SYBA SY-PEX40045 SATA II (3.0Gb/s) 1:2 (2x1) Internal Port Multiplier

Pros: Cheap 3.0Gb/s Hardware RAID Can really do two port multiplier single drives if setup accordingly.

Cons: Documentation sorely lacking Dated Lowly JMB390 Chipset So, about those promised answers. If you've read some of the other reviews here, you'll see some complaints about troubles getting non-raid port multiplier mode to work as two single drives. Most people had no trouble with RAID0, RAID1, or JBOD (which is a single large drive). Continued...

Overall Review: In order to do PM with two single drives, set the jumpers to "No Ch" or "No Action" (all switches OFF). The JMB390 chipset will detect either a PM (port multiplier) aware or non-PM aware host controller. It turns out that even for non-RAID PM, you must use the appropriate RAID drivers for your SATA host controller. The way I found this out is that I had my motherboard SATA controller set to AHCI (in BIOS) and PM wasn't working with this Syba card on Windows 7. But it was working with XP. Why? The difference is that XP does ACHI with RAID style drivers, but I was just using ACHI drivers for Windows 7. I forced RAID drivers for my motherboard's SATA controller on Windows 7, and then PM works with this card. I didn't have to change the BIOS from ACHI. It turns out that PM is technically sort of a RAID spec function. So, even if you don't want any RAID anywhere on your system, RAID style drivers will get PM to work with this card - even with BIOS set to AHCI (rather than RAID). Assuming of course that you can install RAID drivers while in ACHI mode on your motherboard, and that your motherboard SATA controller supports PM mode otherwise. Another sort of neat way to use this Syba card without any RAID drivers is as sort of a poor man's SATA switch. With two drives connected in "No Ch" mode, if you cut power to one of the drives, then the other one will work. For example, you could connect a DVD driver to port 2, and a hard drive to port 1. With both powered up, only the port 1 drive will work (if you are using only AHCI drivers and not RAID drivers for PM as described above). But if you cut power to the drive on port 1, then the port 2 drive will work. I have a HDD rack in one of my bays with a power switch, and I can use it that way and switch off that drive if I want to use the DVD drive (I usually reboot before doing this). Anyway, that is my story, thanks for reading.

Pros: Syba Tech Support emailed installation instructions that were a little more clear than what was included in the box. 1) You must clear the RAID before installing the card - this clears the state of the card (OFF OFF ON) 2) In RAID mode, both drives must be empty. If they are not, the card will wipe both drives clean, erasing everything on both drives. Backup your data first! 3) Port HDD1 is for the primary drive; Port HDD2 is for the secondary drive. Here is the link to Syba documentation: http://sybausa.com/resource/SY-PEX40045/ReadMe%20Guide%20to%20SY-PEX40045.txt

Cons: .

Pros: Card works well overall. No drivers needed. Inexpensive. Comes with 1 locking sata cable. No claims of working with ESXi works with Hyper-V

Cons: The chart on the switch settings could have a bit more explanation of what they do. Like, you need to use the "clear mode" between every mode change or the change you thought you made won't take place. A switch that has an on and off position is shown as either on or off for all but the "NO Action" setting where they used X and off. Does X mean balancing it in the middle or off, surely not ON. wait! surprise surprise, the very very tiny graphic seems to show ON . Be consistant or have a * note: with an explanation off of the chart. For all those who think "no driver, ESXi will work", think again. ESXI 5.0 does not see the card nor any drive attached to it, in any mode.

Overall Review: 5 eggs if they supplied an ESXi 5 fix

Pros: Cheap solution to RAID. Very simple and fast to install Works for 3 months without single hickup

Cons: Power connector is cheaply made and power supply connector wasn't plugging in, so I pushed harder and whole 4 pins went 90 degrees up. I almost thought that board was done for, but I was able to bent connector pins back in place VERY SLOWLY and CAREFULLY.

Overall Review: It provided me with solution that AsRock engineers couldn't on their Z68 MB. I used this for RAID 0 physical disks array for my programs while I was using my SSD in AHCI to boot windows.The problem was that main SATA controller could only work in RAID or AHCI but not combination of both and secondary controller was supporting only IDE or AHCI but not RAID (and manual advised not to use it for boot drive), so finally I found this as solution. Installed it connected 2 drives to it and cable to motherboard booted up and formatted the drives into one volume DONE!!! On ATTO benchmarking I got twice read/write that on single HD until it went past 16KB's file sizes by 512KB its data read/write performance became close to one drive but it might be as well limitation of the SATA II interface that it uses and the fact that they were mechanical drives (SATA II, 7200RPM with 32MB Cache each).I got 215MB/sec as highest read/write.

Pros: The card works. Experimented with all three supproted RAId modes. Completley transparent to OS. Does not suffer speed limitiations of PCI or even PCU express. RAID O doubles speed of any drive pair used. RIAD 1 has been extremely reliable.

Cons: Only has two ports.

Overall Review: Prt multipliers like this seem to an overlooked solution except for external enclosures. This card has surprised me at its simplicity, reliabilty and performance. For a two drive RAID set up seems just as good as many high price alternatives.

Pros: I was able to set it up as Raid 0, Raid1, and JBOD and was working fine in all of these modes.

Cons: I could NOT set the card up for two individual drives. The description would make me believe that it could. Maybe it's me or my motherboard.

Overall Review: Instructions should be more clear! The "NO Action" setting has a X instead ON!

Pros: None

Cons: I bought this to add 1 more sata port to an old machine. Switches set to "no action" (on/on/off) for port multiplier, but I go from 1 sata port to ... 1 sata port. I switched cables, and now the other drive works. I also tried other switch settings for switches 1 and 2, to no avail. Conclusion: Only 1 port works, so no multiplication. I'll be returning this.

Overall Review: The package isn't clear that "no action" is the required setting to simply multiply ports, but another newegg review and the manufacturer's reply answered the question.

Pros: newegg return was painless and free cause I have shoprunner.

Cons: simply would not work with two drives connected to it. I wasn't trying to do a raid setup. I just needed two extra sata ports since my mobo was maxed out. both drives would work fine ( a little slow but ok) by themselves in either port but with both drives connected the card simply did not work.