SYBA SY-PEX40016 PCI Express SATA II (3.0Gb/s) RAID Controller Card

Pros: Tech support responds to questions.

Cons: These comments pertain to use in a RAID 1 configuration on a Windows 7 Pro PC. Like many others, I could not get the card to recognize more than one drive. Nor could I get RAID to work reliably. The management app supplied does not work at all [confirmed by Syba support as 'not tested']. Documentation is minimal to non-existent.

Other Thoughts: Product seems to have been minimally tested. This experience makes me very wary of buying other Syba products which is a shame as they seem to have a nice set of products [on paper at least].

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,

It appear that this chipset will not allow true Port multiplying (Being able to recognize more than 1 HDD connected; only recognizes 1 HDD/1 RAID array).

The documentation of this product is similar to our SY-PCI40037 in terms of LED indications.

We apologize the missing details. We are in the process of confirming all the functions and capabilities of our products to ensure all information for the product is provided.

If you need any assistance, please contact our support team at support@sybausa.com

Our technical support team is available to help 9am-5pm M-F. Feel free to contact us during those business hours.

Making affordable quality products is our goal. Our engineers will look into this matter. If it is a problem of our production design, we will improve it.

We are more than happy to provide all of our customers with a prompt exchange whenever a product becomes defective.

Thank you for purchasing one of our products and for your valuable feedback.

Regards, SYBA 05062013

Pros: Cheap, hardware RAID 5, works with multiple OS choices

Cons: Documentation is not aligned with card, leads user down wrong path. Software for managing card is not correct. Support is rather quick to answer emails, but does not have extensive technical knowledge of company products. Minimal documentation for other cards illuminates a larger problem with company as a whole.

Other Thoughts: My RAID under OpenSuSE failed after 72 hours of up time. RAID card started to emit four short beeps every 20 seconds, flashing the red and blue LED lights for the first SATA port in an alternating pattern. RAID was showing an error under linux Partitioner, powered off and removed drive 1, tested with Western Digital tech support - passed all tests. Zero filled the drive, reinstalled and RAID is rebuilding data.

RAID rebuilt, I removed drive one again, inserted Hitachi drive and rebuilt also. Returned original WD to RAID, removed Hitachi and RAID was back in business.

I have zero faith in the parent company producing manuals or some type of firmware patch to resolve issues with this card. The disturbing lack of hotkey or bios operations and diagnostics is a major factor right now. Will give them an opportunity to make good on promises before returning or replacing this card.

Pros: Hardware RAID 5 for less than $80!!! 5 internal and 1 external port, uses PCI Express connectors. All on the cheap side. If you are after hardware accelerated RAID 5 performance on a tight budget this is your best bet.

*** Read CONS and OTHER THOUGHTS before you purchase or you will regret it! ***

Cons: Documentation is completely lacking - company needs to hire technical writer with skills, add documentation to quality control process.

Documentation does not match card, points to software that will not work with card, installation and setup instructions do not match card features nor in line with card output.

No hotkey to card "bios", appears to be entirely controlled by DIP switches. Messages displayed during start up are not useable, contain no useful information to end user.

Other Thoughts: You will be facing an uphill battle to configure and use this card, somewhat to be expected with price tag.

Testing System:
Intel DH55DC board
i3 540 CPU
4gb DDR3 Memory, 2 sticks.
Segate 500gb drive on motherboard controller used for OS
4ea 2tb WD Black Drives attached to SATA Card, in RAID5 config provides 5.6tb of useable space.

Read / Write performance under RAID 5 in Linux was better than on board software RAID by 25%. Windows seems to lag behind, only 5% difference over software raid, but with a much reduced CPU load.

What worked for me - results will vary.

1. Power off system
2. Set jumpers on card to HHH
3. Install into open slot on motherboard.
4. Locate and depress switch on rear bracket
5. Keeping switch depressed, power on system and watch / listen.
6. Card will emit single chirp, flash LED's several times then stabilize.
7. Release switch, power down system.
8. Set cards for RAID level desired (RAID 5 is HLH)
9. Connect SATA drives.
10. Locate and depress switch, power on system.
11. Wait for chirp, LED flash, release switch and power down.
12. Power up system, wait for OS to load in, look for large system volume attached to controller.
13. Repeat from step 2 as needed.

Tested working:

1. OpenSuSE 12.1
2. Ubuntu 10.4 LTS
3. Fedora 16
4. CentOS 6
5. Windows 7 (32bit)
6. Windows XP (drivers at fresh install)
7. Windows Server 2003 (driver at fresh install)

Linux found controller without issues, presented large volume to work with. Windows 7 was just about as easy, had to download and install drivers before large RAID volume would show up.

Windows XP / Server 2003 - Would not work unless fresh install with drivers loaded during installation process. Once installed, must choose manually the correct driver then reboot before it would find RAID volume. Get drivers from Jmicron website.

Stick with what OS your are comfortable with, this will require extensive system knowledge to setup the drives correctly. Not something I would recommend for the causal user.

Pros: it has 5 ports, that is it, looks good on paper

Cons: This card has wasted hours of my time trying to reset the RAID array. This is frustrating to ship it back and having another delivered only to find out that this one is dead too. First one would constantly beep, the other one would not reset at all



DONT BUY this card. Big waste of time and money

Other Thoughts: I want my money back

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,

Please give our technical support team a call if you still have the card.

Please provide the following information when call:
1. Sizes of the hard drives, how many of them.
2. What type of RAID you are trying to setup?
3. Did you clear the RAID with dip switches and go through the reboot?

You may also visit our website and download additional help file.

We apologize for any issues that you are having.

Our technical support team is available to help 9am-5pm M-F. Feel free to contact us during those business hours at support@sybausa.com

As you know we are more than happy to provide our customers with a hassle free exchange when a product is defective.

SYBA offers an online RMA form the user can easily fill out submit it for a quick RMA return and exchange.

It is SYBA's policy to answer all customer inquiries within 24 hours (M-F)


Thank you for purchasing one of our products, and for leaving us your valuable feedback.

Regards, SYAB CST 02212013

Pros: Seems to be a multi-port RAID card with an eSATA connector, which is what I was looking for

Cons: Setup is extremely difficult. The instructions tell you to:
Set all 3 mode switches High.
Press and hold the Test button while booting till it beeps three times
Set mode switches to the desired RAID mode
Press and hold the Test button while booting till it beeps three times

Well, it doesn't beep three times. It chirps (sounds more like a click than a beep), and then after a bit it gives a very short beep. And then it's configured.

And there's a configuration utility in the BIOS that lets you set up, destroy, rebuild, and do other RAID things. It doesn't work.

In "Clear Raid" mode it only sees one of my two drives.

In RAID1 mode it only sees a JMICRON H/W RAID1 "drive", and won't let me do anything to it. Likewise in RAID0 mode it sees a single JMICRON RAID0 drive.

The config utility in the BIOS is a red herring.

Other Thoughts: Now I'm going to have to test it and see if it can detect removed drives, rebuild them automatically, etc.

I have no confidence in this $80 card.

Bleah!

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Customer,

Good news, SYBA does offers other RAID cards with easy RAID setup and hassle free RAID setup screens. However, this card is based on a very popular chipset and has very good performance. Please call our technical support team and we will walk you through the RAID setup.

When you call, please provide the following information:
1. What are the size of your hard drives
2. Windows version
3. How the HD been formatted?

Our technical support team is available to help 9am-5pm M-F. Feel free to contact us during those business hours at support@sybausa.com

SYBA offers an on-line RMA form, the user can easily fill out the form and submit it for a quick RMA return and exchange. It is SYBA's policy to answer all customer inquiries within 24 hours (M-F)

We apologize for any issues that you are having. As you know we are more than happy to provide our customers with a hassle free exchange when a product is defective.

Thank you for purchasing one of our products, and for leaving us your valuable feedback. We value all positive and negative feedback.

Regards, SYBA CST 02192013

Pros: I do not use the server alot. I run 100-200 gb backups to it every month.

These card works fine.

Cons: nothing yet.

Pros: Lots of ports for the interface, I bought this card to replace a 2x SATA card, people here say that it's slow but you are getting 6 ports for a PCI Express 1x slot. That's impressive. Currently have an 8 drive array taking up 2 ports, a 4 drive array taking up 1, and an external drive. Get the jumpers right, hold down the test button and you should be good to go. Was able to rebuild the 8 drive software array with no problems, may be slower if accessing all drives but suits my needs wonderfully.

Cons: Jumpers perhaps? That's really not a big deal for me tho but it is a neccessary step, select the correct jumper settings for your application, hold down the test led (facing out the back of the card) while it boots, and should be good. Only came with 1 SATA cable.

Other Thoughts: Good card, expect it to not be blazing fast but more ports mean more to me for my applications than speed, came in very handy for expanding storage with motherboard that had a lot of 1x PCI Express slots, works great with linux and software RAID.

Pros: None whatsoever

Cons: Wher do I start? Ive tried everything everyone has recommended. I feel like Ive lost a few days of my life over this. Never will I buy from SYBA again.
Save your sanity and buy a better card.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Andy,

You are not alone. Please contact SYBA for any product supports.

SYBA has created a step by step installation sheet for download on this great RAID card. ALthough this card has been designed with easy to setup RAID for home and small business, however, few important steps must be taken.

SYBA website offers great resources for product driver, user manual, and special instructions for download. A full featured forum also available for exchange ideal/thoughts. SYBA technical support team also available to offer e-mail and phone support

We are truly sorry for any inconvenience caused to you. We stride in our customers' satisfaction.

We are more than willing to provide all of our customers with prompt exchanges whenever a product becomes defective.

Pros: Cheap, seemed like it was functional. I configured it for RAID5, attached 5 drives, then powered on. When I disconnected one of the drives, the beeper alarm sounded, just as it should. I also liked the Red LEDs showing which drives were online, and the blue ones showing read/write activity. It's really too bad I can't use the card.

Cons: The listing says that it is compatible with Win7, so I assumed ALL versions of Win7. It is not compatible with 64-bit Win7. Even on the manufacturer's site there are no 64-bit drivers. Try as I might, I simply could not get Win7 x64 to recognize the card, and show the drives in Disk Management so I could format them. I tried RAID 0,1,5, and JBOD with no luck. For this reason I had to return the card.

Other Thoughts: For those who can use this card with their OS: The configuration is actually pretty easy once you figure it out. With the PC off, set the jumpers to "Clear RAID", then hold the button on the back of the card while you power up the PC. When you hear the beep, the setting is "locked in" - turn off the PC . Then set the jumpers to the desired RAID type (0/1/5/JBOD, etc), and again while pressing the button, turn the PC on again. When you hear the beep, you're done. If only one LED is on, even if you have multiple drives attached, then you've got the jumpers set to the "Clear RAID" setting.

Pros: Why list them if the card doesn't work?

Cons: The configuration process is braindead, non-intuitive, and almost impossible to get right. Could not get JBOD to work (card shows 7.5TB disk when connected to 5x1.5TB disks). Wasted a perfectly good hour trying to set it up, and in the end my existing data was gone!

Other Thoughts: The engineers who designed the configuration procedure should be shot before they reproduce. All I needed was for the card to do JBOD when connected to an existing linux software raid array, but the card overwrote my array and now my data is not accessible. Will never ever buy a SYBA product again