PCIe SAS RAID card comparison

Use the tables in this topic to compare the features of the various PCI Express (PCIe) SAS RAID cards for IBM® i. There are also images of adapters for you to view.

Table 1. PCIe SAS RAID controller card comparison
Features	2B4C	574E	57B3	57B7
Description	PCIe x4 Internal 3 Gb SAS RAID adapter	PCIe x8 Ext Dual-x4 3 Gb SAS RAID adapter	PCIe x8 Ext Dual-x4 3 Gb SAS adapter	PCIe x1 Auxiliary Cache adapter
Form factor	Planar unique PCIe	PCIe x8	PCIe x8	Planar Auxiliary Cache
Physical links	6 (two 2x wide ports to shared SAS drives and one 2x wide port to 57CB)	8 (two mini SAS 4x connectors)	8 (two mini SAS 4x connectors)	2
RAID levels supported	RAID 5, RAID 6, system mirroring	RAID 5, RAID 6, system mirroring	RAID 5¹, RAID 6¹, system mirroring
Write cache size	175 MB	380 MB		175 MB
Read cache size
Cache battery pack technology	Lithium ion	Lithium ion		Lithium ion
Cache battery concurrent maintenance	No	Yes	No	Yes
Cache data present LED	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Removable cache card	No	Yes	No	No
Auxiliary write cache (AWC) support	No	No	No	Yes
Dual storage IOA configuration	Yes	Yes	No	No
Requires dual storage IOA configuration	Yes	Yes	No	No
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, or use solid-state drives (SSDs) where they are supported to improve write performance.

Table 2. PCIe SAS RAID controller card comparison
Features	57C7	57CB	57CD	57CF
Description	PCI Express x8 Planar 3 Gb SAS adapter (disk/media backplane)	PCIe x4 Planar 3 Gb SAS RAID adapter	PCIe SAS RAID and SSD adapter 3 Gb x8	PCI Express x8 planar 3 Gb SAS RAID adapter (with 175 MB Cache RAID - Dual IOA Enablement card)
Form factor	Planar	Planar cache enablement	Double-wide PCIe x8 with 1 to 4 integrated SSDs	Planar and Enablement card
Physical links	8	8 (two 2x wide ports to shared SAS drives and one 2x wide port to 2B4F, one physical link to DVD, and optionally one physical link to tape drive)	4 (one direct SAS physical link to each integrated SSD)	8
RAID levels supported	RAID 5¹, RAID 6¹, system mirroring	RAID 5, RAID 6, system mirroring	RAID 5, RAID 6, system mirroring	RAID 5, RAID 6, system mirroring
Write cache size		175 MB		175 MB
Read cache size
Cache battery pack technology		Lithium ion		Lithium ion
Cache battery concurrent maintenance	No	No	No	Yes
Cache data present LED	No	Yes	No	Yes
Removable cache card	No	No	No	No
Auxiliary write cache (AWC) support	No	No	No	No
Dual storage IOA configuration	No	Yes	No	Yes
Requires dual storage IOA configuration	No	Yes	No	Yes
520-byte virtual disk support	No	No	No	No
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, or use solid-state drives (SSDs) where they are supported to improve write performance.

Adapter graphics

View the SAS RAID controllers.

Figure 1. CCIN 57CF PCI Express x8 Planar 3 Gb SAS RAID adapter (with 175 MB Cache RAID - Dual IOA Enablement card)

Figure 2. CCIN 57B7 Planar Auxiliary Cache

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

Figure 4. CCIN 574E PCIe x8 Ext Dual-x4 3 Gb SAS RAID adapter

Figure 5. CCIN 57CD PCIe SAS RAID and SSD adapter 3 Gb x8

Figure 6. CCIN 2B4C PCIe x4 Planar 3Gb SAS RAID adapter

CCIN 57CB PCIe x4 Planar 3Gb SAS RAID adapter

Last updated: Thu, October 03, 2019