StarTech.com SATA PCIe Card - 6 Port PCIe SATA Expansion Card - 6Gbps - Low/Full Profile - Stacked SATA Connectors - ASM1166 Non-Raid - PCI Express to SATA Converter

There are a lot of negative reviews for not using LSI cards in your array. However after experiencing some cascading failures with my (very expensive) LSI card, I did some research and purchased this one. ASM1166 chipset is supposed to work well with Unraid / TrueNAS etc. I can confirm that it does and without any of the overheating issues that you get with the more expensive LSI cards. It is aprox 1/3 slower than my LSI 9305, but it is not slow at all, getting resilvering speeds of over 1G in a 6 disk Raidz2 array and I'm happy with that.

Surprisingly I find myself in a position to recommend this card from both a reliability and perform...view more There are a lot of negative reviews for not using LSI cards in your array. However after experiencing some cascading failures with my (very expensive) LSI card, I did some research and purchased this one. ASM1166 chipset is supposed to work well with Unraid / TrueNAS etc. I can confirm that it does and without any of the overheating issues that you get with the more expensive LSI cards. It is aprox 1/3 slower than my LSI 9305, but it is not slow at all, getting resilvering speeds of over 1G in a 6 disk Raidz2 array and I'm happy with that.

Surprisingly I find myself in a position to recommend this card from both a reliability and performance angle for home setups where you don't have a lot of cooling options like you would in a datacenter (where LSI cards are made to run).

I am now considering whether I should just standardise on these because they're a bit cheaper than second hand LSI and they're new with a warranty, or compared to a new LSI, they're a lot cheaper.

The only downside I can see is the cable routing is a bit annoying, having to get SATA cables all the way down to where the card is.

Excellent value for money, recommended.

I had been using this card in my NAS - in an old B150M motherboard. Worked perfectly - no dropouts at all.
However, when I decided to upgrade to a newer motherboard and CPU (H770-Plus D4, i5 12400F) this card wouldn't work. Drives wouldn't show up in BIOS.
It took me WAY too long to figure out I needed to update the firmware on the card, specifically for the ASM1166 SATA controller for it to work with this new gear.
Turns out that the firmware that came with the card was outdated and didn't support Intel 600 series and above motherboards.
After the firmware update all my drives showed up in the BIOS and worked perfectly in UNRAID. Haven't had...view more I had been using this card in my NAS - in an old B150M motherboard. Worked perfectly - no dropouts at all.
However, when I decided to upgrade to a newer motherboard and CPU (H770-Plus D4, i5 12400F) this card wouldn't work. Drives wouldn't show up in BIOS.
It took me WAY too long to figure out I needed to update the firmware on the card, specifically for the ASM1166 SATA controller for it to work with this new gear.
Turns out that the firmware that came with the card was outdated and didn't support Intel 600 series and above motherboards.
After the firmware update all my drives showed up in the BIOS and worked perfectly in UNRAID. Haven't had a single issue with it in the 6+ months of using it.
For those having issues with this card, if you can get it to work on a system, google for "Asmedia ASM-2116/116x Sata 6G Controller Firmware Version NC" and use that working system to install the new firmware.

Works exactly as advertised, and if you really need more STA ports and can give up a PCI x4 slot, this is a good one. Works exactly as advertised, and if you really need more STA ports and can give up a PCI x4 slot, this is a good one.

Plug and play using an old DDR3 system with TrueNAS.
Awesome! Plug and play using an old DDR3 system with TrueNAS.
Awesome!