Native PCI Express (PCIe) x4 host bus interface for high-performance applications
FIS-based Port Multiplier-aware to support up to 20 disks drives
Four eSATA External Connectors
Spread Spectrum Clocking (SSC) support for compatibility with all SATA drives
Rating: - eSATA PCI - E great for Mac
This was easy to install and worked perfectly right out of the box on my Mac Pro (early 08).
Rating: - Great card, but one significant complaint
I'm using this card in a Mac Pro. Performance is fine, and the card does pass SMART data and temperature to OSX (several other cards that I tried don't). Unfortunately, drives connected to this card never spin down. Doesn't matter if the computer has sat idle for hours (with the internal, and Firewire drives having spun down), the eSATA drives keep spinning. Same thing when the computer is put to sleep, or when the drives are unmounted from the desktop.
Sonnet tech support confirmed that the card blocks HD sleep commands.
It's not a deal-breaker, but still a disappointment.
Rating: - Fast, Reliable, Flexible
I've been using the E4P for over a year in a Mac Quad G5 system, controlling both a small single-drive enclosure and a 10-drive RAID system.
I was a bit hesitant to go with a port-multiplier system, thinking that it would adversely affect performance. But both disk subsystems perform extremely well, with the RAID able to sustain uncompressed 1080/60i HDTV without a problem. You could probably get a bit more performance by not using the port multiplier, but then you are limited in the number of drives you can connect, since the densest SATA controller I know of is just 8 ports.
I'm satisfied enough with this that I'm ordering another to install into a new Mac Pro (Intel-based) system.
Tempo 4CH Sata II Pcie Controller Ext E4P Multiplier Reviews
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