Basic SATA Controller/Software RAID Card
358330
Sold by Monoprice, I received a SYBA SD-SA2PEX-2IR two internal SATA II port PCIe controller card. It's a pretty generic Sil 3132 card.
Installed on a Win7 64bit system as a two disc controller card, I let Windows install the initial drivers, then went to the Device Manager, selected the card and installed the Base BIOS from the Silicone Image website. Rebooted and added the latest drivers, also from the Silicone Image support website, installed my drives and it's good to go.
Can't beat the price, we'll see how long it lasts.
2062935
This device is perfect for using sata hard drive without an enclosure. I can just throw this into my bag and use any hard drive or ssd just plug and go.
4328700
This is a good product.  But is this is your first raid card.  You may run back and forth to complete your configuration.
247988
The SATA ports in the PCI bus card SY-VIA-150 worked right out of the box,
without loading any special drivers from Ubuntu 10.04
I got 5 Mb/s transfer rates, which is about the same as the other 2
SATA ports in this motherboard

I have not tested any other features of this card
802973
Great value in a RAID 1 box for external storage, either directly connected, or as an inexpensive Network Attached Storage (NAS) device.

Setup
Have this configured with two x 3TB WD RED drives -&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/WD-Red-3-TB-NAS-Hard-Drive-3-5-Inch-SATA-III-64-MB-Cache-WD30EFRX/dp/B008JJLW4M/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">WD Red 3 TB NAS Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA III, 64 MB Cache - WD30EFRX</a>&nbsp;- in RAID one, and attached to my Asus Dark Knight router -&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/ASUS-RT-N66U-Dual-Band-Wireless-N900-Gigabit-Router/dp/B006QB1RPY/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router</a>&nbsp;- to use as network storage for our home network.  I've also tested this directly connected via USB3.  Works great in both applications!

Features that matter to me...
+RAID 1 for enhanced data safety, i.e., a single drive failure will not cost you any data (I don't put ANYTHING important on a single drive any more unless it is an SSD, and even then, have pretty robust backup schemes in place)
+Quiet, Active Cooling for drive life
+Fast USB3.0 and eSATA connections (USB 2 just does NOT cut it as an interface for modern hard drives, especially when directly connected to PC)
+Automatic RAID builds and rebuilds
+Easy to assemble
+Small footprint for placing near my Router.
+Looks good (like a toaster with a couple LEDs, and that is what I named the volume on my network, the Toaster!).
+Fast reads and writes direct connected, usable speeds as a NAS connected to router.
+Able to stream video over network when connected as NAS.

Cons (minus 1 star)
-Setup is simple, but it took me a couple tries to do the sequence of power on and reset so that the device picked up both my drives and kicked into RAID1.  But once I got both drive lights on flashing (which indicates a RAID build), worked great.  Let the RAID build finish (flashing LEDs turn to solid color).  Then formatted the drive as GUID in Windows 7.
-Status is communicated via the blue drive LED's, and is not all that easy to interpret.  Would love to have both a small LCD panel on the NexStar MX reporting status, and a software utility that reported RAID status and allowed configuration.  As is, you have to pay attention to the LEDs, and trust the firmware.

Speed
+ Getting 80-90 MBps on large file reads/writes when direct connected via USB3.0, which is about what the RED drives do natively.  Get 4-5MBps writes over 802.11n 2.4 GHz and 5GHz, with the NexStar MX connected to my router via USB2.0, which is clearly not driven by the device, but rather the overhead of wireless protocols, the router's USB2.0 connections, and perhaps the Unix NTFS software utility that runs on the router so that the router recognizes the attached drive.  While I'd like to get much higher speeds in the NAS setup, I know it's not the NexStar MX that is preventing this, and the 4-5MB/s speeds over wireless(32-40Mbps) is quite useful, and even supports HD video streaming to my home PCs as well as to my AV receiver and HD TV.

Net, highly recommended as an inexpensive external drive or NAS RAID 1 device with good performance and aesthetics, with a critical level of data safety due to the RAID1 feature.
2977955
I have some information that need to storege safely. This machine has two HD that and can be configurate in Raid 1 mode. It do not have any fan, so it is very silently.
2529901
Mine came with sata cables but there was a 5th wire in the bundle that looked like it was for a serial connection, the pin layout was correct for the serial connector on my motherboard. There was no documentation as to what this was for, is it to boost the speed of the card? It took some research to find out this 5th wire is for connecting to your case if you have that type of connector for drive activity LED's. If you do not have that connector just tuck the 5th wire out of the way.

This card was easy to get up and running, currently only using 4 SSD's in a Raid 0 configuration and is working great, added apx 15 seconds to the boot time of the PC.
1312529
Worked great!  I used 2 of these in a Raid 0, Sata III setup and windows 10 boots in less than 40 seconds.

Worked with IO Crest raid card.
774871
Accepts either SAS or SATA drives.
Keep in mind this part does not come with the needed mounting kit.
I had to track down part number APP3HSDBKIT to properly mount this part in my SC5650 chassis.
I recommend that you obtain part APP3HSDBKIT first, since it is so inexpensive, then purchase this part.
The mounting kit is hard to find, and it took me over a month to obtain it. I also made the mistake of ordering
six 3TB Enterprise SAS drives at a cost of about $1,500 at the same time I bought AXX6DRV3GEXP, not realizing that
I needed the mounting part APP3HSDBKIT. Fortunately I found the mounting kit on EBay from OEM XS. You must have the mounting kit which includes a fan that mounts on the backplane to cool the drives.

As far as AXX6DRV3GEXP is concerned I have had zero problems with it, and it is a major improvement over the fixed storage part. I ordered the Intel SAS Entry RAID Module AXX4SASMOD to accompany my Intel Motherboard S5520HCT so that I could benefit from the 6Gbs speed of SAS  great stuff. My virtual machines are very responsive with the SAS drives I now have in AXX6DRV3GEXP
4212467
Really like the black drives for storage.  The system has a SATA controller that allows me to use 6 drives, solid state one for booting, one is used up for optical and I have two 1TB drives and this one.  Might want to change to all 2TB or bigger drives at some point and will go with this same type drive.
4592867
Plug and play operation. Have not tried doing raid with it. Using it now for my boot sdd and dvd drive.
1810816
This works exactly as advertised. Use a SATA M.2 with this and you'll get access to the M.2 easily. Some M.2's are PCIe, so those won't work with this, just know which M.2 you're using.
2301434
I bought 10 of these.  Windows7 and Server2008r2 required use of the CD to install it.
Server2008r2 acted like it installed it correctly with automatic detect and install, but still needed the CD driver for correct install.  Works well for an inexpensive card.
4358265
I got these for my media/file server. Before this, I was using Seagate Greens in a software RAID, they kept dropping out of the RAID, and reporting SMART failure. I tested them all after replacing them with these NAS drives, and they all appear to be fine. I'm also using a a dedicated RAID controller now. Not sure if it was the software RAID or the fact that I was using Green drives for RAID, maybe a bit of both... No issues with the new drives so far. (going on 3 mos)
1244401
Good bi directional device to use with ATA and SATA. It works perfect and is a good conversion in every way...
2736101
This controller works as it should. I would have given 5 stars if the driver for Windows 7 was listed on the manufacturers website. It should also be noted that this SATA controller card has two SATA II ports on J1, J2 and two SATA I ports on J3, J4.

If anyone is looking for the Windows 7 driver for this controller, you can download it here (given by [...]): [...]
4962685
This SATA card does exactly what it needs to at a great price.  Simply plug it into a motherboard with a PCIE 1x slot and you get 4 additional SATA ports.  On both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, as well as with Unraid 6.x the card was detected automatically with no need to install any additional software.  A CD is provided if you need to install drivers for your operating system.