# SATA Port Multipliers



## Phatness (Feb 16, 2011)

Hello everyone, I've been trying to figure this out on my own but I just can't seem to find a clear answer.

I am thinking about buying the Rosewill RSV-S8 HDD enclosure, it uses port multipliers to convert 8 SATA HDDs to 2 eSATA ports. It also comes with a RAID card (with 2 eSATA ports). The problem is its a PCIe x1 card and the server I'm trying to expand only has PCI slots (and 1 AGP). I don't think normal RAID cards will work with port multipliers, right? I was looking into getting the Rosewill Silicon Image RC-209-EX card, but I'm not sure if it will work because it doesn't specifically say it can support port multipliers... 

RSV-S8 
RC-209-EX
My Motherboard

The server is running Ubuntu 10.10, if thats important.


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

It's not a slot limitation, it's a chipset option. Some of the SATA chipsets support it, most don't. So it's just a matter of find a card that supports it and uses the PCI interface.


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