StarTech.com 2 Port PCI Express SATA 6 Gbps eSATA Controller Card - Dual Port PCIe SATA III Card - 2 Int/2 Ext - SATA III 6Gbps (PEXESAT322I)

Bought this to add Esata to a Proxmox test box I have been playing with. Easy to install, includes low profile bracket. Picked up straight away on boot, including finding the external drive enclosure that had been originally connected via USB. Volumes were remounted without any reconfiguration and guests were able to start with virtual volumes on the attached drives. Performance seems fine, only used with spinning rust so far, so disk IO more likely the bottleneck than the card. Transfer speed does seem more consistant than when same enclosure was attached via USB 3

Superb card. Plug in and away you go. 8x port multiplyer (JBOD) on eSata ext ports. Fast 6gbs transfer speeds. No dropouts or disconnects. Now the bad news - DOES NOT WORK (YET) ON WINDOWS 10 1809.17763.379. If you are still on revision 316 or lower including builds 1803 it works fine. The fault appeared to be introduced in 1809.17763.348 and Startech support are aware and hopefully working on a fix. Microsoft, as per usual will take a bit longer as getting the required info to the right people is almost impossible. I tried several other cards but this appears to be the only one on the market that supports 8 external drives. So don't waste your time on any alternatives (other Startech models or Marvell branded cards (they all use similar ASM CHIPS/DRIVERS)) BECAUSE i'VE TRIED THEM. They will WORK with 5 drives although the Startech recognised 6? I switched to USB mode (connection) which works fine whilst waiting for the fix. Will update when this happens.

I gave this product 4 stars but only because a very small niggle.... jumpers!!. Once installed it will require a remove and adjust to change your configuration. I purchased this controller to go in a MicroServer, the low profile bracket was a must, and it works without the slightest problem. Driver installation went without a hitch... I installed the card, then the driver, then attached the OS boot drive... checked the boot order and fired it up..... no problem. eSATA is connected to a DAS box and port multiplier shows individual drives.... just as it should do. Now on the wish list of several friends !!!

I've tried loads of these cards from different manufacturers, all claiming that they work with port multipliers (I have an 8 HDD DAS unit, so that's 2X 4 channel multipliers). But in reality, they can only handle the multipliers on one channel at a time. So can't run all 8 HDDs together. But this card actually runs both channels with the multipliers, and does it perfectly. So now I can run my 8 HDD DAS, and can use it as JBOD (which I do) or any available RAID configuration. On top of this, you can use it as extra SATA ports by simply switching the jumpers across the correct pins. Giving you a choice of 2X eSATA, 1X eSATA and 1X SATA or 2X SATA. Very good piece of hardware and a very reasonable price. If I could, I'd give it 10 stars.

Bought this to use with my Microserver Gen 8 as it doesn't support 6GB/s on the internal ports for all of the drives. Also wanted to connect my SSD using full speed SATA! I've tried similar products from different manufacturers, most have performed poorly or caused other issues this has just worked out of the box and no problems running windows 8.1. I am using it to power the storage for my home server and the disk performance using this and western digital red hard drives is fantastic. Very good piece of hardware and a very reasonable price. I have no hesitation in recommending that you buy this!!! I think its a must have for every Microserver Owner (Gen 8)

The quality of this product seems excellent. working as it should

I have an external enclosure with five SATA HDDs. With this device I am able to access each and everyone of these disks, copy, move and erase folders, without any problem. It truly knows port multiplier. Moreover, I am delighted to know that, with the switch of a jumper, I can also use it to add one or two internal SATA HDDs. A winner.

The Startech Dual Port PCI express SATA III Works very Well. Had to take out my Graphics card first in order to slot this in as my GC covers both PCI E slots. Once it was slotted in in works quite well with my Hornettek Enterprise 4x 4 Bay External Enclosure. Shows All 4 of my hdd in this box and a Tad faster than USB3.0. Highly recommended..