eSATA PCI card

I am looking for a PCI card for my MacPro Quad core. I do not need RAID, just the ability to connect eSATA external drives. One or two sockets will do.

Hi,
The FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E is a good choice for the Mac Pro. It supports direct connect, port multipler and can be used with Boot Camp as well.

http://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata2es2e.html

Happy hunting!

Does it support booting from an external drive? How about SMART status?

Does it support booting from an external drive? How about SMART status?

None of the inexpensive eSATA two-port cards for the Mac Pro support booting including the SeriTek/2SE2-E. This is not a big deal as the Mac Pro has four internal bays that the user can boot from. The external eSATA ports are used for additional storage.

The SeriTek/2SE2-E card will display the SMART status of the HDs attached to the card in Disk Utility.

If you want external boot capability you can mount a SATA cable on one of the extra internal SATA ports and bring that cable out through the PCI bay. A HD connected to this SATA cable will boot. However, it will not be hot swappable like a HD on the SeriTek/2SE2-E. What this means is that every time you turn the external HD on you will need to restart the computer as the Apple bus will not see the HD until a restart occurs.

I like the SeriTek/2SE2-E as I can dismount one HD and add another without restarting the computer. I already have four bootable bays internally on the Mac Pro and I just want the external eSATA port to be hot swappable.

Have fun!

Thanks for the info. I've thought of using the hidden ports but doing so seems to be a lot of trouble, and I read it won't work with Windows (not to mention it's not hot swappable). I'm using all 4 hard drive bays (1 for boot drive and apps and 3 in a software RAID).

I do have a Firewire drive for emergency booting purposes so I suppose I can eSata for Time Machine. For that, I can use a cheap eSata card.

BTW, are there more expensive cards that support boot, SMART status, hot swappable and port multiplier? If so any recommendations? Last time I did research on this, I couldn't find one.

Thanks.

A pair of tweezers or needle nose pliers - no disassembly required - to put a cable on ODD ports. I had more trouble routing up to optical drive bay, so I went out the back with NewerTech kit.

BTW, are there more expensive cards that support boot, SMART status, hot swappable and port multiplier? If so any recommendations? Last time I did research on this, I couldn't find one.

Hi,
HighPoint claims that the RocketRAID 3122 is bootable with a new EFI that is available. It will work with SMART via its web browser but not with Disk Utility or SMART applications and you will need to use a web browser to configure it. I have been hesitant to recommend it as the two ports line up tight on the Mac Pro which makes it hard to connect both ports.

Personally, I prefer the SeriTek/2SE2-E.

Happy hunting!

Most use and need Silicon Image chipset and driver.

OWC is your best place to look.

If all you want is SATA, then by all means forget about USB/FW cases that also include an eSATA port.

If you don't mind "on all the time" then do use the ODD port(s). Otherwise, except to spend $ for Sonnet, etc.

Check this.

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/esataextendercable.html

The Mac pro have 2 SATA spare slots on the motherboard. You just need a extender cable to fit it on the back of your Mac pro.
Sonnet makes a solution but you can also get any other brand. Cheap one for PC. Same thing 🙂

Here.

Get one of these. http://www.sonnettech.com/product/esataextendercable.html

The Mac Pro have 2 free SATA slots on the motherboard.. Enjoy

Ups.. double post.

I didn't thought my first post was saved.. Sorry about that guys.

Thomas Matheu wrote:
I am looking for a PCI card for my MacPro Quad core. I do not need RAID, just the ability to connect eSATA external drives. One or two sockets will do.

I am using this card in my quad 2.66. It's working fine. Had a kernel panic early on, but downloaded a Sonnet driver update and the machine is back to its normal mode of never seeing a kernel panic. The primary function for me is for fast backups of many large files.

I have not tried to boot off of it. If I need to boot off a drive, my drives also have FireWire so I could boot from them that way.

I have not tried to boot off of it.

The 2-port Sonnet Tempo eSATA card is not bootable. It uses a stock Silicon Image SiI-3132 chip and the Silicon Image drivers.

What is the NewerTech kit you mentioned? Thanks.

Still uncertain here. Can anyone clarify?....

I want to use the internal sata ports with a connector from NewerTech (mounted directly to motherboard)... with an external drive which has all the usb/FW/esata ports (Lacie by Poulton design). And, I want to use this with boot camp, xp pro, SP3 with good speedy performance--eSata style.

Will it work?

If not, what would be better, getting a pci-e card for esata, or a new drive without the usb/fw?

I already have the drive you see. Thanks.