PCI-E SATA II / III card with 4 or more ports.

[alexruiz]

I am looking to add more ports to my motherboard, as the 6 it has are not enough 😉
A card with 4 or more sata II / sata III ports would be great. I thought about changing the motherboard in that computer (Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3, socket AM3+) for a board with more ports, but I don't think any AM3+ board has more than 8 internal (some have also 2 eSATA in addition to the 8 internal) The price differential, however, is hefty:

The Asrock 990FX extreme4 (8 / 7 + 1 ports) is almost $50 more, and the gigabyte GA-990FX-UD5 (8 plus 2) is almost $70 more. I would assume that a decent SATA card with 4 ports can be had for less than those $50. The Asus M5A99X-EVO has 8 + 2 ports, and it is slightly cheaper than the 990FX extreme4, but I would prefer Marvell controller over JMicron. Same for the 990FX sabertooth.

Suggestions?

 

[Adamantine]

For the price of buying a replacement board with a lot of ports, you could get the Highpoint 2680 (without cables) for $99 which supports 8 drives although you need a 4x PCIe slot or a 1x universal. Add in forward breakout cables from monoprice and it comes out cheaper than the 2680 package that comes with cables. The 2680 is SATAII and the SATAIII version (2720, and this card also requires an 8x PCIe slot) is $70 more.

 

[alexruiz]

For the price of buying a replacement board with a lot of ports, you could get the Highpoint 2680 (without cables) for $99 which supports 8 drives although you need a 4x PCIe slot or a 1x universal. Add in forward breakout cables from monoprice and it comes out cheaper than the 2680 package that comes with cables. The 2680 is SATAII and the SATAIII version (2720, and this card also requires an 8x PCIe slot) is $70 more.

Thanks on the suggestion! I'll take a look at these 🙂