hit firmware faults and causing datastores to hang. I still have some hair left on my head. It runs hot!Pros:*ESXi compatibilityCons:*Unfortunately I seem to have received a bad card*Runs at approximately 90C in a Fractal Design Define R5 with no obstruction to airflow. I had to point a 120mm side fan directly at the card to get load tempurates to 55C.*Bundled and updated firmware was faulty-The long story-Out of the box, the firmware loaded on the 9271-8i card produced the following error approximately three out of every five boots after POST:F/W is in Fault State - MFI Register State 0xFFFFFFFFF/W has indicated system reset is required. System will reboot now.I was able to gain access to the RAID configuration after a reboot that did not show the error. However, the errors continued at the ~3/5 rate.After setting up my desired RAID configuration and installing ESXi 6.5 Update 1, and starting a handful of virtual machines (one to three in this case), the datastores become completely unresponsive.The vmkernel.log, located at /var/log/vmkernel.log, showed a very similar error to the firmware errors at boot time:time cpu6:65768)lsi_mr3: fusionCompletionBH:2697: Firmware in fault state.time cpu6:65768)WARNING: lsi_mr3: fusionWaitForOutstanding:2912: megasas: Found FW in FAULT state, will reset adapter.time cpu6:65768)WARNING: lsi_mr3: fusionReset:2992: megaraid_sas: resetting fusion adapter. mandateOCR flag 0x0......time cpu6:66359)HBX: 2958: 'IronWolf_RAID1': HB at offset 3440640 - Waiting for timed out HB:time cpu6:66359) [HB state abcdef02 offset 3440640 gen 95 stampUS 2806790704 uuid 0 jrnl drv 24.81 lockImpl 3 ip 0.0.0.0]time cpu1:68044)HBX: 2958: 'MX300_RAID10': HB at offset 3440640 - Waiting for timed out HB:time cpu1:68044) [HB state abcdef02 offset 3440640 gen 225 stampUS 2806790683 uuid 0 jrnl drv 24.81 lockImpl 3 ip 10.0.0.0]At this point, and in retrospect before these logs, it was pretty clear the RAID card was not ready for show time.I updated the firmware to the most recent version as of this review using FreeDOS and MegaCLI:Driver name and version:scsi-megaraid-sas 6.610.15.00-1OEM.600.0.0.2494585Controller Firmware Package: 24.12.0-0019ESXi Driver Used for 9271-8i:*Release: ESXi 6.5 U1*Device Driver(s): scsi-megaraid-sas version 6.610.15.00-1OEM*Firmware Version: 3.460.115-6465*Type: Partner Async, vmklinux(ESXi Compatibile drivers can be found using the VMware Compatibility Guide)After the firmware update the firmware fault error persisted as well as the ESXi behavior and logs.I tried the card in a second workstation to eliminate compatibility and hardware issues and the error persisted.I booted into a Windows 10 installation on the second workstation's bare metal and performed a firmware update using the Latest MegaRAID Storage Manager (MSM). In this case it was not an upgrade but to the same firmware version.After the firmware update I rebooted the machine 10-12 times and the error did NOT persist.I then moved the RAID card back to the original build posted above and the error did NOT persist.The RAID card ran stable for approximately four hours under load before locking up and hanging. The error returned and continued at the ~3/5 rate in two different machines.time cpu12:65837)lsi_mr3: fusionCompletionBH:2697: Firmware in fault state.time cpu12:65837)lsi_mr3: fusionCompletionBH:2697: Firmware in fault state.time cpu12:65837)WARNING: lsi_mr3: fusionWaitForOutstanding:2912: megasas: Found FW in FAULT state, will reset adapter.time cpu12:65837)WARNING: lsi_mr3: fusionReset:2992: megaraid_sas: resetting fusion adapter. mandateOCR flag 0x0I'm currently in the process of RMAing the card.

Con's:-Card run's HOT! The built in heat sync is not sufficient. My case is lots of open space and has 5 constantly running fans, one blowing directly across the card. The system was not stable until I rigged up a small fan on the heat sync. With the fan, the card is very stable.-Consumes more power than previous RAID card's I've owned. Might be a bi-product of the heat mentioned above.Pro's:-Once you get it situated and happy, it's very fast and stable!