Pros: Good price, easy to set up.

Cons: Does not support 64-bit LBA so you cannot have RAID 5 volume over 2 TB in size. I installed 4 - 2 TB disks and got a 1.5 TB logical volume. Not pleased.

Pros: 1. 110.5/96.9 MB/s burst/average, 3% CPU tested

2. 4x data cables, 2x Y-power cables in package

3. Runs in 66 HHz PCI slot (not confirmed)

4. HDD drive activity LED headers

Cons: 1. Passes no SMART data whatsoever to smartmontools, HD Tune

2. Blocks use of attached HDDs if not configured as either RAID or JBOD

3. Not 3.0 Gbps -- Average transfer rate capped at 110 MB/s through 1.2 TB of 2 TB drive (HD Tach)

Overall Review: Inexplicably, this devices passes no SMART data to other applications like smartmontools or HD Tune, not even the model or serial number, so can't monitor the drive independently of its management console. It can't be operated as a simple pass-through SATA PCI device either, as it presents no drive at all to Windows if the attached HDDs are not configured as RAID or JBOD. There is RAID management software and a console (WebPAM, which requires password access and client/server setup), but is another whole level of complexity for anybody anticipating using this as just a host bus adapter for SATA drives for their older motherboard. Did not test RAID functions.

-- Roy Zider

Pros: * Relatively low cost
* Raid5 & Raid10 support
* Supports Booting from the array
* 4 ports
* PCI (hey it is a pro if you need it)
* Simple installation
* Low profile bracket included
* Cables included (normal SATA2 cables)

This is a solidly built, low end RAID card for >>LOW<< end servers and desktop systems.

It is also PCI, so it is useful in older systems that do not have PCIe slots.

Are you creating a backup storage server out of an old server that doesn't already have SATA RAID5? This may be a good solution for you.

Cons: * Does not work with VMware ESXi
* Slow
* Very poor management and event notification

Make very sure that you can live with the functionality that the management platform has to offer. It is very very thin.

The SMTP settings only allow you to put in a "from address", a "Subject" and a "Server Name". No port, user, password, etc... You will need a VERY friendly SMTP server to make this work. I'd suggest running HmailServer (it very light weight) on the server with the RAID card if you don't already have an internal SMTP server that you can use.

Overall Review: This card is a reasonable alternative for *low performance* systems that do not have built in SATA RAID, do not have PCIe -and- have non mission critical data or programs on them.

Do not fork out top dollar for fast hard drives. There is no point. WD "Green" drives would be a great pairing for this card. Even then, the card is likely to be the bottleneck.

This is really no better than the internal/integrated RAID that I have used in the past. There is no hardware acceleration of RAID5.

You will also need to be extremely careful about monitoring the storage system attached to this card. The management software is very limited. This is a primary reason that it won't be used for anything mission critical.

Note that there also have been no firmware or driver updates (except for Win7) in recent years. It looks like a stagnant product that is unlikely to have "fixes" released.

Remember it is what it is, and it is not a $500+ RAID card...

Pros: This card just works. Just put a heat sink on the controler cpu, something like from a video card ram heatsink. Setup OS on single drive on mainboard sata port #1, then install drivers on single drive.
reboot setup raid 1 mirror on 2 drives on card.
then ghost 1 motherboard drive to 2 raid drives.
then boot and run off 2 raid drives and keep 3rd single drive for off line backups. Works slick and fast. this way you find any issues with your build before your blame the raid controller.
I love being able to pull a drive off the raid and boot in 2nd system of mainbd controller.
This way if machine fails i can pull drives and raidcard and put in 2nd system. if card fails i can put drive on main board, if all goes south. I have ghosted hd off line i can put in 2nd sytem off mainbd controller. I use this raid in all terain vechicals and in boats. it just works.

Cons: Having to add my own heatsink.
people that do not truely understand raid and its purpose. If you run raid your PS should not be a pieces of ship. raid 5, 4 drives is a lot of load and start up for any system with out delayed spinal start.
If your not familure with dalayed spinal start you should not be doing raid. If your do not fully test and upgrade the firmware of your system and harddrives you should not be doing raid or in the computer business. People spending a lot of money on raid and no money on a battery backup. Don't put your raid card next to your monster video card, space it out. The 4310 not having a bios raid rebuild like its older ide counter part. Cut your sata cables apart and see how good some cables are made and how cheap others are made. Do your home work and learn your raid setup. Resolder all the cold soldier joints in the PS before blaming your harddrives for going off line. Understand your HD firmware settings.
use 1 gig boundary.

Overall Review: I use 3 removable sataII frame kits, 2 for the raid and 1 for extra fast backups. RESPECT your Raid.
Every hour you spend setting up your raid will get you 3 to 6 months use. so spend the time to upgrade the HD firmware or know not to, open the PS, don't be afraid to spend 10 hours per part to setup your raid. meaning 10 for main board, 10 for raid card, 10 for drivers, 10 for power supply and its theory, harddrive frame kits, thermal dynamics of case and harddrives, if you invest this 50 to 100 hours your raid will last 20 years. Do not be afraid to use a thermal image camera on your rig to look for hot spots, Model your set up in a CAD package and do a FEA finite element analyst, (a virtual stress test).
BREAK your raid (after a good verifable backup) and make sure you can rebuild or ghost back an image to the newly mirrored drives. Document your raid.
bios /firmware/driver/OS versions.

Pros: Has never completely failed.

Cons: Hard to work with, twice now I have had to fight with this card to get it to rebuild after a drive failure. Unless you watch the Event Log closely you will not know that a drive is going bad till it stops working. Promise's tech support leaves a lot to be desired, took far to long to get in connect with someone that know their head from a hole in the ground. It is a very sad state that this company is in.

Overall Review: Did not need the speed of a hardware controller, just needed a third backup of compressed data. Had the normal hard drive failures, but it is a fight to get this controller to rebuild.
Backing up the data and have a new, different brand, controller on the way.

Pros: Promise makes excellent controller cards. I had the old pci IDE cards and now I upgraded to SATA II. I love it, no more big IDE ribbons in the way to constrict air flow. The card is installed with a 2002 Intel Pentium 4 processor. I only used the card under windows which I installed the driver once Windows was installed. Great card, willing to purchase from Promise Tech. again.

Cons: None

Pros: Works very well...when it works

Cons: Only works on a small selection of motherboards and with a small selection of hard drives. Go to the Promise web site to look up a compatibility sheet.

Overall Review: We use this controller in a number of places, but it's hard to justify buying them when their use is so restrictive. At $140 (2/18/09), these cards should be more flexible.

Pros: I don't know

Cons: check here to see if your mobo is compatible. I wish I would have checked it. Such a waste of money.

http://www.promise.com/upload/Support/Compatibility/1_FT%20TX4310%20MB%20Compatibility%20List.pdf