Pros: I purchased this in the hopes it would work connected to silicon image port multipliers in an external multi hard drive enclosure along with server 2008r2. I tried an Addonics ADS3GX4R5-E and a Norco 4618 but both refused to function reliably even after the latest firmware and windows drivers that I could find were applied. I tried new cables, hard drives, etc but nada. Way too flaky, very frustrating. So I put two of these cards into the server and both were only partially recognized in windows. (The latest drivers from StarTech were not recognized at all by 2008r2, even though they were supposed to be for 2008r2). Only the Microsoft drivers would apply and they were not complete. Bah. After searching, I found these newer drivers at http://www.station-drivers.com/page/marvell.htm and voila! This site looks like it's in France. These drivers worked wonderfully with this card and all the hard drives came to life immediately and have remained stable. Speed is the best yet.

Cons: StarTech's drivers and support is abysmal. It should not be this hard to find software to make your brand new add on card function.

Overall Review: The card has only 7 channels so you cannot connect it's two ports to two port multipliers with 5 hard drives on each multiplier. The card will only recognize 7 HD's. The solution is to use two cards, with one port to the port multiplier. The remaining port on each card can connect directly to a hard drive. The Norco DS HD enclosure I was using is setup with two drives direct and 10 drives thru two port multipliers so these two cards are the bomb.

Pros: You can see my earlier reviews on this. Egg sent me an e-mail suggesting someone found those reviews useful, and I find a recent reviewer asking about a "hybrid-drive" setup for this controller. There are a few solution options to simply buying a "hybrid" drive which are much better: Intel ISRT SSD-caching; Marvell Hyper-Duo SSD-caching; and general caching software like Romex Primo-Cache (which has proven that the proprietary limitation(s) of options like ISRT or Samsung RAPID are not a limitation to achieving the same result by other means). All you need for either HyperDuo (a feature of the PEXSAT34RH) or the Romex software is a 40 to 60GB SSD, but you could use a larger one, contrary to the 64GB limit in Intel's ISRT. If you want to use the inherent features of the Startech card, you can read their instructions and do it that way. If you want to use Primo-Cache, follow that approach. You don't need an SATA-III HDD and certainly you don't need a "hybrid" HDD. One or more reliable, high-capacity SATA-II HDDs would be just as good. You only need to assure that the caching SSD is connected to an SATA-III port -- which would be the case with either Marvell Hyper-Duo or Primo-Cache using the PEXSAT34RH

Cons: None.

Overall Review: I'll think of some, if there's a need or someone asks.

Pros: Better performance than Intel "fake" MB RAID (5.9 vs. 4.1) in RAID 1 configuration. The heatsink (in RAID 1 mode) barely gets warm. Driver support is at the BIOS level so no OS software drivers are required. Set up the drive configuration using the BIOS (there's a wizard to help with that) and the RAID array appears as a single drive to Windows. Installing a bootable Win7 on the RAID array is then no problem.

Cons: None really, but the documentation could be improved.

Overall Review: Plugs into a PCI express x2, x4, or x16 slot. Has header pins for optional activity indicator LEDs (5 total,1 for each drive plus 1 for all drives).

Pros: Port Multiplier Feature - allows me to connect my 4bay JBOD eSATA enclosure and use all drives. (Vista and 7)

Cons: none

Pros: Does everything it says and more. It came up on Win7 without having to load drivers, My motherboard is new and the bios configured the card perfectly. I did a clone with 2 solid state drives and it allowed hot swapping. Plus it allows you to boot from it. I am awaiting the arrival of the new card. Hope it lasts this time.

Cons: Card lasted about 5 hours before it died but Newegg shipped another one with no hassle

Overall Review: New card arrived working flawlessly

Pros: Easy installation Easy configuration Actually works

Cons: none so far (about a year later)

Overall Review: I first tried a generic controller that was horrible. not only was it a pain to install (and have the computer actually recognize the drives), it seemed to randomly cut off connected drives (which included a hot-swap backup drive and a DVD drive). It made the nightly server backups a total nightmare, and would fail approximately 9 out of 10 times. I didn't have any issues with the StarTech model. Couldn't be simpler to install, and connected drives have never been disconnected. Backups go on every night without a hiccup.

Pros: I installed this card in a new Server running MS 2012 R2 before it was even certified for the OS and it work great right out of the box. Running RAID 1 with WD 500GB hard drives. Running great over 1 year. Not 1 issue. Great RAID controller for the $$.

Cons: None

Pros: Works exactly as it should, no problems.

Cons: none