MAIN OVERVIEW FEATURES: Host Interface: PCI Express 2.0 x4Controller Type: Serial ATA/600RAID Supported: YesRAID Levels: 0,1,5,10,JBODTotal Number of SATA Ports: 4Number of SATA Ports (Internal): 2Number of SATA Ports (External): 2Height: 2.6"Width: 3.1"Form Factor: Plug-in CardWeight (Approximate): 8 ozPackage Contents: RocketRAID 642L Serial ATA Controller2 x SATA CablesSoftware CDLow-Profile BracketQuick Installation GuidePlatform Supported: PC,MacLimited Warranty: 1 Year
Pros: Good number of ports, two internal two external. Great for home use, casual stuff, maybe HTPC. The idea of this card is great... just not the execution.
Cons: All features except RAID5 available for 1/5 the price on any other card of this type. The ONLY benefit of this is the RAID5, and with two internal and two external ports, unless you have an internal port multiplier (in which case, what is going on with your motherboard???) you will be using the RAID5 on an external rack, enclosure, case, etc. And this DOES NOT work. Whenever anything on the eSATA ports is disconnected, instead of hot-plugging (hot-unplugging?) properly, the drive(s) are marked as disabled. This will put your arrays into degraded (and eventually, failed) status and will compromise functionality. This will happen whenever drives are unplugged, powered-down, or maybe even spun down by the enclosure. This will also happen whenever the PC is put to sleep. The real fail here is tech support. After dozens of messages (many incomprehensible pseudo-English) and days gone by, I give up. The tech support people have no idea what they are talking about, repeatedly ask questions they've already got answers to, and do NOTHING to help -- all they are paid to do is insist it's somebody else's hardware is "incompatible" (as if a WD 2TB drive or a standard port multiplier is where they get to pass the buck, when it's obvious their hardware is the misbehaving component). Shamefully bad customer service. I am ETERNALLY grateful I let my external enclosure do its own RAID5 instead of having a disastrous experiment letting this card run the RAID5 on those disks. It would have worked wonders until the first time, I'd pile on all my data, I'd put the PC to sleep, and then it would have been a catastrophe.
Overall Review: Buy something else. If you want RAID5, get a different eSATA card that costs more and might be more fancy than you want. If you just want a few extra ports for RAID0, RAID1, JBOD, whatever, then get something cheaper and simpler. Also, beware updating the drivers or "webgui" for this device. If you've disabled the incredibly loud horrible beep (which you will encounter if you are using the eSATA ports!!) it will be enabled again after any updates or changes to the drivers/gui. Since I do all of my hobbying and home tech stuff late at night, that is a problem for me to be sure.