Optional Controller Card

Rosewill was kind enough to send along a new RC-218 PCIe eSATA controller card. Its packaging is very similar to that of the R2-Raid enclosure. Included with the card are a manual, driver CD, one floppy disk (for a new OS installation), two red SATA cables and a low-profile bracket.


The RC-218 is a small PCIe 4x card with a black PCB. There are four SATA connections on the end of the card, and two eSATA connections on the back of the card. The RC-218 features a Marvel chipset capable of supporting four channels at a time, which means that if the two eSATA connections are used, then only two of the four internal connections can be used at a time. There are jumpers on the card that allow the user to select which ports are enabled.