Ok, went over the whole thread to find the sources of negative reports regarding LSI HBA...Solely based on reports earlier in this thread and the OPs summary that he keeps up on page one.
My findings were:
Well, I just got mine and have started testing it with the LSI 9280-8e.
The MegaRAID Storage Manager(MSM) seems to have issues with reporting disks etc, not sure if those problems still exists with latests firmware/drivers/MSM or if they are OS-specific. Unclear if the HBA-bios is also reporting incorrectly or if it's only the MSM.Report on HP sas expander and LSI 9280-8e.
Two disks tested and they run at 1.5gbps when attached to the expander, too little info to make any conclusions. Cable/software-issues not unlikely though.Maybe someone can help me with my current setup consisting of a LSI 9211-8i HBA connected to a HP Expander.
Issues with this card I can try and reproduce/clarify if I knew more about the setup as I have this card myself.