Good card (non-raid review)
Let me start by stating that this is an initial review of the card when not used as a raid card. I maxed out the sata ports in my motherboard so i was just looking for a card with additional ports. You may get better read/write speeds with a pci-e card but i all i have left is a pci slot.Good:- it comes with the sil3124 chipset (host controller with 4 device ports, 3.0gb/s sata device). Faster than other cards having the sil3114 chipset (1.5gb/s sata device), at least in theory since i haven't checked its performance.- can be used to used up to 4 individual hdds when not configured as a raid. I can't comment on the raid performance since i'm not using it in this manner.- although it doesn't say it anywhere, it can indeed be used to add 4 individual drives. Just install the drivers and skip the raid setup.- that's about it. It works, not much more to say.Bad:- documentation is terrible.- fit is not good. When the card is fully seated in the pci slot the rear plate will not seat flush against the case. When securing the rear plate to the case with the screw there was a significant gap between the two. Driving the screw in probably resulted in slightly bending the motherboard so i just went in enough to keep it from moving. The screw almost wasn't long enough. I though it could be an issue with my case (raidmax super viper) but my other cards fit perfectly.- the supplied cd with the drivers was confusing at first. It had drivers for several devices, not just for this card. The best thing is to go to the website and download the latest drivers.