DELL HBA355I RAID controller PCI Express

Product Overview

AI-generated summary

The Dell HBA355I is one of those “does exactly what it says on the tin” cards. As an HBA (not a RAID controller), it’s mainly for people who want to pass storage straight through and let something else handle protection/management. That makes it a decent, cost-effective choice when you’re building or supporting environments where RAID is managed at the controller/storage array side, or where you’re using setups that don’t require fancy controller-level features. At ~£397 ex-VAT, you’re paying for Dell-ecosystem reliability and compatibility rather than chasing bargain-bin pricing.

Who it suits best: Dell-centric customers running compatible servers and needing a straightforward Fibre/SAS connectivity option without the extra “RAID brain.” It’s less of a fit if you’re expecting it to deliver full RAID management for internal drives—if you’re trying to simplify storage orchestration or replace a hardware RAID controller, you may be disappointed and end up spending time/effort finding the right card instead. If your current configuration already aligns with how you’re managing disks, this is a sensible purchase; if not, I’d sanity-check the server model, drive types, and how you plan to handle redundancy before you buy.