The 6 Best ESATA Pcie cards (2023 reviews)

The Pexesat322i pci express sata iii controller card (6 gbps) gives you the option to add 2 internal or external sata ports to your computer, through a single pci express (x1) card slot. It can fully saturate all 16 pci-e lanes. The chip onboard this PCIe card quickly finds the drives when booting the server. It will work in both b-key (sata) and m-key (nvme/pcie) sockets.

Installation is simple, and supporting almost every standard M.2 drive height is very convenient. This card allows you to connect ( externally) an esata drive or multi. The card is attached via eSATA to a MediaSonic brand ProBox containing 4 hard drives, 2 drives each in software RAID 1 configuration and encrypted.

Why We Like This:

Very easy to install, plug and play
Great for nvme storage, works for esxi home labs
Works well in a hpe dl325 gen 10 on vmware esxi
Compatible with uefi on intel "sandybridge" motherboards, optical (dvd) drives, and port-multipliers

Syba ESATA Pcie Card

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The syba esata pcie card's material feels more premium than its price would suggest. This is a fine card for old school mechanical drives and CD/DVD reader/writers. It works with windows 7/8 and freenas, using it in a drive bender pool, easy to passthrough to virtualbox if need be, and would buy again. It is great for adding two more sata ports, if you own a bunch of hdds/ssds.

It's size is very minimalistic, doesn't get in the way, and most importantly it does the job. The card comes with two brackets. It is good for using a motherboard sata port. It works well in a personal media server.

Why We Like This:

Nice way to increase internal sata ports
Easy way to add 4 internal sata ports
Good brand reputation

Ableconn Marvell Controller

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As a basic JBOD SATA host card, this card is excellent. It has 4 pci slots, a video card slot and one other type of smaller connector, but no pci express slots and no sata. The adapter adds another PCIe device, just like the one on the motherboard with support for 4 ports (bays) for drives. It allows you to set up two separate raids.

The card and fis port multiplier to work, the card must be able to see the drives in the powered on external enclosure when the system boots. It is independent of your mobo and has it's own gui for creating the raids.

Why We Like This:

Easy way to add more sata ports
Brings port multiplier back to mac pro
A great, low cost 5gbps raid card
Installed quickly and with no problems

Ableconn ESATA Pcie Card

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Best part: ableconn esata pcie card costs comparatively low and it is available to ship in 24 hours. It requires 2 eSATA cable connections as each eSATA port of PEX-SA130 supports 5-port PM. It will support 1-4 drives with direct port connections, or up to 5 drives per port using 5-port PMs. The adapter adds another PCIe device, just like the one on the motherboard with support for 4 ports (bays) for drives. The screen does go from black to a slightly bluish shade of black, presumably that's the window, but it's simpler to just button-mash until you're there.

This card is very good value for money and the data throughput is awesome. It can verify this works as hardware raid bootable as the drive for ubuntu 2004cons. It is compatible with pci-e 1.0 systems.

Why We Like This: