/O Crest 4 Port SATA III PCI-e 2.0 x1 Controller Card Marvell 9215 Non-Raid with Low Profile Bracket SI-PEX40064

Ok, just so that everyone is clear, this card does NOT support RAID or HyperDuo!! What this card does, and does very well, is to add an additional four internal SATA ports to your system via the PCIe slot, which is perfect if you have an older motherboard, like mine, and need additional SATA ports, but don't have the money to buy a new board, or simply have no reason to change your existing motherboard. The card come supplied with two SATA cables, which by my guess are 45cm in length, the driver CD and a low profile backing plate. It turned out I didn't need the driver CD, because after inserting the card, connecting my drives and powering the system back up again, Windows installed the needed drivers perfectly and my attached drives appeared straight away. If you're after a quick and affordable solution to add additional SATA ports to your system, this is it. But once again, this card does NOT do RAID or HyperDuo...

If you have to keep your somewhat older PC with older SATA protocol, get this and change your drive with an SSD. You will be amazed. Even if you use a mechanical HDD you will get an instant double speed (6Gbps compared to 3Gbps of the older protocol). What is worth noticing is that it can be used with the standard windows drivers, meaning you can clone your older driver straight to this one and it will boot right away. Of course you can install the specific drivers which are compatible with all windows up to 8.1 64bit so far. Some warning, this is a special type of SATA controller -that is why is somewhat expensive. It uses 2 PCI-e channels attaching 2 disks per channel (it has 4 ports). The hyperDuo function allows the combination of SSD and HDD to act like one super fast, high capacity drive. The SSD stores the most used stuff while the rest of the data are piped to the HDD which in general has a bigger capacity. It also offers disk encryption at hardware lever (I did not test this). If you do not need these functions e.g. you have one only drive, then a simpler (i.e. cheaper) solution will also give you the double transfer speed.

Running Linux Mint 17, 16GB DDR2 Ram Core2 Quad. I Used this to replace a SATA 2 card which I had bought 3 years ago. I plugged it in, connected my drives, leaving the boot drive and BD Burner on the motherboard and switched on. It just worked. No messages, no installing drivers, no anything. Just the 4 x 3T drives sitting there ready to be accessed. I tried a copying 1TB data from one drive to another. A mixture of large >10GB files and small files 20KB-100MB. A total of 4000+ files. All went accros in 5 to 6 minutes as opposed to the 20+ minutes with the old card. Not the fastest of SATA 3 cards, but the speed/cost ratio means I give it 4 stars. But only because I've just been using it for 2 months and so have no idea about long term reliability.

Running with an ASUS motherboard with all 6 SATA ports taken up. SATA - Serial AT Attachment is used to connect disk, optical and Solid State Drives to your motherboard for the uninitiated. I wanted to install a second Solid State Drive (SSD), but had no spare SATA port to connect it to. I had spare PCi-E (Personal Computer Interface - Express, oh these acronyms get so annoying!) slots so this card provided the interface for another 2 SATA ports. Installation took less than 5 minutes and perfect results (using Windows 7 64 bit). Usefully the box also contained 2x SATA leads which weren't advertised as included - many thanks. Good product and does exactly what it said it would without fuss or drama. Connects at max 6Gb per second.

Plugged into a free PCIe slot, started the computer, and Windows picked this up and installed it immediately. Shut down and attached a SSD drive, and this was immediately recognised and running at its full speed (although it is only an older 3G version: I am still awaiting delivery of my shiny new 6G drive). I suspect that those who have had trouble with this have installed the card and attached a drive together. My advice is to install and boot up with the card alone and let Windows find it, then shut down and attach the drive separately. My system is running windows 7 pro x64. I did not find any noticeable increase in boot times after installation. It was also a pleasant surprise to find that the box includes two bundled SATA cables. Looking back at the listing, these are show on some of the pictures, although are not highlighted in the text.

I bought this to solve the problem of not enough SATA III ports on a new motherboard. My old board had eight ports, all of which were in use. The new one only has four ports plus a riser board for two M2 SSDs. I have a high end PC, but I refuse to pay the exhorbitant prices for M2 SSDs. I need ports for an SSD, four 1TB HDDs, a blu-ray drive and will soon be adding two more 4TB HDDs. Yes I really do need all this storage and have no intention of trusting my precious data to cloud storage or it's vendors. My data is my data! The answer to my port problem is this wonderful Syba 4 Port PCI-e x1 Controller Card. It's easy to install and does the job perfectly. Full marks to the vendor and manufacturer. Sorry for my rambling rant ;¬)

This card works, but it doesn't improve my system, in fact it makes things slower, depending on how you measure it. I have an older Gigabyte motherboard (GA-EP43-DS3) to which I fitted a Corsair 60GB SSD (Force LS). The computer felt pretty zippy with the SSD, but benchmark results were disappointing. PC Wizard showed it to be much slower at writing than my mechanical hard disk (HDD), although SSD read speeds were good (sequential about 240MB/s at Sata 2). Based on reviews here I decided to buy this card and try and get the SSD working at Sata 3 speeds. My motherboard has a PCI-E V2.0 slot and the card uses 1 lane, so the maximum throughput would be 500MB/s, but that is close to the quoted maximum read speed of the drive (550MB/s). I enabled the AHCI driver in Windows and in the BIOS, installed the card with the SSD connected to the card and it all worked, but boot time was much longer due to it having to load the motherboard AHCI BIOS and the card’s AHCI BIOS. Boot time from cold to desktop was up from 47s to 68s. Realising that PC Wizard probably isn’t the best benchmark tool for SSDs, I started using ATTO and AS-SSD. They showed a very significant boost in read and write speeds with this card, but only for bigger transfers: 330MB/s write and 404MB/s read at Sata 3, compared to 230MB/s write and 270MB/s read when the SSD was connected to the motherboard and running at Sata 2. So why did the PC feel slower? I then tried some real-world copy speed tests. I chose a 2.5GB folder containing 13 subfolders and 572 files – all photos. In AHCI Sata 3 mode I copied from HDD to SSD, SSD to SSD, SSD back to HDD, HDD to same HDD and HDD to different HDD. Then I disabled motherboard AHCI and reconnected the SSD to the motherboard Sata 2 port, and ran the tests again. The tests that involved writing to the SSD were much quicker, and the ones that wrote to the HDD were pretty much unchanged. The table below shows the actual measured times. I updated the Intel ICH10 driver from the Windows default and I updated the Sata 3 card driver to the latest, and the Corsair SSD has the latest firmware, so I give up! In my case this card and AHCI mode is not worth it, despite the apparently amazing 404MB/s ATTO benchmark. I hope my test has been realistic and I have reached the right conclusion. If not, please let me know. 2.5GB copy in seconds AHCI (SSD Sata 3) IDE (SSD Sata 2) HDD to SSD 63 46 SSD to SSD 79 58 SSD to HDD 36 41 HDD to same HDD 87 88 HDD to different HDD 39 42

I bought this card in the hope and expectation of a better RAID experience than my AMD motherboard's onboard RAID controller. This was not to be unfortunately. I can't say the card doesn't work, or that there is a problem with the card, but in my own circumstances was not suitable. To give a little background and substance to this story might take a while, but hopefully will help others in a similar situation, so please bear with me. I have a Gigabyte AMD 990XA-UD3 with Phenom II X6 1090T CPU, 4*4GB Crucial Ballistix Smart Tracer BLT4G3D1869DT2TXOB DDR3 memory, Samsung EVO 850 512GB SSD, 2*Toshiba DT01ACA100 1TB SATA 6GB/s 7200RPM 3.5 Inch, 2*Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB SATA 3GB/s 7200RPM 3.5 Inch, (and now 2*Seagate ST2000DM006-2DM164 Baracuda 2TB SATA 6GB/s 7200RPM 3.5 Inch). The history behind the importance for me to have a RAID 1 setup was based on the multiple hard drive failures I experienced when I first went to 1TB from <=500GB drives. I had never had a hard drive fail before I bought 1TB drives, and then I had 3 failures within a year, granted warranty covered the drive loss but not the data loss (yes I do of course backup my data regularly)............. So after the third loss of data decided RAID1 was the way to go, I also researched reliability figures for 1TB drives as I wanted to have the best chance of less future failures!! This is when I decided upon the Toshiba drives I have, both have the same firmware, both manufactured within 2 months of each other. After the initial upheaval of finding the right version of AMD RAIDXpert to install (and work properly with Win7), I configured and launched my first ever RAID 1 array using the Toshiba drives previously mentioned. At this point my only available 'drive' was my 1TB RAID 1 array, split in two partitions for OS and 'other stuff'. This was fine initially as I never turn off or reboot particularly frequently, but I began to notice a pattern, more often than not, after a restart the RAID array would have failed and require a rebuild (time consuming and irritating but no data loss!). This continued for a while until eventually I jumped on the SSD bandwagon. My OS was obviously now on the SSD and my 'other stuff' was now exclusively on the RAID array which was now repartitioned to the full capacity. This MASSIVELY reduced the number of array rebuilds required, it did not 'fix' the problem, but virtually eliminated semi routine rebuilding of the array after a reboot. I was very happy at this point. The event log provided by AMD RAIDXpert is very good, I was noticing that although the RAID array was not failing so much, that I was getting fairly frequent Task Timeout errors on 1 of my drives........ I had by this point scheduled weekly synchronisation of the array and although not lots of errors, errors were being found and fixed each week. I bought a pair of second hand ex-server Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 drives, connected them up to 2 spare ports on the motherboard, configured as RAID 1, and from that moment to 2-3 years later, never once was there a task timeout, synchronisation issue or failure of the array!! By this time, my OCZ Trion 100 128GB SSD drive was bulging at the seams and I needed a bigger SSD, enter the Samsung EVO 850 512GB. I could not get my system to boot from the EVO no matter what I tried, it appeared it MUST be connected as AHCI, but when configured as RAID on the AMD motherboard, the only choice is 'As Port 0-3' or 'IDE' mode for port 4 and 5 which didn't work. I got a Syba SATA III 4 Port PCI-e 2.0x 2 (non RAID!! OOPS) card, connected the EVO SSD and all was great. At this point I was more concerned about maximising the SSD performance and returning the motherboard controllers to AHCI mode which meant I needed a new RAID controller to free up my motherboard. I bought the Syba SATA III 4 Port PCI-e 2.0x 2 RAID card at this point. Not being one to do things by half measures, I backed up both 1TB RAID 1 arrays to a spare 2TB drive my friend leant me and proceeded to connect my 4 1TB drives to the new Syba card. Both arrays created successfully, the Toshiba array failed as soon as I started to restore my data to it. The Hitachi array remained active having copied 600+GB on to it. I tried rebuilding the Toshiba array a few times with various cache (write back/ write through/ read ahead etc........... ) settings, but to no avail, each time I started to copy data to the array it failed and the Marvel event log showed 'Degraded' for the array status. I figured the best way to resolve this would be get another (new) Toshiba drive and hopefully with 3 drives to work with I should manage a pair that would work. NO........ No combination of those 3 drives worked as a RAID 1 array. I ordered 2*Seagate Baracuda 2TB drives, (newer technology, different manufacturer), guess what? No different! The array was created successfully, but when data was copied over to the array it failed and flagged 'Degraded'. I reverted my motherboard to RAID mode, connected the Seagate drives created the RAID 1 array I am currently using and for the past few weeks, there has not been a single event logged. No task timeout errors, no synchronisation errors on my weekly synchronise schedule........ all is well. I asked Novatek to help, I explained all of what i have said here, they completely ignored me. I hope this (long detailed) review will help others!! To summarise, the Hitachi 3GB/s drives in RAID 1 on the Syba card are absolutely fine and stable, but my 6GB/s drives (Toshiba 1TB and Seagate 2TB) do not work in RAID 1 on this card and don't bother to ask Novatek for help apparently!!!! I don't like to be ignored, but I also did everything I could possibly think of before I even bothered to ask for help, pity anybody less knowledgeable than myself that buys from this supplier or this card. I hope I have helped somebody!! Regards, Graham

Si vous voulez du RAID performant, il vous faut une carte contrôleur RAID orientée performance, qu'on reconnaît à son prix et à sa ventilation notamment. Y'en a sur Amazon (LSI, Adaptec), comptez 200 euros. Si, comme moi, vous voulez juste connecter des disques supplémentaires en usages NAS ou standard, cette carte est PARFAITE. Un chip Marvell à la barre, comme sur les cartes-mère haut de gamme, et avec une ventilation passive prévue au cas où il serait bien sollicité. Une reconnaissance parfaite de la carte sans avoir rien à faire. 4 ports, pour voir venir. Idéal pour compenser un achat hâtif d'une petite carte-mère peu chère et avare en ports. Un prix très raisonnable pour une 4 ports. Vous pouvez également brancher des SSD dessus si vous en avez, mais je recommande d'utiliser plutôt les ports présents sur votre CM. La bande passante totale disponible sur la carte est de 500 Mo/s: c'est largement suffisant pour 4 disques mécaniques, qui auront du mal à dépasser les 100-120 mo/s individuellement, et tournent plus usuellement dans les 50-60. Ca ne suffira sans doute pas pour 4 SSD, mais perso je ne les ai pas :P Voilà, donc foncez Je trouve cette carte super dans son rôle, à savoir une connexion ultra-stable de disques supplémentaires et sans contrainte de goulet d'étranglement pour ce pour quoi elle est prévue (4 disques mécaniques qui consomment ensemble 100 mo/s, c'est pas commun). Chip Marvel qui va bien, aucune fausse note, prix raisonnable: bref, le meilleur du made in china.

10 Crest SY-PEX40039 2 port SATA III is a very good card. I got it today afternoon and installed it on my PCIe 2 slot (as suggested by the product manufacturer) and connected my boot ssd and set it as drive 1 (boot drive) through bios. I was in doubt, but it booted instantly. My motherboard supported only SATA II interface, which was bottleneck for my ssd and I could solve the problem with this card only at an expense of Rs. 1900/-. My statisticsare : Before installation (SATA II) : Sequential Read and write speeds : 257.6 and 204 Mbps; Random Read and write speeds : 160.9 and 63.9 Mbps After installation (SATA III) : Sequential Read and write speeds : 365.7 and 231.4 Mbps; Random Read and write speeds : 202.9 and 182.9 Mbps Not a jump indeed, but a formidable boost beyond doubt. I highly recommend this card for the SATA II motherboards for an easy and inexpensive upgradation (need not to change the motherboard)

No hace maravillas, pero incrementa la velocidad de transmisión de datos de discos sata III a placas con sata II. Para que funcione medianamente bien es necesario que el puerto donde se conecte sea, al menos, PCI Express revisión 2. He hecho test y a más velocidad del puerto PCI Express, algo más rápido es la transmisión de datos (tampoco muchísimo mas). Tiene que quedar claro que no va a llegar a la misma velocidad que una placa sata III, pero por muy poco dinero, puedes alargar la vida de ese ordenador al que tanto cariño le tienes. Tiene dos conectores internos sata II y se puede conectar en un Puerto PCI Express x1. Lo he probado en placas Gigabyte y HP y no me han dado problemas, aunque en equipos workstation de HP, no se por qué, no funcionaba en los PCI Express x4 y lo tuve que pinchar en el x1. En otros equipos lo he puesto en x16 que tenía libre. Ideal para conectar discos SSD. Me ha dado problemas con Windows 10 (va lentísimo, mucho más lento que usando los puertos sata II de la propia placa. En Window 7 funciona perfectamente.). La mayoría de las placas lo autodetecta sin problemas y no necesitas del CD de instalación que se incluye en la caja. Desventajas: No se puede hacer Raid sobre los discos montados en este adaptador.

Ok, I needed to get me some SATA ports. I am running a Ass P7P55-D Pro mother board. I had a couple of SSD that were running very poorly A Liteonit 256 GB and Samsung 930 pro both were benchmarking barley faster than good hard drivers. 250 mbs range both of them So I found this card, it looked good, the reviews were mostly good. I bought it. I had been running a dual boot Win 7 pro sp1 64 and Win 8.1.1 pro. Documentation sucks as is expected these days I installed the card in PCIe 2.0 16 slot, rebooted. ........................................ guess what my dual boot is busted ok Restored a Image I created just before installing the card. Still no boot. So I take the card out boot. No win 8 boot no win7 boot. Reinstall Images again. boot still nothing booting. So Im tryihg to figure out what went wrong. I read a question on this card Brad I think also has the same Mother Board. And had no problems. After really reading what he did I think I found my error. These board have 2 port SATA 3 Driven by Marvell drivers!!!!!! Ok I go into my BIOS and Disable the 2 Marvell SATA 3 ports Try to boot nothing working. Clean Samsung 830 SSD, convert it to MBR format NTFS, Clean Install Windows 7 sp1 Pro 64 no problems boots up. I move one of my hard drives that doesn't have important data on it to the new card. Boot up it hooks right up. Cool. Go to Device Manager find Marvel Controller In other devices with the Big yellow ? Right click browse to the Marvell XX99 drivers for Vista, win7, win 8 Installed no problems Look in system devices you'll see Marvell Unify Configuration. shut down put 1 of my 1GB WD Black on. Boot up looking good except I'm plugged into port 2 and 3. So for those of you that won't know this the 2 port away from and parallel to the mother board left to right 0 and 1 the two ports perpendicular are 2 and 3. So now I have my Liteonit 256 GB SSD on port 0, the 2 1gb WD Blacks on 1 and 2 leaving port 3 for my Samsung 830 pro SSD So I then move my clean installed Win7 sp1 Pro on Samsung 830 Pro SSD to the 3 port. Boot to my BIOS change the first drive to the Samsung 830 and set the same up for boot priority 3rd actual USB the DVD the Samsung 830 Boot up Win 7 runs perfect. Clean Installed Windows 8.11 pro to my Liteonit 256gb SSD on Port 0 of the card. Dual boot working great configuring as we speak I hope I have answered some of your questions about this PCIe 2.0 SATA 3 4 port card. I can't review the RAID or DUO on this card as I have no use for them. I using the card as 4 SATA 3 6GB Ports I'm happy with it so far. My SSD are running near 400mbs which is great for these almost 3 year old SSD The Liteonit is actually running better than it did in my Asus G75. I'll revisit this review in a few months if all goes well and sooner if it doesn't Edit 2015-10-07 Since this review I have upgraded the computer that this card in installed on. Asus Z97 Pro board. this one has plenty of SATA 6 ports So I currently have 2 ports running DVD Writers and 2 ports running eSATA external drives. So after a year of use I have had no failure or other issues. The Documentation was the only issue. I still have no use for RAID set up so I still can not comment on that. I did start this new board on window 8.1Pro Fresh install and then upgraded to win 10 pro. So this card will Work with Windows 7,8.1,10. The two external SATA 3.0 hard drives are used for local back ups I consider that mission critical.

Good fit for home nas