Koutech IO-PESA220 PCI Express x 1 Low Profile Ready SATA II (3.0Gb/s) Controller Card

Pros: * Windows 8 compatibility (replaced a RocketRAID 622 causing BSODs)
* Came with latest BIOS
* Windows auto installed the latest drivers
* Sil3132 drivers let you flash the card BIOS right from Device Manager
* Rock solid throughput even between 2 port multiplier external enclosures on the same card
* Boot delay from Sil3132 is MUCH lower than RocketRaid 622 (Marvell 88SE9128)

Cons: None if you want JBOD. Running these dirt cheap fakeraid cards in RAID mode is a terrible idea if you want performance.

Other Thoughts: I have two external port multiplier enclosures connected to this card. One SANS DIGITAL TowerRAID TR5M-BP with 5x2TB Samsung F4 drives, and one Mediasonic HF2-SU3S2 ProBox with 4x1.5TB Seagate 7200.11 drives. I have a Windows 8 parity Storage Space across all of the F4s, and a Drive Bender pool with all of the 7200.11s. Copying terabytes of data from the Storage Space to the Drive Bender pool resulted in a steady 90+MB/s.

Pros: Works ok as an Esata card only.

Cons: Drivers are difficult to find, included disc has drivers for a dozen different devices. Had to go to website for drivers. Device supports port multiplier through WINDOWS ONLY. It DOES NOT support it through BIOS, so if you're trying to do RAID from a single enclosure, it will not work.

Other Thoughts: Works ok as an ESATA card, but all raid and port multiplier fuctions are pretty much useless. I didn't buy this card, so I could be forced to use windows software mirroring.

Pros: This card is being used on my desktop running Win 7 64-bit OS. The card driver was included included in the product CD. Easy installation.

I am using it on passthrough/JBOD mode, with an eSata 4-drive exterior case (Sans Digital Towerraid TR4M). No RAID, just as an eSata connector with port multiplier.

(I am using this card as a replacement for a RocketRaid 622 eSata RAID controller card (from HighPoint Tech) that came bundled with the Sans Digital Towerraid TR4M -- the RocketRaid card was very difficult to configure, and I gave up on it).

Cons: Manufacturer's (Koutech) website is hard to navigate, and did not have the latest version of the driver available for download.

Instruction included in the box is minimalist. It talks about using the RAID GUI application to set up JBOD mode, etc. I didn't do that -- Just installed the card and the driver, and connected the external drive case with 2 HDD's, and the card just worked -- it found the HDDs.

Other Thoughts: Works well so far, connecting my desktop to the external enclosure with 2 drives via eSata on JBOD/Passthrough mode.

I am not using RAID functionality, so can't comment on the same.

Pros: None; does not work with my computer.

Cons: Does not work with a Dell Optiplex 990. Contacted support and they initially seemed to care. They sent me another card to see if it was a bad card or if it was incompatible with my computer. After I reported that the replacement card didn't work "Kek" quit responding to my emails. Now I'm past the Newegg return period and stuck with 2 cards that don't work.

Pros: Low Price
Half-Height
JBOD
Plug & Play on CentOS 5.8

Cons: None so far.

Other Thoughts: Used this to replace the RR622 that shipped with my Sans Digital 8-Bay eSATA (N82E16816111168). The 622 forced a RAID bios down my throat when trying to run soft (mdadm) RAID with bare drives. This card works a treat!

Pros: JBOD configuration works for my Fantom GreenDrive Pro USB/eSATA 2TB external drive (GDP2000EU). I am able to use either the USB or eSATA configuration without reformat or data loss (cool!). Drive is much faster when on eSATA. Installed without issue into my low-profile eMachine EL1352-07e using PCIe x1 slot. 2 ports for two drives. Documentation claims more drives possible with port multiplier.

Cons: Haven't yet figured out how to get the drive to spin down when idle for long periods of time. Difficult to get into BIOS configuration for RAID/JBOD/CONCATINATED setup: took me repeated keystroke attempts with Ctrl-S or F4 done at the right moment during system boot, to get the menu to come up. No Windows-installed RAID configuration and/or status utility.

Other Thoughts: Installed on Windows 2008 R2 x64 (using AMD X2 Athlon) file server, using the Windows 7 x64 drivers. JBOD/CONCATINATED config done only at BIOS boot level. Combined with my network upgrade (now full-duplex 1Gb/sec), my Acronis backup is transferring about 50MB/sec (I could barely get 12MB/sec under USB 2.0). And the delay on Acronis startup (while it reads the backup data headers) is now less than 3 seconds.

Pros: + It works better than the Marvell 91xx controller that is onboard my motherboard (ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe)
+ Immediately sees all 8 of my HDD's in my two Mediasonic HDD boxes
+ Easy installation and integration into Windows 7 64-bit system
+ Good price, good value
+ Plug and play

Cons: - Slows down boot-up a little bit

Other Thoughts: I bought this card to use the port multiplier function with my two 4-bay Mediasonic HDD boxes. The Marvell controller on my motherboard, for some reason, refuses to see all 8 drives in the Mediasonic devices. In Windows 7 64-bit, it will only show 7 of the 8 drives. I've tried everything I can think of (update all drivers, update BIOS, switching drives, shuffling the drives, switching cables, changing drive letters, etc...). The Koutech card immediately detected all 8 drives and they all showed up in Windows 7.

Pros: Installed ez in new Win2011 Server
Driver on cd for Win2011 Server
Inexpensive
Able to bypass raid function for single backup drive

Cons: Instruction manual cryptic

Other Thoughts: Need to plug in the external drive before it will let you access the card bios to change settings if needed

Pros: Low Profile card

Cons: I installed this card in a Dell 780. The computer would not post. The dell fan ran at the maximum speed. Once I removed the card the computer posted and then booted.

Pros: Installation was simple
Windows automatically downloaded and installed drivers
Everything works as intended with no issues so far
Performance is on par with the performance expected from attached SATAII drives
(untested) RAID0/1/10/5/JBOD/BIG and hotplug support

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Server is running Windows Server 2008 (32-bit) with one Seagate Barracuda (750GB) and one Western Digital Caviar (2TB)