More SATA ports

[ender_speaker]

Hey guys. What options are there to add more SATA ports to a motherboard? I'm not interested in RAID, just more SATA ports, 2-4 would be enough. Speed or bootable not important but reliability is paramount. TY

 

[zrav]

There's plenty of cheap expansion cards with Marvell, SiliconImage or VIA chipsets.

If you want something a bit more professional you can look at cards with the LSI SAS 2008 controller (flashed to IT mode), which offer two SAS ports to which you can connect 4 SATA drives each with the appropriate cable.

 

[hotcrandel]

If reliability is paramount, I'd suggest an LSI card, or a rebranded LSI card (Intel, HP and IBM often re-badges these cards)

You can get re-badged cards like an IBM 5015m for ~$130 pretty consistently. Keep in mind sometimes you need breakout cables for certain cards.

 

[GeorgeHR]

The rocketraid cards seem to work. 2-4 ports for $20 or so.

Any of the NexStar USB enclosures.

 

[robvas]

According to their blog, Backblaze uses:

Syba SD-SA2PEX-2IR PCI Express SATA II Controller Card (SiI3132)
Addonics ADSA4R5 4-Port SATA II PCI Controller (SiI3124)