Customer Reviews

Syba Combo IDE(1)/SATA(2) PCI Card SY-VIA-150

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought this in order to replace the older IDE drive on one of my PC's but noticed something odd when I tried to use it. Specifically, I COULD get an SATA drive to function just fine with this card as a second drive but I COULD NOT boot to that drive. Looking around a bit, I managed to find documentation on the manufacturer (IOcrest) web site that reads, "Can not boot from this card. There is no BIOS on card." In fact, it's the very first bullet item in the list of specs so apparently even the manufacturer thinks that's a pretty important fact. I've submitted a request to Amazon to update the description for this product so hopefully the omission will be corrected soon.

The bottom line is this: if you want to buy this card to use an SATA drive (or two) IN ADDITION TO the IDE drive(s) you already have then this card will work fine. However, if you intended to use this to REPLACE the IDE drives you have with SATA drives then you need to look elsewhere. As of this writing there is at least one alternative available for about the same price that does include BIOS (i.e., that will allow you to boot / completely replace IDE with SATA). Search for "Rosewill RC-215 VIA PCI SATA 1.5G" and you'll find it.

The Syba Combo IDE/SATA PCI card installs without difficulty. The documentation is a bit sparse with a couple of errors, but I was able to complete the process without difficulty. Drivers supplied worked great with XP Service Pack 3. Works well with WD 1TB Caviar Green SATA HD

I needed some more SATA connection in my PC and this card helped me out in a rough spot.

Worked exactly as advertized....connected the card into a spare slot, boom....instant additional IDE/SATA connections for drives, CD/DVD-ROMs, etc.

Thanks!

needed sata/raid control to enable installation of sony bluray

rom drive in an old computer with windows xp...

drive and raid ...no problem. has no effect on other cards, i.e. hd2600pro ati

dual hdcp output.

the card was a bargin at amazon.com

Plugged it right in, works well with vista and windows 7 64 bit. Have not tried it with XP but I'm sure it's fine!

Syba Combo IDE(1)/SATA(2) PCI Card SY-VIA-150

This card is working well, but I have to download the driver for using it with Windows 7 64 bit. The manufacturer isn't Syba like is at the advertisement, and don't have the user's manual. The manufacturer is IOCREST and I spent much time searching the drivers to put it working.

I bought this card to modify the firmware on my Xbox 360 (BENQ Drive). I plugged the card into my Windows XP machine, DID NOT INSTALL THE DRIVERS, and easily flashed my Xbox 360 drive. The card works very well. It does everything I wanted it to do.

I bought this card in conjunction with IDE and mobile SATA racks so that I could have quick access to IDE and SATA drives. If you want this card to boot an older non-SATA motherboard to SATA drives, then this is not what you need. I was looking for a card to allow me access to SATA and IDE drives with an older non-SATA motherboard. It is perfect for this and works well. The driver installation is a bit tricky, though.

Windows XP system blue-screens when this card is installed, and SATA 1.5TB hard drive contents were corrupted after attaching to this controller (drive worked fine when was attached to motherboard SATA controller). Perhaps it's a driver issue and not a hardware problem (I used the VIA driver on the supplied CD), but frankly it's not worth the hassle. I didn't mind that the card wasn't bootable, since I was planning to use it as a secondary controller.

This is not for windows 7. This card is ancient, comes with ancient drivers, the only thing in the install that even runs is a raid setup - A raid setup for a 2 disk array? Card is a total loss, will have to chalk this up to "Dude, you should have known better" - stay away from SYB. It even comes in someone else's packaging, no model number on anything, etc.