Ideas for an add on SATA port card please.

[Britgeezer]

I've run out of SATA ports on my ASUS Z97-A MB that I use as a file server using W10.

I speculated on a cheap add in card [IOCrest (Syba) SI-PEX40094 PCI-Express 2.0] but I can't get it to work. It doesn't specifically list W10 on the box (my bad) but I downloaded the latest drivers and they are supposed to work with W10.

This is the only card in the MB risers and neither PCIEX-1 or 2 slot seems to recognize the card. Maybe I should try a standard PCIEX_16 slot.

There is an open SATA Express connector but {Edit} that would just remove more SATA ports.

Strictly speaking I only need the SATA port for an occasionally used DVD drive - and that indeed may be the problem, apparently this card may not work with all optical drives.

So while I play with different HD's / Optical to check if the card is working - can anyone recommend an inexpensive way to add 1-2 SATA ports.

I do have a USB DVD that I could use, so there is a solution open to me.

 

[LurkerLito]

For inexpensive, I can't really recommend anything other than those cheap IOCrest/Syba marvell based controllers. I use them in my machines (4 port ones) and they work decently well albeit slow. I have never plugged in a Optical drive into them so I can't comment on if it will work or not.

Though I highly recommend the LSI 9211-8i. Right now it's ~$68 on Amazon. But you'll also have to buy 2 break out SAS to 4 SATA cables for it and it is a PCIe 8x card. It works fine in my Rig with Win 10. Though if you need to run it in JBOD mode you have to flash the firmware to the IT version. Speed wise it's much better than those cheap IOCrest/syba Marvell based PCIe 1x or 2x cards if that is important to you (IMHO if you are doing a software raid like unraid/snapraid/flexraid then definitely consider getting it).

If you do decide to go this route, I'd recommend only putting a HDD on the card and putting the Optical drive on your motherboard SATA port. That is what I do on my current rig. I put basically all my HDs on the 9211 and the optical and the drives I want to be the fastest on the motherboard ports. Speed wise, the card is a slower than MB SATA ports, but faster than all the Syba like addon cards I have ever owned.

 

[Britgeezer]

There is my problem I'm told, my Syba card is AS media nor Marvell chipset - Dang.
I guess I'll post this card in free, after fees and mailing I would get a princely $8.00 back from NE.
Should have used Amazon...

 

[BinarySynapse]

The SATA express ports should work fine as regular SATA ports giving you 6 total. You only lose ports when you use the M.2 slot (which disables the SATA Express port) or attach a SATA express cable (which disables the M.2 slot).

 

[Britgeezer]

The SATA express ports should work fine as regular SATA ports giving you 6 total. You only lose ports when you use the M.2 slot (which disables the SATA Express port) or attach a SATA express cable (which disables the M.2 slot).

Yup, M2 is occupied.
Looking on the web using SATA Express takes up the 2 adjacent ports as well, so its a net loss of ports.
Of course I may be wrong, - just ordered an add on card with Marvell chipset.

 

[Master_shake_]

Perc H310 in IT mode.

someone should sticky that.

the best HBA is the h310. it's 6gbps and cheap.