So I was doing some shopping and decided to buy this:

 

SATA2 Serial ATA II PCI-Express RAID Controller Card (Silicon Image SIL3132)

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10407&cs_id=1040702&p_id=2530&seq=1&format=2

 

I saw it being mentioned here a few times, and since it was only $15 I decided to get it.  What is it used for?  Do I hook up my parity drive to it, or is it meant to replace using the motherboards sata ports?

It's for whatever you want. Namely, attaching 2 additional SATA drives to your system.

It doesn't replace ports on your motherboard, it provides two additional ports so you can have a higher total number of drives.

It doesn't replace ports on your motherboard, it provides two additional ports so you can have a higher total number of drives.

 

Is it any faster/better?  I am thinking of putting my parity drive on there, so I can always be 100% sure that I knwo which drive is which.

On current motherboard, the onboard sata ports are typically the fastest/best to use.

Theoretically it is the same speed as your onboard SATA ports, but in practice it is best to use the onboard SATA ports for parity and cache.  Data drives can go anywhere.

so I can always be 100% sure that I knwo which drive is which.

You might want put labels on your drives with the last 4 digits of the drive serial number - somewhere that's visible when the drive is installed.  This way you can match up physical drives with the list of drives in the unRAID interface.

myMain lets your keep track of which drives are in which slots and allows you to create and view a custom graphic of your server slots.  This allows you to know exactly which disk is where without disassembling the case and trying to read labels on the backs of you drives.

While myMain is awesome, your server does have to be running for it to work.  Physical drive labels may still be helpful if you are working off a screenshot while your server is down.

While myMain is awesome, your server does have to be running for it to work.  Physical drive labels may still be helpful if you are working off a screenshot while your server is down.

 

I do keep a screenshot of a couple of myMain pages as reference.  Have been thinking of adding a feature to allow you to look at your array when it is offline.  Stay tuned.

Sweet!