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October 20, 2006
Low Cost PCI-X SATA PM Solution
Review: Addonics SATA PM PCI-X Four Port Host Adapter for Macintosh (ADS3GX4R5-EM)
By Arthur Whalem
Addonics is shipping the eSATA II PCI-X controller ($85) with four external SATA ports for PowerMac users with an available PCI slot. The model number for this SATA host adapter is ADS3GX4R5-EM. PowerMac G4 or G5 computers with Mac OS X 10.4.x can use the four external eSATA ports on the ADS3GX4R5-EM to connect with any external direct connect or SATA PM 5-bay enclosures that are currently available. There are a variety of SATA enclosures that will work with the ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter. Addonics sells the Storage Tower which can be configured for individual SATA hard drives or with a 5X1 port (model ST5X1PM). In addition, many other vendors also sell SATA enclosures that are compatible with the ADS3GX4R5-EM SATA host adapter.
During this review, an original Apple PowerMac G5 2.0GHz Dual with an Addonics SATA host adapter model ADS3GX4R5-EM was used to evaluate how this four port external eSATA host adapter would perform with a Macintosh.
System Requirements
Mac OS X 10.4.x, Windows NT, 2000,XP, 2003 Server.
Compatible with PowerMac G4 with PCI or PowerMac G5 with PCI-X.
Compliant with PCI-X bus version 1.0a.
Supports 133 MHz PCI-X with 64-bit data.
SATA I and II compliant.
Requires external SATA hard drive(s).
Requires eSATA data cables.
What is SATA PM?
While the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM can be used with individual external SATA hard drives and SATA PM enclosures, many users may want to know more about what SATA PM is. A port multiplier also known as "SATA PM" is a device that allows several SATA hard drives to use a single port on a host adapter. Port multipliers typically reside in an enclosure and are transparent to the hard drives. Port multipliers support all standard SATA hard drives. This allows SATA hard drive systems to accommodate many more hard drives than the direct connect method, which requires a single SATA host adapter port for each hard drive connected.
As you can see in the image above, up to five SATA hard drives can connect to a 5X1 port multiplier board located inside a SATA PM enclosure. A single eSATA data cable attaches the SATA PM enclosure to the Addonics (ADS3GX4R5-EM) SATA host adapter, which is mounted in a PCI or PCI-X expansion slot inside the PowerMac. For this system to work, the host adapter has to be SATA PM compatible. SATA PM performance with "just a bunch of disks" is also very good with the ADS3GX4R5-EM.
The Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM works well with SATA PM enclosures with SiI-3726 firmware 1.0115 or 1.0114. Version 1.0115 that comes with the Sonnet Fusion 500P and many other enclosures provides faster hot swap capability. Using a SATA PM enclosure with old firmware or a different chip can provide unpredictable results.
Install
The Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM SATA host adapter can be placed in any available PCI or PCI-X slot within a PowerMac G4 or G5. There are four external eSATA ports on the card that are used for connecting up to four SATA external devices. If you are installing the ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter in a PowerMac G5 with PCI-X, installing the card in slot #4 (the top slot) which supports 64-bit, 133 MHz will provide the best performance. The image below shows the card being installed in slot #4.
If you will be using the ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter in a PowerMac G5, you may want to read the Apple Tech Q&A 1307 concerning the Power Mac G5 PCI and PCI-X slots. It states," Slots 2 & 3 share a common bus. Slot 4 is on a separate bus. All cards on a common bus can only run as fast as the slowest card". If I only planned to use one ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter I would install it in slot four. It will run a little faster than if it is installed in slot 2 or 3. I have used up to three 64-bit host adapters in a PowerMac G5 with PCI-X and they all work well together. I installed the ADS3GX4R5-EM, along with a FirmTek SeriTek/1eVE4 and a Sonnet Tempo X4P in a PowerMac G5. If you will be using more than one host adapter, stay with 64-bit cards in slots 2 and 3 to maintain full speed in a PowerMac G5. If you install a 16-bit TV or video card in slot 2 and a 64-bit SATA host adapter in slot 3 you can reduce the host adapters speed by as much as 75%. The slower card slows down the bus speed of the shared slots in a PowerMac G5 PCI-X model.
The image above displays how the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM looks in System Profiler when installed in slot-4. It is labeled as a "pci1095,3124" card with a type of "Other Mass Storage Controller". Slot 3 in the image above is the four port FirmTek PCI-X card and slot 2 has the Sonnet Tempo SATA X4P installed in it. To get the ADS3GX4R5-EM to show up in the Mac OS X System Profiler PCI cards list, you will need to install the SiI-3124 Mac driver version 2.0.1.
Features
AMUG has tested the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM SATA host adapter with several SATA enclosures. It provides four external SATA PM ports. Each port can be connected to a SATA PM enclosure or to an individual external SATA hard drive. Using a single Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM with four SATA PM enclosures allows up to 20 SATA hard drives to be connected to a PowerMac G4 or G5. The host adapter supports deep sleep, hot swap and works with Disk Utility to erase hard drives or create RAID sets. This four port 64-bit SATA PM compatible host adapter sells for $85 and works with both Macintosh and PC computers.
The Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM does not support booting and it does not pass SMART data to Mac OS X for use with Hardware Monitor or Disk Utility. The Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM provides direct connect SATA hard drive performance that is very similar to the Sonnet Tempo X4P ($299) host adapter. However, the SiI-3124 v2.01 Mac driver is about 8-14% slower than the Sonnet Tempo X4P when used with SATA PM striped RAID sets. What is interesting is that the old SiI-3124 Mac driver version 0.42.4 provides substantially better SATA PM striped RAID set performance, but it does not support usage without a SATA PM enclosure. AMUG has contacted Silicon Image about this issue and we hope that an update to the SiI-3124 v2.0.1 Mac driver may improve the SATA PM striped RAID set performance.
Controller & Hard DrivesThe Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM SATA host adapter utilizes the Silicon Image SiI 3124-2CB364 Controller chip. It provides Serial ATA 3.0 Gbps and 1.5 Gbps support and is compliant with SATA 1.0, and ATA, SATA II Extensions to SATA 1.0. The SiI 3124 chip provides port multiplier compatibility with FIS-based switching, Native Command Queuing and four independent DMA channels with 2KB FIFO per channel. It supports up to 4MB of external flash and supports hot swapping SATA devices. In addition, the SiI 3124 chip supports spread spectrum clocking to reduce EMI. Having spread spectrum clocking (SSC) support built-in means that users will not need to be concerned whether SATA hard drives have SSC turned on or off to be compatible with this SATA PM host adapter. I have used the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM with several different models of SATA I and SATA II hard drives with SSC turned on and off. In each case, the hard drive was able to mount and operate correctly.
As the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter is an external SATA solution you will need an enclosure for your SATA hard drives. AMUG has tested several external SATA PM hard drive enclosures that work well with the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter. When using two SATA PM enclosures, a single Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter can support up to ten SATA hard drives and still have two ports available. While the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM will work with individual SATA hard drive enclosures too, SATA PM enclosures provide access to many more hard drives. A table of some of my favorite SATA port multiplier enclosure solutions is provided below.
Port Multiplier Enclosures
| SilverSATA V | Dual 3SA + 5x1 | Sbox-P | Fusion 500P |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 5 Bay eSATA | 6 Bay eSATA | 5 Bay eSATA | 5 Bay eSATA |
| The WiebeTech SilverSATA V port multiplier enclosure is a five bay SATA PM enclosure with a single eSATA connection on the rear. | Includes an Addonics ST5X1PM ($199) and two 3SA cages ($180) to create a 5 bay SATA PM enclosure plus an extra SATA Bay. Two 80mm fans added ($20). | The DAT Optic Sbox-P is a five bay SATA PM enclosure with a single eSATA connection on the rear. | The Sonnet Fusion 500P is a five bay SATA PM enclosure with a single eSATA connection on the rear. |
| Hot Swap Supported | Hot Swap Supported | Hot Swap Supported | Hot Swap Supported |
| SATA PM is built into the backplane design. Uses a single 5" SATA cable to connect the backplane to the rear eSATA port. | Backplane mounting. Uses 11" SATA cables to connect each drive to port multiplier. | Backplane mounting. Uses 11" SATA cable to connect each drive to port multiplier. | Backplane mounting. Uses 8" SATA cable to connect each drive to port multiplier. |
| One PM eSATA port | PM eSATA port plus 1 | One PM eSATA port | One PM eSATA port |
| 96-100 degrees | 114-118 degrees | 111-116 degrees | 114.8 - 120.2 degrees |
| Supports Sleep Mode | Supports Sleep Mode | Supports Sleep Mode | Supports Sleep Mode |
| Louder than PowerMac | Quieter than PowerMac | Little louder than PowerMac | Quieter than PowerMac |
| Advantage: 5 bays in a single enclosure. Temperature alarm. Keeps hard drives very cool. Drive activity and power lights. Small foot print. Sturdy design. No assembly required other than installing hard drives. | Advantage: 6 bays in a single enclosure. Can add a quiet fan upgrade. Drive trays protect hard drives and are easy to mount drives in. Temperature alarm. Can be used in a single cable per drive configuration by using a different rear panel cover. | Advantage: This is a quiet five bay PM enclosure. Provides DirectAir SATA hard drive trays. Temp. alarm. Temperature and RPM LCD on each tray. Sturdy design. No assembly required other than installing hard drives. | Advantage: This is a quiet five bay PM enclosure. Provides drive activity lights and user configurable fan. Small foot print. Sturdy design. No assembly required other than installing hard drives. |
| Cons: Is not quiet. No easy way to modify power supply fan noise. Expensive. | Cons: Is not quiet with the standard fan configuration. Requires assembly. No hard drive activity lights. | Cons: No drive activity lights. Full size foot print. | Cons: Inserting trays into the enclosure may seem stiff in some bays. |
| $999.95 | $399 = ST5X1PM and two 3SA, fans & eSATA cable. | $485 | $499.95 |
Stability
During this review a Sonnet Fusion 500P was used to test how the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter performed when hot swapping drives in and out of a SATA PM enclosure. The SiI-3124 version 2.0.1 driver that was provided with the card was used for these tests. When individual hard drives were mounted they were able to be hot swapped in and out of the enclosure without turning off the computer or the enclosure. Twenty-five SATA hard drives were hot swapped in and out of the enclosure. All of them mounted within 9 seconds without any issues.
Next, a RAID mounting stability test was completed with five Maxtor Maxline III 7V300F0 hard drives configured in a striped RAID set. The hard drives were ejected and placed back in the enclosure in a different order. Twenty out of twenty times the five drive striped RAID set was able to hot swap and mount within 9 seconds of the last hard drive being inserted.
SleepSleep mode was tested with the ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter using a Sonnet Fusion 500P SATA PM enclosure. A PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0Ghz using Mac OS X 10.4.8 was able to sleep with the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter installed along with the Mac driver. The hard drives attached to the ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter were left mounted and the computer was placed in sleep mode. Once the PowerMac G5 was awake the hard drives were able to be used within 5-10 seconds.
If the drives were dismounted before placing the PoweMac G5 in sleep mode, they were able to be mounted using Disk Utility once the Mac was awake.
One tip that applies to most host adapters is to be sure to uncheck the "Put the hard disks to sleep when possible" box found in System Preferences:Energy Saver of Mac OS X. Leaving that preference checked can cause sleep related errors. This is the most common user error I have found with SATA host adapters.
The only sleep issue I found with the ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter was when the SATA PM enclosure was turned off while the PowerMac was in sleep mode. In that case, Mac OS X will crash with the spinning beach ball. Even if you turn the enclosure back on before waking the PowerMac the results are the same. The key to using the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM with the SiI-3124 version 2.0.1 Mac driver is not to turn off the enclosure while the PowerMac is in sleep mode.
If you want the SATA PM enclosure off while the PowerMac is in sleep mode dismount the drive(s) and turn the enclosure off before putting the Mac to sleep. Or leave the enclosure on while the Mac is in sleep mode. Just don't turn off the enclosure (connected to the card) while in sleep mode. This confuses the host adapter. Turning the enclosure off during sleep is really a user error. The computer does not know what you did (as it was asleep) and has to rely on additional programming to check whether the enclosure is still there. Good drivers can handle this situation, but it is best not to turn off the SATA PM enclosure while in sleep mode.
SATA PM PerformanceIn this test, a PowerMac G5 2.0GHz Dual running Mac OS X 10.4.8 was used with the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter installed in slot 4. A Sonnet Fusion 500P SATA PM enclosure was attached to the host adapter with five Maxtor 300GB SATA hard drives model 7V300F0 configured in a striped RAID set using Disk Utility. DiskTester 10GB read and write tests were performed using a run area test. DiskTester was used to measure the combined performance of the striped RAID set and the Mac OS X operating system. It is a Terminal application which requires using a command line executable. Using the command: ./disktester run-area-test --chunk-size 128M --test-size 10G --delta-percent 10 DriveName, puts DiskTester 2.0 to work testing how the RAID will perform when empty, 10% full, 20% full and so on. This same test was also run using the PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz with the Sonnet Tempo SATA X4P host adapter installed for comparison.
Maxtor 7V300F0 5 Drive 1.36TB Striped RAID - DiskTester 10GB Test
| SATA PM | PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz | ADS3GX4R5-EM 2.01 Mac driver |
PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz | Tempo X4P |
| Area Full | write | read | write | read |
| empty | 192 | 214 | 214 | 248 |
| 10% | 193 | 214 | 216 | 248 |
| 20% | 193 | 214 | 216 | 248 |
| 30% | 192 | 214 | 216 | 248 |
| 40% | 193 | 214 | 216 | 247 |
| 50% | 192 | 214 | 216 | 248 |
| 60% | 193 | 214 | 216 | 244 |
| 70% | 193 | 214 | 216 | 245 |
| 80% | 192 | 214 | 217 | 247 |
| 90% | 193 | 214 | 217 | 223 |
| Average | 192.6 | 214 | 216 | 244.6 |
| MSRP | $85 | $299.95 |
used in a Sonnet Fusion 500P SATA PM enclosure. The Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM SATA
host adapter was mounted in slot 4.
As you can see in the table above, when using five Maxtor Maxline III 300GB model 7V300F0 hard drives with the SATA PM enclosure, the Sonnet Tempo X4P was approximately 11% faster writing data on average and approximately 14% faster when reading data. Based on this information it appears that the Sonnet Tempo X4P is faster than the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM when the SiI-3124 version 2.0.1 Mac driver is installed.
In the table below, the same DiskTester 2.0 test was completed with five Seagate 320GB 7200.10 SATA II hard drives. In this setup, the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM is also slower than the Sonnet Tempo X4P. The Sonnet Tempo X4P was approximately 13% faster when reading and writing data on average. You can see the results in the table below.Seagate 320GB 5 Drive 1.45TB Striped RAID - DiskTester 10GB Test
| PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz | ADS3GX4R5-EM 2.01 Mac driver |
PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz | Tempo X4P | |
| Area Full | write | read | write | read |
| empty | 193 | 210 | 219 | 243 |
| 10% | 194 | 210 | 221 | 243 |
| 20% | 195 | 210 | 221 | 243 |
| 30% | 194 | 210 | 220 | 243 |
| 40% | 194 | 210 | 221 | 243 |
| 50% | 195 | 209 | 221 | 242 |
| 60% | 194 | 210 | 221 | 237 |
| 70% | 194 | 210 | 221 | 237 |
| 80% | 194 | 210 | 221 | 234 |
| 90% | 194 | 209 | 221 | 220 |
| Average | 194.1 | 209.8 | 220.7 | 238.5 |
| MSRP | $85 | $299.95 |
As I performed additional tests with different hard drive combinations it was clear that the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter was up to 14% slower than the Sonnet X4P when using the Silicon Image SiI-3124 version 2.0.1 Mac driver with SATA PM striped RAID sets. In the table below, eight Seagate 320GB 7200.10 hard drives were mounted on two ports of the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter using two SATA PM enclosures. An eight drive SATA PM striped RAID set was created and tested.Seagate 8 Drive 2.3TB Striped RAID - DiskTester 10GB Test
| PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz | ADS3GX4R5-EM 2.01 Mac driver |
PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz | Tempo X4P | |
| Area Full | write | read | write | read |
| empty | 398 | 406 | 428 | 492 |
| 10% | 398 | 406 | 429 | 492 |
| 20% | 398 | 405 | 428 | 486 |
| 30% | 398 | 404 | 429 | 489 |
| 40% | 398 | 403 | 428 | 480 |
| 50% | 399 | 403 | 429 | 480 |
| 60% | 397 | 402 | 428 | 461 |
| 70% | 397 | 402 | 424 | 436 |
| 80% | 374 | 401 | 383 | 401 |
| 90% | 349 | 361 | 353 | 356 |
| Average | 390.6 | 399.3 | 415.9 | 457.3 |
| MSRP | $85 | $299.95 |
used with four in a DAT Optic Sbox-P SATA PM enclosure and four in a Sonnet Fusion 500P.
Two ports on the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter were used.
In the eight drive striped RAID set test above using two SATA PM enclosures, the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter was 6% slower writing data and 14% slower reading data on average.
I was a little disappointed with the SATA PM performance of the Silicon Image 2.01 Mac driver. I remembered that previous AMUG reviews using the SiI-3124 version 0.42.4.pkg Mac driver provided faster SATA PM performance. I installed the older SiI-3124 0.42.4.pkg Mac driver on a fresh hard drive and ran the same exact eight drive Seagate 320GB 7200.10 test. The results are provided in the table below.
Seagate 8 Drive 2.3TB Striped RAID - Sil3124 0.42.4 Driver
| PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz | ADS3GX4R5-EM 0.42.4 Mac driver |
PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz | Tempo X4P | |
| Area Full | write | read | write | read |
| empty | 437 | 464 | 428 | 492 |
| 10% | 441 | 464 | 429 | 492 |
| 20% | 440 | 464 | 428 | 486 |
| 30% | 442 | 465 | 429 | 489 |
| 40% | 441 | 466 | 428 | 480 |
| 50% | 442 | 466 | 429 | 480 |
| 60% | 442 | 465 | 428 | 461 |
| 70% | 428 | 443 | 424 | 436 |
| 80% | 379 | 403 | 383 | 401 |
| 90% | 351 | 360 | 353 | 356 |
| Average | 424.3 | 446 | 415.9 | 457.3 |
| MSRP | $85 | $299.95 |
used with four in a DAT Optic Sbox-P SATA PM enclosure and four in a Sonnet Fusion 500P.
The Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter was used with the old SiI3124 0.42.4.pkg driver.
As you can see the old SiI-3124 Mac driver version 0.42.4 outperforms the new 2.0.1 version when used with SATA PM striped RAID sets by 8% on writes and 11% on reading data. If the new SiI-3124 2.01.Mac driver was optimized for SATA PM striped RAID sets it could perform much better. The SiI-3124 Mac driver version 0.42.4 was released over a year ago and is no longer supported by Silicon Image. It will only work with SATA PM enclosures and has more bugs than the new version, but it performs better with SATA PM striped RAID sets. If you only plan to use the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM with SATA PM enclosures, you may want to consider installing the 0.42.4 driver instead of 2.0.1. However, most users will want the capability to use SATA PM and direct connect enclosures with the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM. As such, the 2.0.1 driver while 8-11% slower with SATA PM striped RAID sets will be more compatible for most users.
Direct Connect PerformanceThe next set of tests demonstrates how the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM performs when used with one hard drive per SATA port, also known as the "Direct Connect" method. Two Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM SATA host adapters were installed in a PowerMac G5 2.0 Dual and the SiI-3124 Mac driver 2.0.1 was utilized. The same eight Seagate 320GB 7200.10 hard drives that were used in the SATA PM tests above, were setup in a direct connect configuration with each hard drive on its own port. Two cards provide eight ports. The results were compared to using two FirmTek SeriTek/1eVE4 four port PCI-X host adapters.
Seagate 8 Drive Direct Connect Striped RAID - DiskTester 10GB Test
| PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz | ADS3GX4R5-EM Two cards | PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz | SeriTek/1eVE4 Two cards |
|
| Area Full | write | read | write | read |
| empty | 514 | 549 | 534 | 576 |
| 10% | 556 | 582 | 548 | 577 |
| 20% | 548 | 567 | 541 | 564 |
| 30% | 516 | 551 | 533 | 552 |
| 40% | 517 | 532 | 510 | 531 |
| 50% | 490 | 509 | 473 | 507 |
| 60% | 459 | 475 | 447 | 474 |
| 70% | 428 | 442 | 426 | 442 |
| 80% | 381 | 406 | 377 | 405 |
| 90% | 348 | 361 | 351 | 360 |
| Average | 475.7 | 497.4 | 474 | 498.8 |
| MSRP | $85 | $139.95 |
The FirmTek SeriTek/1eVE4 provides boot capability and passes SMART data to Mac OS X while the Silicon Image 2.0.1 drivers do not. The SeriTek/1eVE PCI-X is the fastest direct connect SATA host adapter that AMUG has tested. As you can see the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapters were able to keep up with the SeriTek/1eVE card based on the averages. It appears that the SiI-3124 Mac driver version 2.0.1 was optimized
for direct connect setups. It performs very well with individual SATA hard drives on each port.In order to see how the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter would perform with a fast four drive striped RAID set, four Seagate 250GB 7200.10 hard drives were mounted in the WiebeTech SilverSATA IV SJ four bay SATA enclosure. The same DiskTester tests were performed with a single Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM and then a SeriTek/1eVE host adapter, while each was installed in slot 4. The results are provided below.
Four Drive Direct Connect Striped RAID - Seagate 250GB 7200.10
| PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz | ADS3GX4R5-EM 2.01 Mac driver | PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz | SeriTek/1eVE4 Single card |
|
| Area Full | write | read | write | read |
| empty | 300 | 307 | 299 | 308 |
| 10% | 304 | 305 | 305 | 305 |
| 20% | 301 | 302 | 303 | 301 |
| 30% | 289 | 291 | 291 | 291 |
| 40% | 281 | 280 | 280 | 281 |
| 50% | 269 | 269 | 268 | 269 |
| 60% | 252 | 251 | 252 | 252 |
| 70% | 233 | 234 | 234 | 234 |
| 80% | 214 | 215 | 215 | 215 |
| 90% | 188 | 188 | 189 | 189 |
| Average | 263.1 | 264.2 | 263.6 | 264.5 |
| MSRP | $85 | $139.95 |
When you examine the average data, it is apparent that the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM with four hard drives connected provides performance very similar to the FirmTek SeriTek/1eVE4. It does not have boot capability or SMART support but it is also $54.95 less expensive and provides SATA PM capability.
The Value Option
The number of commercial SATA PM host adapters available for the PowerMac G4 or G5 has been limited in the past. That is about to change. The availability of Silicon Image Mac drivers allows low cost SATA host adapters which contain the Silicon Image SiI-3124 chip set to work with PowerMac PCI and PCI-X models. While the SiI-3124 version 2.0.1 Mac driver does not provide boot support and does not pass SMART data to Mac OS X, it does allow individual external SATA hard drives or SATA PM enclosures to work with a PowerMac G4 or G5 with an available PCI or PCI-X slot.The Sonnet Tempo X4P is a great SATA PM host adapter but at $299 it is expensive. The $85 Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM provides SATA PM and direct connect support at a very reasonable price in comparison. The SiI-3124 Mac drivers are not as nice as the Sonnet Tempo X4P drivers which provide SMART support, but they work.
The FirmTek SeriTek/1eVE4 provides four ports with boot support and passes SMART data to Mac OS X. It is a great SATA host adapter and costs $139.95. However, it does NOT support SATA PM enclosures. By installing the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter inside a PowerMac you can enjoy SATA PM compatibility at an affordable price. While you could just install an Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM SATA host adapter and use it for SATA PM and direct connect enclosures, I find having a FirmTek SeriTek/1eVE4 in the slot next to it, is an awesome combination. The FirmTek card provides direct connect and boot compatibility while the Addonics card provides SATA PM connections.
The SATA PM striped RAID set performance of the SiI-3124 version 2.0.1 Mac driver should be able to be optimized in a future update to provide performance similar to the SiI 0.42.4 Mac driver. If that is accomplished the SATA PM striped RAID set performance of the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM should be much closer to that of the Sonnet Tempo X4P. If Silicon Image could add SMART support for Mac OS X to the SiI-3124 Mac driver that would be even better.
Pros
Works with PowerMac G4 400 through PowerMac G5 PCI-X models.
Provides four external SATA PM or direct connect ports.
A single port can mount up to five drives with a SATA PM enclosure.
Works with SATA I and SATA II hard drives.
Works with SATA PM enclosures.
Supports hot swap and sleep.
Utilizes FIS-based port multiplier switching.
Works with individually formatted hard drives.
Works with RAID1 or RAID0 created RAID sets.
SiI-3124 Mac driver version 2.0.1 included.
Provides nice striped RAID performance with direct connect setups.
Supports the WiebeTech SilverSATA II.
Low cost, value SATA PM/direct connect solution.
Cons
Requires installing additional drivers for Mac OS X.
Does not support booting.
Does not pass SMART data to Mac OS X.
Sonnet Tempo X4P may be faster with some hard drive setups.
No uninstall program for SiI-3124 Mac driver.
Drivers are not as refined as FirmTek and Sonnet drivers.
Users report this card does not work properly with the PowerMac G5 PCI model which can be identified by the fact that it only provides four memory slots.
Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM gets 4 AMUGs out of 5!
The Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter provides PowerMac users with an inexpensive way to support both SATA PM and direct connect SATA enclosures. While this host adapter works very well for supporting SATA PM enclosures on a PowerMac, it may not be as fast as the four port Sonnet Tempo X4P ($299.95). However, if you are looking for an inexpensive solution for adding SATA PM connections to your PCI PowerMac, this is it. SATA PM enclosures allow users to expand their storage capability as they need it. With up to five hard drive bays available in a single SATA PM enclosure users can add lots of storage. Once you consider that the Addonics ADS3GX4R5-EM host adapter can handle up to four SATA PM enclosures, you start to see the power of this card. Having the ability to mount up to twenty SATA hard drives on a single Macintosh host adapter is very cool.
Contact Information:Addonics Technologies
2466 Kruse Drive,
San Jose, CA 95131 USA
408-433-3899
addonics@addonics.com
http://www.addonics.com
Copyright 2006
Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG). Visit AMUG at www.amug.org for news, discounts and friends.
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