I am searching for an expansion card for SATA2 hard drives / DVD writer and I am wondering what people would recommend. Of course I want the device to be 100% linux compatible and as transparent to the OS as possible. I will be installing this in a server.

Here are my requirements:

No need for RAID (I will not use hardware raid unless its a VERY good controller) => $$$
Ports: SATA2 (3Gbps) & backward compatible with SATA1 (1.5Gbps)
Minimum of 3 ports, ideally 4
No eSATA
No firewire/USB/IDE (PATA) or anything else
Would prefer PCIE but PCI would do
No cooling fans (only passive cooling i.e. heatsink)
Support HDD's up to 2TB (I currently dont have 2TB only 1.5TB but who knows with the price of HDD's constantly dropping)

I am thinking about these 2:

Syba SY-PEX40008 4 Channel SATA II Controller Card PCI-E 1X
http://ncix.com/products/index.php?s...nufacture=Syba

Promise SATA300 TX4 PCI SATA II Controller Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816102062

Seems that the Promise card is pretty old (2007/2008) and more expensive than the Syba...

I have the 2 port Promise Sata TX 300 and I used Promise ATA extension cards in the past - never had a problem. You may want to check their site; if they list Linux drivers for the card(s) you are interested in, they are almost certainly included in the kernel.

I am back here with this topic. Since I have never bought such card and now I need one, I thought to repost here.

Also my requirements have changed a bit.

Basically:

No need for RAID chip (I use mdadm);
4 Ports: SATA2 (3Gbps) & backward compatible with SATA1 (1.5Gbps)
No eSATA or other external connectors
No firewire/USB/IDE (PATA) or anything else;
No cooling fans (only passive cooling i.e. heat sink)
Support HDD's up to 3TB

Again, since I am in Canada I've found these on newegg.ca:
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SYBA SY-PCI40010 PCI SATA II (3.0Gb/s) Controller Card
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16816124028

Seems to support Linux, has a good rating (4/5), I have no experience with this brand (SYBA)...
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SYBA SY-PEX40008 PCI Express SATA II (3.0Gb/s) Software RAID Controller Card
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16816124027

Seems to support Linux, has a "OK" rating (3/5), I have no experience with this brand (SYBA)... and some comments from reviewers are scary... Apparently a flaky chipset.
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Koutech IO-PSA420 32-bit PCI SATA II (3.0Gb/s) Controller Card
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16816104006

Again, seems to support Linux (not specified which distro), has a good rating (4/5), I have no experience with this brand (Koutech)... and again, some comments from reviewers are scary. Biggest reported problem seems to be data corruption. Apparently a flaky chipset as well.
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Overall, my only goad is to simply add 4 SATA2 ports to my computer.... Nothing else, nothing more. No raid or other crap that will just eventually fail. Is it me but all options are crappy? In the old days of ATA expansion cards, these were stable, rock solid and reliable. Why's different with SATA??

I am not "tied" to newegg. I can buy other brands and from some other suppliers. If anybody has experience and can recommend based on your experience, please let us know. I am willing to spend up to $100 for this card as long as I can rely on it. My use is not "mission critical" but I will use this card to RAID (Mdadm) 4 HDD together (2 RAID 1 arrays) and I cannot afford to lose data because of a flaky chipset or bad / unreliable expansion card.

Looking forward to replies!

Thanks for your time.

lpallard,
Did you ever get a SATA expansion card that works ok under linux? If so what was it? I want one for the same reasons as you, ie just to add some additional SATA drives, no RAID, I need 4 drives when the m/b has only 2 connections.

Well unfortunately no.... Im kinda still searching for a card but I'm not getting people's interest I guess because no one replied except you ...

You would think it's something rather common but it does not seems to be the case... I'll keep looking around and research but if you find something please share!

After some investigation it looks like the Belkin SATA II RAID 2-Port PCI Express™ Card should work with Linux. I've found a web site saying it does (http://mbb-mua.forumotion.com/t28-be...aid-controller). This card is available from amazon.uk (and hence probably US/Canada), see http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-Expre...164169&sr=8-15. However, there's a suggestion that drivers are required from the appropriate chip maker, (probably Silicon Image), from their web site which I'm looking into. When I have an answer I'll post the details.

I finally found this http://www.startech.com/Cards-Adapte...ard~PEXSATA22I. Also if you look at https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.ph...dware_features it says which chip sets are supported.

Not to be picky but are you mission critical? I mean if the sata card fails would you be in trouble?

I would. I need the best reliability I can get, without spending $500+ on a simple sata card. That being said I am willing to spend my share of money as long as it doesn't die on me....

I'll do more research but I don't see anything affordable from the renowned brands, only names I never heard of like koutech, syba, and startech (for sata cards at least, i know they make power supplies)

.
No the application is not mission critical, just recorded TV programmes, stored CDs, DVDs etc. Good point about the brand but the chip is the important part as far as whether it is supported or not.

Got the Vantec 6 Ports (2 eSATA & 4 SATA2) card and seems to work flawlessly with Linux (so far). No errors or other messages in dmesg & kernel messages are all OK. This card has a Silicon SiL 3115 Chipset that is 100% compatible with Linux.

Also seems to support hotplug (using VANTEC 5.25" bays) works well.

Thanks for the help!