Koutech Dual Serial Ports Add-On Card Model PS220

Pros: Cheap option for getting RS-232 on any new MOBO that doesn't have it.

Physical installation = Fine.

Cons: Driver installation was a nightmare. I followed PDF instructions, but didn't work. The only thing that helped were other NewEgg Reviews that helped point me in the write direction. I have an ASUS MOBO, and what worked was installing the drivers via the PDF (can't remember now if I used the drivers off the CD or from the manufacturers website...I installed both over the course of this adventure), then shutting down computer, physically removing card, inserting, then powering on system, and Windows XP SP3 properly installed the COM ports as 6 and 7.

Other Thoughts: For my purposes I had to change the assigned COM ports from 6 & 7 to 1 & 2 since my development device's serial port tool is hard coded for COM ports 1 ~ 4. I could do it through yperterminal, but the dnw tool is pre-configured and instructions state to use this too. Anybody like embedded development? Check out the MINI2440.

Pros: Two plain old serial ports at a less than absurd-seeming price (so, okay, maybe my idea of reasonable pricing is a little out of date). Just Worked <tm> with Ubunutu (Ibex) in the AMD X4/Asus mobo machine. No need to build their hacked up driver for this one!

Cons: Manufacturer's hacked up Linux driver is described as though it's necessary. At least IME, for this board, just forget that & be happy. Unless you use Windows, in which case all I can do is wish you best luck. :-/

Other Thoughts: About to order another of these for another machine that needs more than one serial port (I've been burned too many times by flakey USB interfaces that work for a while then just lose it and need to be physically reset for things like small UPSes - gotta have a stupidly reliable RS232 interface).

Pros: Cheap. Works as advertised.

Cons: Windows drivers from CD didn't install 1st time. Had to download drivers from SUNIX web site to get card functional in Win XP. I believe their model number is 4037T for this card. Because box does not have manufacturer's information I had to rely on WinXP desription of card to determine how to find manufacturer's web site. SUNIX.

Other Thoughts: Linux was a whole other experience. I could not get the "make clean ; make install" to work under Linux SuSe 11.1. Email to SUNIX was promptly answered with the pertinent technical information. Very helpful folks. You must compile your own drivers using the above command, and must have gcc and kernel development packages installed to compile the driver. Then you manually insert "modprobe snx" in the startup and then the card becomes functional. Sorry, no "Plug-and-Play" on the linux side, however, the installation instructions were very easy to follow. The only glitch is when the Makefile broke down over an NCURSES issue with the SuSE 11.1 distribution.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS CARD DUE TO MANUFACTURER'S LINUX SUPPORT.

Pros: It's cheap and I received it the day after ordering.

Cons: I have a new DELL Dimension E521 with no existing serial COM ports. Needed a modem for work, so I purchased this card. The cd that came with the card would install a card driver, but not install the com ports. When I tried to manually locate the drivers, it wouldn't either. I had to re-install the card using another 4037a driver found on another manufacturer's site then the COM ports would install off the cd. Pretty frustrating.

Other Thoughts: The manufacturer's web site, Koutech, has a drivers page, but you get server permission errors when trying to download anything, so I wouldn't even bother with it.

Pros: Low profile, pretty cheap

Cons: Installed CD drivers but the CD is from a company called Sunix instead of Koutech. My pc recognizes the card but does not install the drivers.

Other Thoughts: Still trying to get it to work. I'll give it a better rating when it works.

-Running a Compaq Presario SR2054X converted from Media Center to XP Pro. That might cause some problems as well.

Pros: Inexpensive, easy to configure.

Cons: Card is low profile, but only a full size slot cover is provided.

Pros: Small form factor
Two RS232 Ports

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: This card does its job in an era when RS232 is being left behind on new motherboards. I needed this card to control my set top box from MythTV and it worked great.

Pros: Plug and Play with no problems in a WinXp OS.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I had no problems with taking this board and inserting it into a pci slot. Worked right from the get/go. No glitches, hang ups, re-booting, nothing.

Pros: none

Cons: I tried to install it under XP home and it just gets to a certain point and hangs with the driver installation. After that it locks up the computer unless I pull the card out of the computer. Real junk, beware.

Other Thoughts: shipping was real fast as it is with all newegg products and I like that.

Pros: Inexpensive, adds two com ports

Cons: the manual is not too helpful

Other Thoughts: Installed the card on an old (AMD K-5, 75 MHz) computer running Win-95a. Had copy the driver onto a floppy, since the PC has no CD drive. Installation under Win-95 is "PnP" at its best - had to uninstall-reinstall the driver numerous times for the system to recognize the device properly. Device manager still show resource conflict. However, the card works well. It's used to acquire data from a pH meter via Windows HyperTerminal.