Hi all,

 

I've filled the 4 sata ports on my mobo.  I need a cheap sata controller card so I can expand.  Can anyone give recommendations?

 

Thanks.

What is the motherboard?

 

Depending on the type and speed of available slots - the recommendation will vary.

What is the motherboard?

 

Depending on the type and speed of available slots - the recommendation will vary.

There are probably very few that will fit an ISA connector... but I'll bet they are out there somewhere.

There are probably very few that will fit an ISA connector... but I'll bet they are out there somewhere.

 

I think I have a couple of RLL and MFM controllers in ISA format. 

 

I was more referring to PCI vs PCIe.  And on the PCIe front, x1, x4, x8, x16 speeds (maybe "widths" is a better term).

I have a GA-K8NF-9 mobo.

Will the card from this thread: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=3382.0

work on my mobo?

I have a GA-K8NF-9 mobo.

 

That motherboard has 3 PCI slots, 2 PCIe x1 slots, and 1 PCIe X16 slot.

 

Each PCI slot can take a 4 or 8 port PCI card.  The 8 port card costs about $100, so is a good value.  But lots of drives on the PCI bus causes very slow parity check times.  For that reason, I would not recommend more than 2 or 3 drives on the PCI bus.

 

Each PCIe x1 slot can take an addon controller that can control 2 SATA drives.  They cost $25 - $35 each.

 

The PCIe x16 can take a 4-port SATA card.  It costs ~$100.  You MAY already be using this slot for your video card, so might have to replace your video card with a PCI-based video card to use it for a SATA controller.

 

Will the card from this thread: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=3382.0

work on my mobo?

 

This is an 8 port SATA card, that requires a PCIe x4 or faster slot, at an excellent price point.  This card should work in your motherboard's PCIe x16 slot.  However, this card is not currently supported by unRAID, but Tom is working on adding that support.  When it is supported, it will be an excellent option for many users.  For ~$130 or so (you need the card + 2 special cables not included with the card), this will provide 8 very fast SATA ports in one slot.  I would recommend NOT buying a card that will only work with your x16 slot.

 

I'd (personally) recommend buying 1 or even 2 PCIe x1 SATA cards, providing your with 2 or 4 extra SATA ports.  That should keep you for a while at which time the 8 port PCIe card should be compatible.

 

With the 4 SATA ports on the MB, 2 PCIe x1 cards (4 drives total), and an 8 port PCIe x4 card (not supported yet), you would be able to support for 16 drives.  A couple of PCI based ports could get you a few more drives.

I checked my mobo and you're right the x16 slot is taken by the video card.  Could you recommend a PCIe x1 card?

Found this card:  http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815280008

 

Is it compatible with unRAID?

I have no personal experience with any PCIe x1 SATA controller cards.

 

This post says that WeeboTech (a senior forum member) has used that card successfully.  More recently I saw in this post that this person used a different (more expensive) one.  Not sure why - maybe he bought it on sale - but maybe he found some reason to prefer the more expensive one.  You might want to do more forum searches to see if anyone has had any specific problems with the MassCool.  My guess, though, is that it would work just fine.

Thanks for the info.  In the end I might get this:  http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=38843

Close to $100 for a 2 port card?  Why?

You might be right.  Was just trying to find something somewhere that I could try to avoid shipping.  And I thought Promise might be more reliable than Masscool.

I am using one of these in a PCIe x1 slot and it is inexpensive and working well for me:

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

You might be right.  Was just trying to find something somewhere that I could try to avoid shipping.  And I thought Promise might be more reliable than Masscool.

 

That's a RAID SATA / SAS card. More costly then needed for basic SATA.

Also there is no guarantee that will work with unRAID. It's a higher end promise (RAID) card

 

Get one of the cheaper 2 port sata cards (I spent $20) or spend the $100 on the 4 port adaptec card.

 

I am using one of these in a PCIe x1 slot and it is inexpensive and working well for me:

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

 

This looks promising.  Might go for this.

I am using one of these in a PCIe x1 slot and it is inexpensive and working well for me:

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

 

Same here.

In the end I ordered from Monoprice.

 

Thanks everyone for your input.