Adaptec MaxCache SSD tax?

Question

I'm wondering if this is a disguised tax:

I wanted to use Adaptec MaxCache/MaxIQ, but I discovered after trying it that it work only with Adaptec rebranded SSD by Intel OR by buying "special" Adaptec card ending in "Q". The drive I'm using is on the compatible list and I'm using a 5-series Adaptec card compatible with MaxIQ.

Could somebody confirm if Adaptec's SSD are just rebranded and have no real functional modifications?

Adaptec states this in it's fine print, I would have liked to see it bigger:

"Note: For MaxIQ caching applications, 5-series and 2-series controllers support Adaptec MaxIQ-branded Solid State Drives only. (3-series controllers do not support MaxIQ caching.) Adaptec Q-series controllers support Adaptec MaxIQ-branded Solid State Drives plus select SSDs from other manufacturers. For RAID arrays, you can use any Solid State Drive on the compatibility list. See www.adaptec.com/compatibility for a list of MaxIQ-compatible SSDs"

Answer 1

Who knows? The changes in the OEM firmware from Adaptec could be anything different internal formatting to disabling the internal write cache or "short-stroking" the SSD for performance degradation over time reasons etc. - nobody can tell you that except Adaptec (now PMC Sierra) and they probably won't.