Adaptec RAID 1220SA 2232100-R SATAII PCI Express x1 RAID 0, 1, JBOD Controller Card, Kit

Pros: I have used many adaptec RAID controllers over the years, and this one is just as reliable.

Cons: For the machines I have used, Dell Vostro, at the BIOS screen there was no prompt to get into the adapter bios, but if you hit CTRL-A anyway, it works...

Other Thoughts: installed on dell vostro 230 minitower, raid 1 and works great

Pros: Cheap card - useful for Windows OS, or specific Redhat & Suse distributions.

Cons: ONLY use for supported OS'. Not a true RAID controller. This is a HostRAID controller. Don't buy this card if you're looking for a real hardware based RAID setup.

Other Thoughts: I tried compiling the driver for 'other' distributions, using the supplied instructions. Beyond the fact that it's a PITA, it just didn't work. When will hardware vendors recognize that Redhat and Suse are NOT the only Linux distributions in the wild. Very frustrating...

Pros: Fast transfer rates at a reasonable price point. Can set up Raid 1 with existing hard drive with Operating sytem loaded.

Cons: Difficult setup. (see below). Documentation is subpar. This was my first Raid setup attempt and it was extremely frustrating, mainly because of the lack of specific instructions for the installation I was trying to perform.

Other Thoughts: I bought this card to mirror my existing hard drive. Of course I wanted to maintain data on existing hard drive as well as the operating system. It can be done with this Adaptec card.
If this is you plan go to Adaptec.com and read Knowledge base article #14798. Do not try to follow the included start up guide. It will be a difficult installation if you do.
First, the driver disk needs to be made before the exisiting drive is attached to the Raid card. I was not able to boot into Windows, (or the bootable CD) with the card already installed, and the drives attached to the card. You can insert the CD, (It should Auto RUn), and "Create" a drive disk before the card or drives are attached.
Insert card, and attach "new" disk. Boot from original drive and Windows Xp should find the card. Install the driver from the driver disk. Shut down. Attach all drives to the card.
Reboot, and PRess "ctrl A" as it boots to get into the arc utility. Then you can create your array.

Pros: Worked just fine with the mechanicals I tried it with. Therefore it got 3 eggs. Read on.

Cons: Tried to use this controller with 2 OCZ, 30 G SSDs in a RAID 0 on a GA-EP45C-DS3R motherboard. Result: board hung, would not boot. Adaptec does not test this controller with SSDs. Neither Adaptec nor OCZ has an answer. Others indicate the same problem. Be warned.

Pros: RAID 0 with 2 of these on a Gigabyte GA-EP45C-DS3R with an Intel ICH10R Southbridge works just fine. No reason to think other boards with the same chipset and/or other RAID setups would not.

Cons: Originally tried an Adaptec 1220 PCIE controller (cheap!) with these. Result: motherboard hangs and would not boot! Controller worked with mechanicals. Adaptec has no answer and does not test SSDs with this controller. OCZ has no answer either. I found others with the same problem. Be warned.

Other Thoughts: Wasn't too long ago that mechanicals with this capacity were this price. Goodbye Seagate!!!

Pros: Works in my configuration, proper connectors placement(rare), fast, not that big really-sits next to GPU and do not even obstract the GPU fan airflow.

Cons: Had to pay for it ?
Well, I bought it on ### for same ## bucks so i may be biased. It sat in a box for ab. a year becouse build i intended it for didn't work out. After my doughter left home for colleage, she left behind a cube PC i built for her couple years back. It has a "mobile on desktop" Asus N4L-VM DH board and intel core duo 2300 M CPU. My intention was to build a green PC since she kept her PC on for days. It had worked for her, but performance was somehow lacking. I blamed it on a low end CPU. Then the problems with HD controllers on board. Besides the 945GM built in ICH7M dual port SATA I RAID controler Asus board includes another dual JMicron SATA II RAID0/1 controler. I ended up using the latter for system HD but time to time it will disapear from boot menu in BIOS, and it required resetting BIOS to get the system to start again. Anyway, you can read all about in forums, that board is a piece of art and Asus never got their act together to deliver a workable BIOS.

Other Thoughts: As i was installing XP MCE i tried to set up a system on RAID 1 on SB for better performance, but intel RAID option won't even show in BIOS unless you switch off the JMicron controller. Since it was to be a HT PC i needed that other controller for large HD for media content storage. At that moment i took 1220 out of box. It was a perfect match. No more hassles with BIOS, both on board controlers in non RAID configuration working w/no problem. Instal went blazing fast in comparison with SB raid (which i did prev). System performance is so much up that I stopped thinking about shelling few hundreds for T 7600. Runing 1T HD on SATA II controler, and switching my optical storage from on board PATA to SATA (i am getting HD/DVD drive). Using system for video capture/ editing and it works great. Will recommend it for anyone who didn't throw his/hers Asus N4L-VM DH out yet and is still wrestling with it.

Pros: Set up a 1TB Raid 0 array for video capture. Very fast, no more dropped frames when capturing HD.

Cons: After about a year, array failed. Fine in the Morning, volume gone in the evening. Adaptec Storage Manager program showed both drives failed. Booting to card bios, found actually only one drive "failed", although scan showed no problem. Tried second card, drive still "failed". Will only use RAID 1 from now on.

Other Thoughts: The poor Windows based Adaptec Storage Manager program showing both drives failed led me to waste time troubleshooting power supply cables and card problems, since I considered hoghly unlikely that two drives failed simultaneoulsy for no good reason. Only got the real story from the bios manager.

Pros: Software and support are a bit better than other SI3132 based PCIe SATA RAID cards. Open source Linux driver. Real phone support -- so call, don't try to e-mail. SATA connectors are on the back of the card for logical cable routing.

Cons: DOA. Card is big. Online support was a nightmare. Great success calling support for an RMA, but be prepared to wait (20+ minutes, twice, a speaker-phone is essential)

Other Thoughts: This is a SI 3132 based card, just like the generic cheapies. The BIOS, software, and support are somewhat better. The "Adaptec" was supposed to replace a much cheaper DOA generic controller card -- I was upset to see exactly the same chipset on a bigger board. I've never had a DOA part -- two SI 3132 controllers have been DOA...coincidence?

Pros: cheap
pci-e 1x

Cons: stopped loading ACU after 2nd or 3rd boot up..(would complain about low system memory, and then would freeze if you tried to continue (2gb of mem is NOT low mem)

Other Thoughts: and Adaptec used to be a quality company.

Pros: Like the previous owner, installed it on a Dell PowerEdge SC440 server with 3 SATA2 500GB in RAID0. Fast, no compatibility issue with Win2003 x64 Server.
Always trusted Adaptec controller since 1994. Great for entry level server. May buy another one for my other PowerEdge 600SC.

Cons: Could have reduce the size of the controller card since it has very few chips on it.

Other Thoughts: Not sure what happened to the first guy below (who gave a 1star), did not experience any problems in the box, nor any issue with the card.