FIS-based Port Multiplier-aware to support up to 10 disk drives
Bus Interface ExpressCard/34
External Connectors - Two eSATA
Rating: - Gathering dust because it doesn't work with Seagate and WD
I purchased this to use the eSata interface on my external drives from Seagate. When I started to notice some issues with my MacBook Pro with respect to accessing the drive and file permissions, there was a small note at the bottom of the Sonnet web site stating that there were driver issues with OS X and that the next release should remedy them.
A couple months later, the site was updated to state that there is a known incompatibility with a certain Oxford Semiconductor chipset used by Seagate and Western Digital. It is odd that this card has issues with the #1 and #2 makers of drives.
I am not saying it's Sonnet's fault, but you will be SOL if you're using those FreeAgent Pro or MyBook drives.
Rating: - 2 Port Tempo Sata Express34 Card
Highly recommended!
I have a Asus F3Sv-x1 laptop which I used this card for. I (without checking) thought I needed an express34 card but in reality this laptop supports an express34 and express54. The sata card is fast. It leaves usb 2.0/firewire in the dust. I was shocked out fast files/folders were copied from external HD to laptop via expresscard. highly recommend for copying large files.
This device supports my mac as well (double bonus).
Con - expensive.
Pro - supports high transfer speeds; supports both mac/pc
Rating: - Finder hangs under Tiger and Leopard with port multipler enclosures
I originally bought this with the Sonnet Fusion 500P 5BAY Sata Enclosure back in July 2007. Doing file copies between a single drive and a two-disk raid 0 in the Fusion 500P bay would result in consistent finder hangs, requiring hard reboot. I also managed to hang finder copies using transfers between two disks. This was with a 2007 Macbook Pro 2.4GHz running Tiger. The espress34 card seemed to work ok with a two disk enclosure (Firmtek SeriTek/1EN2 and SeriTek/2EN2). I returned the Fusion 500P and used the espress34 card with my dual bay enclosures.
The last few months I have been using the card with the Firmtek SeriTek/5PM. This seemed to be ok unless I was doing parallel finder copies, in which case it would hang again. Then I obtained a new Samsung 1T drive (the disk enclosure contains WD 1T drives, Samsung 500/250 drives and Seagate 750G drives). Doing a disk copy between any drive and the new Samsung would result in the usual finder hang, requiring a hard reboot. Doing copies between data on the five bay enclosure and a two bay enclosure containing the Samsung disk worked perfectly. Again, this was with the Macbook Pro running Tiger. So, I decided to upgrade to Leopard 10.5.2; same problem, hang, when copying between drives on the five bay enclosure. The driver is the "latest" one from the Sonnet website (dated 3/6/2007, v1.1.9).
Hence, this card is not reliable when using port multiplier enclosures.
I would not recommended this card for use in port multipler enclosures.
Rating: - Works w/ Leopard and Lacie d2 Quadra
Haven't had much time to check speed, but seems to be one of the only cards out right now that will support a Lacie drive on Leopard 10.5.1 Good luck
2PORT Tempo Sata EXPRESS34 Controller Esata Port Mac Win Reviews
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