PROMISE FTTX2650 PCI Express SATA / SAS Controller Card

Pros: It could detect hard disks sometimes.

Cons: Sometimes, it prevents my computer from booting.
When it does boot, the JBOD mode really makes a single disk RAID array for each connected disk, so it's useless for use with Seagate's diagnostics.
The firmware updater doesn't work; it just sits there after I push enter.

Other Thoughts: I used a Dell Precision 390.

Pros: Installed quickly and easily. Worked right away exactly as the manual described.

Cons: Only two connectors. Can only do raid 0,1 or single drive setup.

Other Thoughts: I didn't both connecting the LED connectors. installed on asus P5Q Pro mobo. Win 7 64 bit. Used drivers on cd.

Pros: Low cost entry to SAS, and works well in Linux (even hosting the boot drive) after updating the PROMISE provided partial open source driver.

Cons: Could not be used to host the boot drive in Windows XP SP3, because loading the drivers at boot time resulted in loss of drive communication. Despite working with PROMISE support intensely on this issue, it was never resolved.

Other Thoughts: Unfortunately, the latest Linux AHCI driver claims this device, which obviously precludes SAS support. Because of this, configuring a Linux system to reliably boot from this adapter using the PROMISE driver and a SAS hard drive requires a fair amount of Linux expertise.

Pros: RAID 0 / RAID 1 - Good manual, simply instructions to install & configure RAID. Windows 7 64-bit support. Clean instalation went smoothly.

Cons: Windows 7 didn't auto recognize & configure (not a big deal).

Other Thoughts: Set this up into a RAID 1 configuration with two RE4 500Gb Western Digital Drives on a newly built, clean Win7 64-bit installation.

Instal went without a hitch, put in card, attached hard drives, rebooted and enterered Promise configuration utility. Configuration took all but about 2 mins. Rebooted into windows, windows did not find a driver, I updated the driver, pointed to the files downloaded from Promises website and it was done.

Formated drive(s) and everything is working perfectly smoothly. What more could I ask for? If you want to get your RAID setup off the motherboard and are using Windows, this is a great choice. I can't honestly say how much "Hardware" RAID I'm getting for my $$ here, but I feel more comfortable with a dedicated controller for my RAID 1 array.

Pros: It works on my AMD motherboard.

Cons: Terrible controller performance on my AMD motherboard with a SB710 southbridge chip and SAS drive! I've tried Vista 64 bit and XP 32 bit but both OS's have an average throughput rate of 58MB. The drive SAS is rated for an AVERAGE throughput of 147MB.

The first response from Promise tech support was even more disturbing, only suggesting I try a different mobo combo. I would if this card didn't have such limited support for certain chipsets. It was a no go on my NV 650 SLI platform whatsoever.

You get what you pay for but I was still hoping for at least average performance.

Other Thoughts: You're also stuck with 16KB chunk/block size. NO options to change it so I can't even change that to see if I can get better performance.

I gave it 2 starts only because it does work...

Pros: Low cost. Sustained 160Mb/sec read/write (when it works.) Professional suport at Promise. Supports relatively low cost Fujitsu 147Gb 15k SAS drives (RAID 0). Next best thing to an SSD for a gaming rig at a fraction of the cost.

Cons: Forced 16k stripe in RAID 0. Would have liked 128k.

Does not like newer southbridge, like ICH10. Will not boot in some modern MB's. On my Gigabyte MB with ICH10, I have to retry the boot several times before the system will start, but once up it is solid. It boots 100% if I disable ALL usb on the motherboard (not acceptable). Check compatibility list for both MB and HD's on the Promise Site before ordering, or be prepared to accept the risk (not much risk at this price!)

Other Thoughts: I had a spare, older system in which I could flash the BIOS to 2.8.0.0032. I also had to use the latest 64 bit driver (designated for Server 2008) 1.2.0.62 before I could get Vista 64 to load at all.

Promise Tech Support treated me like a premier customer. My problem wasn't solved, but they contacted me quickly, knew their stuff and took note of my issues. I am pretty confident that the next firmware/driver update will provide wider support and may solve my intermittent boot issue. If so, this would get 5 eggs.