StarTech.com, a leading manufacturer of hard-to-find connectivity parts, has announced the release of two new PCI Express RAID Controller Cards (SKUs: PEXSAT34RH, PEXSAT34SFF), which balance the performance advantages of SSD (Solid State Drive) storage with the cost-effectiveness and capacity of standard hard drives.
The new PCIe RAID cards feature Marvell HyperDuo SSD Auto-Tiering Technology – a breakthrough embedded technology for 6Gbps SATA controllers, which offers small office/home office users a simple solution for maximizing system performance and productivity. The cards enable users to combine SATA SSD and HDD drives into a single volume (up to 3 SSD + 1 HDD), while built-in HyperDuo technology discreetly identifies and moves frequently accessed files to the faster SSD drive(s).
While providing the improved speed and data throughput (up to 80% SSD performance), the cards still enable all data to be safely stored on a larger capacity HDD. The HyperDuo feature can be configured either at the boot level (no software required) or at the OS level through an intuitive administration GUI console in Windows. HyperDuo is transparent to users and does not require any operational changes by users.
“With our latest PCI Express RAID controller cards, we offer users a key bridge in their multi-drive storage solutions that provides the speed and performance of Solid State storage combined with the practicality of conventional hard drives” said Carey Cline, Senior Product Manager for StarTech.com’s Hard Drive Controller Cards product line.
Features of StarTech.com’s new PCI Express SATA RAID Cards (SKUs: PEXSAT34RH, PEXSAT34SFF), include:
- 4 AHCI SATA III (6Gbps) internal ports, supporting a total of 7 HDDs/SSDs/Optical/Blu-Ray drives
- Port Multiplier FIS-based and Command-based switching supported on all ports
- Support for RAID 0, 1 and 1+0 modes
- Native PCI Express single chipset design
In addition, the PEXSAT34SFF features a Mini SAS (SFF-8087) connector, which when used with Mini-SAS to 4x SATA breakout cables or a Mini-SAS SFF-8087 Backplane (cables not included, SAS drives not supported), provides an internal 6Gbps connectivity solution for four drives, all from a single controller card.
MSRP for StarTech.com’s PEXSAT34RH PCI Express RAID Controller Card is $120.99 (USD) in the United States, $124.99 (CAN) in Canada and £92.99 (GBP exc. VAT) in the UK. MSRP for StarTech.com’s PEXSAT34SFF PCI Express RAID Controller Card is $150.99 (USD) in the United States, $155.99 (CAN) in Canada and £122.99 (GBP exc. VAT) in the UK.
Both of the cards are available from leading technology resellers including CDW, Newegg.com, Amazon.com, PC Connection, and Insight and will also be distributed by Ingram Micro, Tech Data, D&H, SYNNEX and ASI.
More information on these products can be found at: www.StarTech.com/PEXSAT34RH or www.StarTech.com/PEXSAT34SFF
