Make the jump to Serial ATA performance with a four-port RAID card from StarTech.com. You ... more
get four RAID-ready internal Serial ATA ports for your high performance Serial ATA hard drives. Whether you need Striping (RAID 0), Mirroring (RAID 1), or both
Postage & Packaging: see site for shipping costs Availability: 3-7 days
Advantages: USB 1.1 Backwards Compatable Disadvantages: Instalation
I bought this card for 12 quid out of desperation. The desperation was that a lot of USB1.1 devices were not working on my PC and a lot were; I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had this problem.
Once I had installed the card and switched on the computer (running windows 2000) there were a few problems with installation of the drivers, the first being that the PDF files had language incompatibility problems. This is not a real problem though as there is word documents.
The second problem was that the drivers cannot be installed directly from the CD this caused severe frustration for me as no matter which directory I looked in the hardware wizard could not find the drivers. Like all good engineers I never read instruction manuals even if I had it, they did not tell you what you had to do to install the drivers ...
Advantages: online capacity expansion, deals with hard disc problems better Disadvantages: slow compared to software RAID
recommend upgrading to current firmware and 2.16 storcon utl (both are on www.intel.com. There is a linux version of the 2.16 storcon, but it was hard to find!)
With initial installation on a Gigabyte GA7 motherboard and Adaptec 2940AU SCSI controller, the problems with onboard intel BIOS / adaptec 2940AU and mobo BIOS reared it's ugly head.
I could not for the life of me with all the PCI juggling, IRQ remapping and BIOS remapping options get it to boot with a Adaptec SCSI card and Intel RAIDcard. I asked a friend about his setup, and he had no problems (he was running a Intel serverboard with his SRCS14L)
My problem was solved by removing SCSI from system completely and migrating to IDE bootup drives (which was such a pain on linux!)
Current drivers are 2.05 which are included since the 2.4.19 kernel.
As with all RAIDcontrollers ...
Advantages: Simple setup, manages itself Disadvantages: Very occasional low signal
Following on from my review of the Belkin wireless router, this is the piece of kit at the other end of the link. The PCI Desktop Card is whats required to allow the PC to communicate with the router.
This product cost me £25 when I bought it. I was interested in the Belkin wireless router, so I played safe and used the same manufacturer for both items that would allow the router and my PC talk to each other.
--Whats in the box--
On opening the box, there were no real surprises. There was the PCIcard, the antenna, a quick installation guide and a CD which contained the drivers and a full manual.
--Installation--
On reading the quick installation guide, it was apparent that the software had to be installed before the card was plugged in. The reason for this was because, when the hardware was detected, the software would ...
Product Information for "StarTech.com 4 Port PCI SATA RAID Controller Adapter Card" »
Manufacturer's product description
Make the jump to Serial ATA performance with a four-port RAID card from StarTech.com. You get four RAID-ready internal Serial ATA ports for your high performance Serial ATA hard drives. Whether you need Striping (RAID 0), Mirroring (RAID 1), or both (RAID 0+1), this card has your need covered. The card also supports RAID 1+S (Mirrored-Sparing), which automatically replaces a failed hard drive and rebuilds the system if a booting hard drive fails. The PCISATA4R1 comes with an interchangeable bracket, letting it fit in both Low Profile and standard configurations.
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