SIIG SCSA4R12S2 PCI SATA Controller Card RoHS

Pros: Cheap card with the right number of internal channels for building a linux nas.

Cons: You cannot turn the raid functionality off to use this card as a controller. There is a JBOD function in it according to manufacturer, but this is really a RAID0. There is another card, that I have on order from the company, that is a 4 channel controller.

Other Thoughts: This is the second card, the first was missing one of the channels as it had fallen off inside the factory sealed box.

Pros: Pretty good bang for your buck... as to the "doesn't work with 1tb seagate comment" - I've had 4 1 TB Seagate's with the .12 firmware running on one of these puppies for about a year now in a file server with no probs under linux.

Cons: The tested & proven limit of a pci bus is 133MB/s, so don't expect much better... plus this is a software raid card (aka fakeraid) & couldn't expect much else for the price - hardware raid cards are usually well over $100...

Other Thoughts: It work peachy kean for a local home network server..

Pros: Software was easy to install. They included alot of nice cables in the box.

Cons: Would not post with Samsung 1tb hard drives connected! DO NOT BUY if you are intending on using 1TB or larger drives. I have heard 750gb drives have worked but no success with 1TB

Pros: it fit in the slot and had a ton of cables.

Cons: i went from 80 to 100 mbps to 29.4mbps in speed.i was using a Koutech 4 port card before.if i had it to do over again i would have bought another Koutech card.The SIIG card had a raid utility with it,but i never saw what it was or what it did because everytime i tried to open it i got a send an error report to micrsoft.

Other Thoughts: Buy another brand

Pros: well known sis "fakeraid" chipset.

Cons: Will not even post with Seagate 1TB drives attached. No firmware updates available from Siig.

Pros: There are other cards based on this chipset much cheaper, but it is definately worth it to get this one. The drivers and firmware are stable (unlike some others) and the included cables are a life saver, especially if your running a raid box and need lots of power plugs.

Cons: Like I mentioned, it costs more than others, but I think its worth it.

Pros: Hard to beat for the money.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Great card for the money.

Pros: Good build quality and small size. Included all possible cables that might be needed.

Cons: Using two new 500GB drives, could not successfully format a mirrored drive pair in Win XP. This rendered the card unusable for RAID 1 mirroring under Windows. SIIG support is next to non-existent. No firmware/BIOS, driver, or management utility updates from SIIG. The included driver is not WHQL signed. Although the card looks small enough, no Low Profile card bracket was included.

Other Thoughts: If you have this card already, all hope is not lost. Since the card uses the Silicon Image (http://www.siliconimage.com) SiI3114 SATA controller, the card can be upgraded to the latest Silicon Image supplied BIOS (5.3.14) using UniFlash (http://www.uniflash.org). Boot a DOS boot disk containing UniFlash and the r5314.bin BIOS image. Run UniFlash -pcirom, select the card (3114), backup the current RAID BIOS, then flash the r5314.bin file to the card. This enables RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5, and 10. The drivers from Silicon Image (and Windows Update) are WHQL certified. Be sure to also use the latest management utility. I was still unable to format a mirrored 500GB pair of drives.