SYBA SY-PCI40010 PCI SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) RAID Controller Card

Pros: Works like a champ with Debian and a stock 2.6.26 kernel. I am not using on-board raid though. 4 ports.

Cons: This is plain PCI interface, so don't expect 4 drives to win any speed contests. Only ships with 2 SATA cables (non-latching).

Overall Review: Too soon to tell if performance is enhance with NCQ features. Once I have all my new drives swapped into the linux RAID5 array I will try to post again with more feedback.

Pros: Have a Promise TX4300 card with 4 1.5TB Seagate drives in Windows Home Server. Added this card with 2 2TB Seagate drives, popped in the driver CD when prompted by the hardware wizard, and everything just worked.

Cons: None...works as advertised.

Overall Review: System specs: AMD Athlon FX-53 cpu MSI K8T Master2Far MB 320GB Seagate HDD 2GB TwinX DDR-400 Promise TX4300 Raid controller Syba PCI40010 Raid controller 4 1.5TB Seagate HDD 2 2TB Seagate HDD GeForce 6800GT video card Antec Lanboy case Antec 550W TruPower This old gaming desktop was rebuilt for use as a Windows Home Server. It supports 10 desktops as NAS and backups, backup for 2TB library of TV shows on Win7 media center PC, and mirrored DVD/BluRay library.

Pros: Four internal ports! The connectors work with locking latches.

Cons: None really...maybe the price could be lower. It cost me twice as much as what I had paid for the RC-209.

Overall Review: I wanted an inexpensive 4-port card that supported the 300 speed. I've been using it with my 1 and 1.5 TB drives for over 3 months with no issues. My other card that I use simultaneously with this one (Rosewill RC-209) does not plug and play with my 1 and 1.5 TB drives. Since I needed more SATA ports, I decided against messing with the drives to make them compatible with the RC-209 and decided to just get this Sil3124 based card. I have not tried the RAID functions. I currently have 13 drives on my system (6 on the motherboard's ICH8R, 4 on the RC-209 with the Sil3114, and 3 on this Syba with the Sil3124). I use the 4th port of the Syba for a backup drive that I store in a fireproof safe. I run XP Pro 32-bit.

Pros: I e-mailed SYBA if this card supports arrays larger than 3TB - it does not, which is to be expected from a PCI card, but they responded within hours to my e-mail, which earns them the 5 eggs.

Cons: PCI is old tech...

Pros: Solved the problem that the old ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe SIL 3112 SATA controllers don't see anything larger than 500GB. -Something I learned after receiving the WD15EARS 1.5TB drive. Newegg to the rescue! So popped in the card, attached the WD drive with no jumpers, booted to Windows, wizard asked for the CD, and recognized drivers, I chose RAID and they installed w/o a hitch. Now we have four ports of SATA II for cheap! Pretty up-to-date 2009 drivers included. I'd say for those wondering where to turn to upgrade your older Socket-A MB for large capacity SATA on Windows XP Pro, this is a winner.

Cons: The documentation is pretty slim, and the BIOS nomenclature is in a sort of odd English terminology ("CONCATENATION"?). A good card for those who have assembled computers and done upgrades before.

Overall Review: This card supports hot plugging and Native Command Queue. I tried the hot plugging and it didn't do any harm. The manufacturer, I/O Crest, offers a Windows compatible RAID utility on their website in a free download (Utility v1.5.11.0 as of this writing, Feb. 2010). There's a 2-prong connector at the end of the card for an LED activity light, which is undocumented if I remember correctly. On the little CD in the Silicon_Image folder is a bit of install documentation, not that much different than the small sheet of paper packed with the card.

Pros: cheap

Cons: random linux system freezes with this card used as a straight sata controller with linux software raid. this took a very long time to isolate. the system can run fine for a week+, then freeze. seen this with the 3.x kernel line as well as 4.x. removed this card from the system & plugged in the disks to the mobo sata controller and all is fine. i can't recommend this card for a DIY linux NAS setup.

Pros: PCI, SATA 2, 4 ports, works

Cons: Install Instructions, sourcing latest firmware and flash utility may require some effort

Overall Review: I used this card to replace a very similar SYBA PCI SATA2 SI3124 Controller SD-SATA2-2E2I that had 2 of the ports external and developed an I/O fault after 4 years 24x7 in service. I think this is a good SATA2 controller for adding SATA devices to an older PCI bus system. I have not used any of the SI3124-based controllers for RAID application. The card ships with the RAID BIOS 6.3.18. To use for a non-RAID application, you must install the card, boot from a temporary source, and run the flash utility UPDFLASH.EXE to change to the non-RAID BIOS b6600.bin. Command line: updflash b6600.bin Best I know, the latest SI3124 firmwares are: 6600.bin, partial BIOS for integrating with system BIOS b6600.bin, non-RAID BIOS r6600.bin, RAID BIOS (ships with older BIOS 6318) After updating the BIOS, connect the SATA devices, your HDD LED activity light, and boot the system. I already had the desired Win7 x86 SI3124.sys device driver installed in Windows, so I was back in business. If installing the OS or adding to an existing OS, you will need to slip stream/present the device driver file set at boot time to install the driver so that the system can use the new device to proceed (particularly if the system/OS drive is to be controlled by the new controller card). BIOS and device driver versions must be compatible. Search online for sources... SYBA, Silicon Image, IOCrest?, or a trusted third party. If this card is replacing the system/PC drive controller, you may need to configure the system BIOS to boot from the 'option ROM' or similar. Investigate your system BIOS FIRST to be sure the system is prepared to boot from the add-in card, not from the MB controller. Enjoy!

Pros: I have two of these PCI cards connected to a in house file server. Each card has four 2TB drives connected, a total of 8 drives. Each card takes 4 drives and has them in a RAID10 configuration with excellent throughput considering the price and the connectivity being PCI. I am very happy with the results of this configuration and the price in which I was able to do it with these cards.

Cons: Not a way to use both cards in joined RAID 10 configuration, but that is to be expected on a card with this price. Also, if you do use two of these cards in the same box, you need to remove one in order to configure the other since they both prompt an F10 for setup.

Overall Review: The drivers that came on the mini CD in the box are quite dated. You should definatly go online and get updated drivers. Other then that, definatly a great buy.