StarTech.com 4-port PCI Express RS232 Serial Adapter Card - PCIe RS232 Serial Host Controller Card - PCIe to Serial DB9 Card - 16950 UART - Expansion Card - Windows/Linux

Product Overview

AI-generated summary

If you need a cheap, no-fuss way to add a few serial ports to a Windows or Linux box, this StarTech 4‑port PCIe RS232 card is exactly the kind of thing that tends to “just work” in the real world. £84 ex‑VAT for four DB9 RS232 ports is pretty solid value, especially for typical SMB use cases like attaching barcode/label readers, basic industrial peripherals, UPS monitoring, serial modems, or console/automation gear where you’d otherwise be hunting down an older PC with native COM ports. StarTech is usually reliable on driver behaviour and compatibility, which matters more than people think—serial is one of those areas where half-baked cards can cause endless timing/handshaking grief.

That said, I wouldn’t buy it if you’re expecting to use it for high-demand serial workloads or anything that’s latency-sensitive in a “bit-banging” way—PCIe-to-serial still has overhead, and some legacy setups can be picky. Also, double-check you truly need RS232 (voltage levels and cabling) rather than RS422/RS485; if you’re in a noisy industrial environment or long-distance runs, RS232 can be the wrong choice even if the card itself is fine. Finally, if your system doesn’t have a spare PCIe slot—or you only need one or two ports—the value starts to look worse versus simpler USB-to-serial options. Overall: good buy for “I need 4 COM ports reliably on this server/PC,” but overkill if you don’t really need that many ports or the RS232 physical layer.