For Nick N and other gurus: A couple months back, there was a thread on performance improvements that could be achieved by using an add-on SATA controller card, instead of using one's built-in mobo controller. I notice that the Egg is running a couple specials on SATA controller cards right now, but both are PCI and if I remember correctly our forum experts said a PCI-e would be needed to achieve the desired throughput. I'm about to do a new build (specifically for FSX) and I'm wondering if I should purchase a relatively inexpensive PCI-e SATA controller card to improve my overall HDD performance? I'm eventually hoping to add a VelociRaptor to my rig. If the type of SATA card that's needed is in the hundreds of dollars, then it's not something I can manage within my current budget. What are your thoughts about adding a reasonably-priced PCI-e SATA controller to my build? My specs are below. Thanks in advance for any help/advice. - Lee Gigabyte EP45-UD3P Intel Q6600 Seagate 250GB ST3250410AS WD6400AAKS 640GB WD10EADS 1TB (mainly for file backup and storage) 4GB Corsair Dominator 750W Corsair CPU Lite-On Blu-Ray player ASUS DVD burner Cooler Master Stacker 810 chassis

For Nick N and other gurus: A couple months back, there was a thread on performance improvements that could be achieved by using an add-on SATA controller card, instead of using one's built-in mobo controller. I notice that the Egg is running a couple specials on SATA controller cards right now, but both are PCI and if I remember correctly our forum experts said a PCI-e would be needed to achieve the desired throughput. I'm about to do a new build (specifically for FSX) and I'm wondering if I should purchase a relatively inexpensive PCI-e SATA controller card to improve my overall HDD performance? I'm eventually hoping to add a VelociRaptor to my rig. If the type of SATA card that's needed is in the hundreds of dollars, then it's not something I can manage within my current budget. What are your thoughts about adding a reasonably-priced PCI-e SATA controller to my build? My specs are below. Thanks in advance for any help/advice. - Lee Gigabyte EP45-UD3P Intel Q6600 Seagate 250GB ST3250410AS WD6400AAKS 640GB WD10EADS 1TB (mainly for file backup and storage) 4GB Corsair Dominator 750W Corsair CPU Lite-On Blu-Ray player ASUS DVD burner Cooler Master Stacker 810 chassis

Your onboard controller is at least as good as a PCI controller. You need PCIe to make much of a difference.The improvement that can be achieved with a controller card comes from having a high-bandwidth DMA path, a quality dedicated processor to run the disk system, and hardware caching using board-mounted RAM. A good SATA II board with a decent controller and 256MB+ of cache RAM is going to be in the $300+ range now...the lesser boards are not going to be much of an improvement over the onboard controller.If you've got $200 to spend, I think a 300GB velociraptor connected to your onboard SATA controller is the most bang for the buck right now.CheersBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

......Bob is spot on with this one :( Those cheese 100-150 dollar RAID and SATA cards are no different than your motherboard system and a Vrap is going to run the same on those as they will on motherboard SATA.Put the money into the drive first.. then work your way up into a better storage card later as funds come available. The right card should be looked at as an investment and you must know what to look for when shopping for a card.. I explained herehttp://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_post...D=173009#173009I prefer the 3ware 9650SE 4LPML set up this way.. http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_post...D=161336#161336and of course a user must verify their board will support (any) card in a 2nd PCIe video slot or a 4x PCIe slotAnd if you wish to see the difference between a good SATA/RAID card and motherboard on the same Vrap drive.. take a gander at this.. WD VRap file read performance on motherboard SATA: http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?s=&...t&p=1558965WD VRap file read performance on the right PCIe hardware SATA:http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?s=&...t&p=1559031and NOTE: Typical benchmark software such as HDTach and HDTune will NOT show a uneducated user the REAL performance of a drive unless they KNOW what it is they are readinghttp://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?s=&...t&p=1563828the goal of the card is 2 key areas of relief.. 1) Deliver files to PM faster than FSX can process and be literally que'd up for use 2) Remove the overhead from the buss and the processor and let the card do the work instead. The high end card solution is not something a user can rate in 'frames' as it provides relief to a area of a system and FSX that enhances performance in a global manor however many users do report after using such a system with the right defrag solution their frames do in fact go up and their game smoothness improves. http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_post...D=165540#165540http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_post...D=169463#169463......