Choosing and installing 4 port SATA card

[dark_hag666]

I have a Windows Home Server (v1) but my motherboard has run out of ports so I am looking at getting a 4 port pci-e card. I won't be needing RAID just extra ports.

So far I've found:
Adaptec 1430SA
Highpoint RocketRAID RR2640x4SGL
StarTech PEXSATA24E

These are all pci-e x4 cards with 4 internal sata ports

Has anyone got oppinions on any of these? I recognise the Adaptec and Highpoint names as reasonably established brands, but I hadn't heard of StarTech, should that worry me?

Also, the card with be installed into an existing machine for extra drives, not as the boot drive; however the pdf manuals for each seem to indicate I will need to create a floppy driver disk. Is this true? Can I not just install from the CD/download zip?

Any advice would be welcome.

 

[stulid]

I would also go for the reputable named maker so the driver support is also up to par.

I will need to create a floppy driver disk. Is this true? Can I not just install from the CD/download zip?

Only had to do this when trying to install the OS onto a drive attached to one of these cards, as you are adding it to an existing OS then it should just ask for drivers when its detected the new hardware.

 

[dark_hag666]

Only had to do this when trying to install the OS onto a drive attached to one of these cards, as you are adding it to an existing OS then it should just ask for drivers when its detected the new hardware.

Yeah, according to the manuals you use a floppy and tell the install driver wizard to look on A:.

The manuals for all three have independant sections for installing with a fresh OS (F6 and install from floppy) and installing onto and existing OS. But if you, and hopefully other posters, have installed without a floppy then I wont worry.