Review on 🔒 Dell PERC H700 RAID Controller with 512MB Memory by Roberto Nastanovich

This is a good and reasonable upgrade. I like the jump in performance, I've also noticed that the drives wear out less due to the 512MB cache. Hard drive read and write indicators now almost completely stop flashing under light loads. This should also save some energy. I have upgraded a Perc 6/i to an H700 on a Dell R510 server attached to 6 SAS 3-1/2" 10k drives in a RAID5 configuration. I am using this server for my Vsphere v6.7 home lab and have also noticed that the average datastore latency is now less than 1ms compared to around 8ms on perc6/i. Again, this is a home lab with little use. This card doesn't come with a RAID backup battery, but I was able to use the original battery and perc6/i cable. You will also need new SAS controller cables. Be sure to set the Enable Write Back and Adaptive Read Ahead options to improve h700 performance. The firmware on h700 is out of date and I have updated to the latest. The old Raid5 configuration imported with no error messages, but just gave me a lot of trouble. The RAID5 virtual disk was visible and showing the correct size, but I couldn't boot either O/S or ESXi. My solution: delete the original virtual disk and create a new Raid5 virtual disk. Save time by backing up your original data and creating a new virtual disk. The packaging was good, in fact it was a new card that had been on the shelf for several years. Nice upgrade that gives me more options with larger drives and SSDs. h700 is an old controller but a good option to replace an existing super old perc6/i. The reason for using this controller is that Dell iDrac and hardware disks can report errors to ESXi. I was able to breathe extra life into my R510. I have over 20 years of experience in IT and I hope this information is helpful. Update 05/04/2020 I was so satisfied with the h700 that I ordered another one for another server. The card arrived early due to shipping estimates during the pandemic. Surprised that it already has the latest firmware. This card was bad and unreliable. The raid screen froze a few times and got stuck at 2% and then 15% init. Another time it got stuck and all drive lights blinked. This card replaced a fully functional Perc6/i controller and drives. The seller replaced this card without question. I updated the firmware to the latest version. The exchange of the card works without problems. I still stand by my comment, good upgrade for the price. The seller did the right thing by replacing the faulty card quite quickly.