External 2 Port SATA III Controller

[seekermeister]

I've come to the conclusion that my current controller card has gone south, thus I'm looking for a replacement. It is simple to compare cards in terms of their basic specs, but even with cards of the same specs, the prices vary widely.

Often, the higher priced cards seem to emphasize their performance, but this is something that I don't know how to evaluate. How does one choose a card for the best combination of quality and performance, without wasting money on a brand name?

 

[essenbe]

Seekermeister, i have been considering one too. What I do is go to a place like Newegg and read all the reviews. It depends on what you want to do with it. I just need 2 or 3 extra ports. I don't care about raid. I've seen some that have low reviews, because they can't get top performance from raid, but if used as a single drives they work well. For me, that's all I care about. It seems if you want to run raid, a good card will cost some extra money.

 

[Zepher]

have you considered getting a new motherboard instead of a card?

About the cards, I used to use Promise cards in the past and they have been very reliable and fast.
Had a couple of Promise 2x IDE cards and a 2x SATA & 1x IDE card.

 

[seekermeister]

Seekermeister, i have been considering one too. What I do is go to a place like Newegg and read all the reviews. It depends on what you want to do with it. I just need 2 or 3 extra ports. I don't care about raid. I've seen some that have low reviews, because they can't get top performance from raid, but if used as a single drives they work well. For me, that's all I care about. It seems if you want to run raid, a good card will cost some extra money.

That is the kind of card that I want also...no need for raid. However, even with that in mind, the prices still vary quite a bit. I'm just looking for something tangible to make a decision by, because opinions just don't quite cut it.

 

[seekermeister]

Zepher,

have you considered getting a new motherboard instead of a card?

Actually, I have. But not because of the controller issue. I suppose that the motherboard could be the cause of the problems, but I somehow don't feel so. I did move the controller to a different PCIe slot, which made no difference, but I find it difficult to believe that the motherboard is simply incompatible with a controller card. The controller's BIOS page does appear as it should, it simply won't boot with a drive powered on.

However, the reasons for my decision go beyond the boot issues, because I have been having other problems, like VLC crashing when I try to play a video on the external drive. I have to admit that much of what I'm going on is just intuition, but sometimes that serves the purpose.

 

[seekermeister]

essenbe,

If I decide to go the cheap route, here is one that interests me some:

Syba SY-PEX40038 PCIe 2-Port External SATA3 Controller | eBay

I'm not particularly impressed with Syba, because if this one is like one that I already have, it has a VIA chipset, which I don't really care for, but the specs are good, and from the picture, it looks short enough to fit into my first PCIe slot, without having to pass through the slot in the mosfet HS/fan. However, that is not my first consideration, I just want the best card that I can afford, but best needs to be defined in some fashion.

 

[essenbe]

seekermeister, I'm not sure that is what you are looking for. It says nothing about internal ports just external esata ports. See if this is what you are looking at. Syba SY-PEX40038.

 

[seekermeister]

I don't understand, both cards only have external ports.

 

[essenbe]

I don't understand, both cards only have external ports.

The one you linked to and the one I linked to are the same card, I think. I know you don't like Newegg, but you can get some good info there. There is no mention of internal ports. It says 2 external esata ports.

 

[essenbe]

Here is the info. Look at the model #


EDIT: Read the name of the card you linked to on Ebay, it says external sata controller.

 

[seekermeister]

I wouldn't object to some internal ports, but all that I really care about are external. After reading a review on my motherboard:

AnandTech - ASRock 890FX Deluxe: Comprehensive Motherboard Review & Investigation of Thuban Performance Scaling

I noticed that it said that the built-in eSATA connectors on the back i/o are connected to the Marvell controller, just as the two motherboard ports on the left side of the mb, and that if two drives are connected there, with both eSATA ports also being used, that it will result in a BSOD. That isn't the same as the booting problem that I'm having the the drives powered up on the controller card, but I kind of feel that the problems are connected in some fashion, even though there is two different controllers involved. If that is true, then I'm uncertain that it would be any different with a different card.

I thought about connecting the external drives to the back I/O ports, instead of the card, but if I do that, I would be short of ports for my internal drives...unless I installed an internal controller card, but who knows if that would work either?

 

[essenbe]

You'll have to try it, but I believe that just 1 internal Marvell port is connected to the rear esata. That's the way mine is. And the Anandtech article said that if the rear esata port is used and Both marvell ports are used.

 

[seekermeister]

You are correct. For some reason, I was thinking that there were 2 eSATA ports on the I/O, but there is only one, and that would not work very well for my 2 external drives, and since I need all of the internal ports to run the hardware, I couldn't sacrifice one. I keep running into a stone wall.

 

[essenbe]

Then maybe you should use both Marvell internal ports and get a card like you were looking at for external ports, or I have seen pricier cards with 2 internal and 2 external ports. I just don't remember where. And you can get sata to esata cables and run internal hardware from external ports, like the pass through USB 3.0 ports.

 

[seekermeister]

We've gone full circle. That still leaves the question of whether any controller card, either external, internal or combo, would work any better than the one that I have? As far as the SATA pass through, I have thought about that, but it would still cut down the number of internal ports available...catch 22.

 

[essenbe]

Not with the card you were looking at, if it works, which i don't know how to tell. Or, if you could get the card you have now to work, would solve your problem.

 

[essenbe]

I don't know what you have tried. But uninstall all drivers for the card. Take the card out and start windows. Shutdown and install the card and see if windows recognizes new hardware. If so, it should install drivers. then plug something in and see if it works. Just an idea. Might not be a good one, but I know you have already gone to Sybia's site and downloaded the latest drivers.

 

[seekermeister]

No, I think that I have tried just about everything. If there is a way to make it work (properly), that would be quite a trick. Not that it really matters, but the card that I have installed now is a Silicon Image, not a Syba. I only mentioned that as a possible alternative.