Anyone using a PCIe SATA controller?

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Level 3

631 points

Anyone using a PCIe SATA controller?

Hello,

I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts on the best card to use for hooking up external HDD's via eSATA and PCIe. Some of the reviews on various retail sites were pretty negative. I have a OWC dual bay enclosure with only eSATA ports (Ugh!) and need to connect it to my G5.

Thanks for any tips,
m

iMac i7, pmG5 2.3 dual., Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Jul 11, 2010 2:30 PM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,409 points

Jul 11, 2010 3:29 PM in response to Max Miles

Hi Max, I had the same problem when I lost my G4s with SATA cards, I got the OWC Speedy3G PCI-e Serial-ATA 2-Port 3G Host Adapter, it isn't bootable, but work fine, even for RAID.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/PCIESATA2OB/

If you want faster or bootability, then you need a Firmtek...

http://tinyurl.com/27yz9bz

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Answer 2

Max Miles Author

Level 3

631 points

Jul 11, 2010 3:34 PM in response to BDAqua

Hey BD, this looks good. How's the card's software interface? Is it easy to eject disks? I remember an eSATA expresscard I used to use with a macbook pro and the software never seemed to eject or otherwise put away the external drives very well.

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Answer 3

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Jul 11, 2010 3:55 PM in response to Max Miles

"Ugh!" is probably mis-placed. Those enclosures with FW/USB/eSATA have their set of problems. Sonnet warns not to use their 2-port Tempo E2P with many / most of those.

SATA controller + case = solid performance and reliable on G5.

FirmTek has a good reputation, even bootable cards; and their hot swap cases $$ are also nice.

Never hurts to see what Mike's AccelerateYourMac site has in reports.

And, this topic gets posted almost once a week or so.

Plus, if you want to go internal, people have out-fitted Quad G5s even with 3 add'l drives and do it yourself or Sonnet Jive kit + controller, too.

For a number of external, FW has lots of issues, and with a Port Multiplier case you can run 3-4 drives off one channel (on 4-port card, I wouldn't do it in the cheap 2-channel variety).

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

250,409 points

Jul 11, 2010 4:03 PM in response to Max Miles

How's the card's software interface?

No Interface, installer installs on or two kexts is all.

Is it easy to eject disks?

Yes, in the Finder just need to click the eject, has worked every single time.

here's the RAID0 results for 10.4 vs 10.5

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Answer 5

Max Miles Author

Level 3

631 points

Jul 11, 2010 4:13 PM in response to The hatter

Hatter, this answers several questions thanks.

One question I had with my OWC enclosure was if the two eSATA ports could be used to daisy chain multiple enclosures. (have the two drives in the enclosure outputting through one eSATA port, then have another enclosure connected via the second port) From what you're saying it sounds like if I wanted to do that I'd need to get a 4 port/w port multiplier..

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Answer 6

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Jul 12, 2010 12:25 AM in response to Max Miles

Hi-

The OWC cases are direct connect, which means one port per drive.
You can't daisy chain them.
Whatever controller card it is that you use, the OWC case will require two ports for two drives.

In the case of a housing that supports port multiplication, like the Firmtek Seritek 5PM, when connected to a port multiplier controller, up to 20 drives are supported with a 4 port card and 4x 5 bay housings.

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