Updated Jan 28/12
SATA cards for notebooks
Sonnet Tempo SATA Express 34 - $59 - more in soon
The Tempo SATA Express 34 controller has two external, 3Gb/s, SATA II ports, and plugs directly into a MacBook Pro (15" or 17") with an ExpressCard/54 or ExpressCard/34 slot. Connect up to 10 drives(1) for high-performance applications, such as Apple's Final Cut Pro. With two external SATA drives attached in a RAID 0 array, the Tempo SATA Express 34 can typically achive sustained disk write and read speeds of 100 and 110 MB/sec, respectively, which is about three times as fast as USB 2.0 or FireWire connections to the same drive setup. Offering native SATA speed in a compact mobile package, Sonnet's Tempo SATA Express 34 redefines the definition of disk speed for the creative person on-the-go.
SATA Cards for MacPro Towers
Sonnet Tempo SATA E2P PCIe 2 port eSATA - $59 - in stock
These cards give you 2 "I" SATA ports to connect eSATA drives
to your Mac or PC. NOTE: This is not compatible with older G4 or
G5 computers with PCI-X motherboards, only compatible with Intel
MacPro towers or the very last generation of G5 Towers with PCIe slot.
FirmTek SeriTek 2SE2-E PCIe 2 Port eSATA - $129 - special
order
Two external "I" SATA ports that support Port-Mulitiplication enclosures
or single eSATA drives. Fully compatible with all MacPro Towers and
OS X 10.6.
Sonnet Tempo SATA E4P - 4 Port "I" External #TSATAII-E4P
- $299 - in stock
Sonnet Tempo SATA X4P - 4 Port "I" External
#TSATAII-X4P - $299 - special order
These cards give you 4 external "I" SATA ports to connect eSATA
drives to your Mac or PC. SATA II complaint for future compatiblity,
but what sets these two cards apart is support for Port Multiplier to
support up to 20 drives (if put in a Port Multiplier enclosure). What
is also great is the E4P card is it is PCI Express, so it's compatible
with the latest Mac G5 or Intel Mac Pro with PCI Express, making it the
only card that is. The X4P will go into older computers with PCI-X.
FirmTek SeriTek 2ME4-E - $229 - special order
Snow Leopard Compatible, 4-Port, eSATA Host Adapter with Port Multiplier Compatibility
for PCI-Express Equipped Apple Macintosh Computers. The SeriTek/2ME4-E
is compatible with all Apple Mac Pro computers and the late 2005 PowerMac G5
(11,2) model with an available PCI-Express slot. Mac OS X 10.6.x (Snow Leopard)
32-bit and 64-bit modes are supported with direct connect enclosures like the
SeriTek/2eEN4 and port multiplier enclosures like the SeriTek/5PM. In addition,
the FirmTek driver is backward compatible with Mac OS X 10.4.6 and higher.
The new FirmTek 64-bit SeriTek/2ME4-E driver is built from the ground up to
support the latest Snow Leopard features while also providing backward compatibility
for earlier versions of Mac OS X.
HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 - $239 - special order
4 External eSATA PCI-e SATA II RAID Controller
Firmtek SeriTek/2SE4 - special order
4-Port Port Multiplier eSATA Host Adapter for PCI-X Equipped PC and Macintosh
Computers
The SeriTek/2SE4 is compatible with both PCI-X and PCI bus architecture systems, and optimal performance will be delivered on PCI-X systems like Apple's Macintosh G5. It is the only SATA controller card that offers full boot capability, allowing the fastest RAID configurations to include system operations. Four hot-swappable external SATA II ports enable individual drives or RAID arrays via built-in OS RAID 0/1 software.
Port Multiplication: The remarkable new port multiplier technology included in the SeriTek/2SE4 allows each physical eSATA port to access multiple devices at full speed and performance via port multiplier enclosures like FirmTek's new SeriTek/5PM.
SeriTek/2SE4 optimizes up to 5 drives per port by utilizing multiple lanes of the advanced PCI-Express bus architecture. When 20 high performance drives are configured in a RAID array, throughput can reach beyond 700Mb/sec, enabling up to four simultaneous HD video streams to be streamed directly to disk. Port multiplication also delivers much greater simplicity for standard applications, as a single cable connects the computer with up to five drives (previous technology required a separate cable for each external SATA drive). For more advanced applications it dramatically increases on-hand high-performance storage. With up to 20 RAID-configured drives connected simultaneously, accessible storage limits can be effectively eliminated for all but the most demanding applications.