Ok - so what's the easiest/cheapest/best way of gaining more Sata ports - no raid, nothing fancy, just extra sockets? The background; put my order in for my case today (Corsair 550D) and looking forward to the fact that I can actually fit a decent number of HDDs in the case for a change (I'm moving from a Zalman 160), then I realise that the motherboard I had in mind (Asus Ranger) only has 6 Sata ports... I currently have a OS drive, Optical and two 3TB drives in Raid 1, and use two an external Sata ports to backup to two 1Tb drives. I also have two 500Gb drivers laying spare, so wanted to include them in the build. But even dropping to just one external port - I'm one short. I've found this: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2-port-lycom-pe-115-sata-iii-6gbps-low-profile-pci-e-20-host-adapter But also reading this thread, seems that cards are not ideal: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=267168&highlight=sata+expansion&page=2 Is is therefore worth looking at a different board? Don't really want to step up to the Asus Hero due to cost really, but by the time I factor in the additional card I'm looking at a £10 difference? Any thoughts?
If it's just for general file storage then one of those pci-e expansion cards would be fine. If you need more speed you could try scouring ebay for a second hand server raid card.
I got a cheapo card from my local PC shop when I needed some more when the new graphics card blocked two of the onboard ports. Cost £12. Just got the optical drive hooked up to it now, but it was fine with a storage drive and optical drive too.
I use one of these for two 2TB HDD's. http://www.cclonline.com/product/42...bps-PCI-Express-SATA-Controller-Card/CNT1075/ Works fine. Think it'll be pretty similar to the first option you posted at start of thread.
