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August 17, 2007
Cool 4-Port PCIe 8x SATA Host Adapter
A Review of the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM Four Port PCI-Express SATA II Host Adapter
By Arthur Whalem
Addonics is shipping the ADSA3GPX8-4EM ($199) SATA host adapter for Mac Pro. This SATA PM compatible PCI Express host adapter supports Mac OS X 10.4.8+, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server, and Vista computers with an available PCIe slot. The Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM utilizes a serial to parallel PCI bridge interface that allows the Silicon Image SiI-3124 chip to function with a PCIe bus. The Addonics design incorporates a small fan and heat sink assembly that keeps the card cool. Four external eSATA data ports are provided on the rear of the card for use with external SATA hard drive enclosures. When using four, 5-bay port multiplier enclosures the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM can support up to twenty SATA hard drives. The purpose of this review is to determine how the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM will perform with an Apple Mac Pro.
System Requirements
Mac OS X Version 10.4.8+ or a Windows operating system.
Requires a computer with an available PCIe slot.
Supports up to 4 external SATA hard drives using a direct connect enclosure.
Supports up to 20 external hard drives using multiple, 5-bay SATA PM enclosures.
InstallationPCI Express also known as PCIe, communicates using 250MB per second data lanes. The available PCI Express bandwidth is determined by the number of data lanes that the device can accommodate. One lane, four lanes, eight lanes, or 16 lanes are some of the typical PCIe configurations available. The Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM SATA host adapter is an eight lane card that is also compatible with four lane slots. When installed in slot 4 of an Apple Mac Pro the ADSA3GPX8-4EM is provided with 8x bandwidth. Slot 4 is an eight lane slot by default. Mac Pro users will need to install the Silicon Image SiI3124 32-bit universal Mac OS X 10.4.x BASE driver in order for the Mac Pro to recognize the Addonics SATA host adapter.
The Apple Mac Pro has four PCI Express slots. It utilizes the "Expansion Slot Utility" to configure the speed of the PCIe slots. The Expansion Slot Utility can be found within Mac OS X at Macintosh HD: System:Library: CoreServices: Expansion Slot Utility. It will usually automatically launch when it detects that a card has been installed in a slot that is slower than the cards maximum speed.
In the example above, the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM is installed in the top slot of an Apple Mac Pro which is slot 4. There are four configurations that the Expansion Slot Utility allows the user to select. However, most users will want to maintain the video card in a 16 lane slot. With that being the case, only the first two configurations maintain a 16 lane video card setup. When using more than one four lane SATA host adapter, the second Expansion Slot Utility configuration allows PCIe slots 3 and 4 to both provide four lane performance.
The Apple Expansion Slot Utility displays the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM as an eight lane device. In order to determine if the ADSA3GPX8-4EM will perform different in a four lane bus versus an eight lane PCIe bus, a ten drive striped RAID set was utilized to test both configurations.
8 Lane vs 4 Lane
Two 5-bay SATA PM enclosures with five Maxline III 300GB model 7V300F0 hard drives installed in each enclosure were attached to two ports on the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM which was mounted in a Mac Pro 2.66 GHz using the Silicon Image 2.0.3 Mac OS X driver with Mac OS X 10.4.10. DiskTester 2.0 was used to measure the striped RAID set performance. Using the command: ./disktester run-area-test --chunk-size 128M --test-size 10G --delta-percent 10 DriveName, displays how the 10 drive striped RAID set performed when empty, 10% full, 20% full and so on.
ADSA3GPX8-4EM Ten Drive Maxline III 7V300F0 Striped RAID set
| Area Full |
4x Slot
|
8x Slot
|
||
|
Write
|
Read
|
Write
|
Read
|
|
| empty |
406
|
466
|
416
|
463
|
| 10% |
408
|
466
|
417
|
467
|
| 20% |
408
|
467
|
417
|
467
|
| 30% |
409
|
466
|
417
|
465
|
| 40% |
409
|
465
|
417
|
465
|
| 50% |
410
|
463
|
418
|
465
|
| 60% |
408
|
466
|
419
|
467
|
| 70% |
409
|
467
|
417
|
467
|
| 80% |
408
|
464
|
417
|
467
|
| 90% |
409
|
444
|
418
|
443
|
| 100% | 370 | 374 | 365 | 377 |
| Average |
405
|
455
|
413
|
456
|
| RAID Size |
2.73TB
|
2.73TB
|
As you can see in the table above, using the default Mac Pro PCIe eight lane configuration with the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM installed in slot 4 can slightly enhance write performance. However, the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM performs fine whether it is installed in a 4 lane or an 8 lane PCIe slot.
When users examine the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM SATA host adapter with Mac OS X System Profiler they will find that it is displayed as a PCI to PCI Bridge with a card name of pci1095,3124. The image above shows an example of the ADSA3GPX8-4EM installed in slot 4.
Features
The Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM SATA host adapter utilizes the Silicon Image SATALink SiI3124 chip via a serial to parallel PCI bridge interface. This eight lane physical PCI-Express hardware allows the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM to provide high performance when twenty hard drives are attached to the host adapter. Using the four external eSATA data ports mounted on the ADSA3GPX8-4EM with four 5-bay SATA PM enclosures allows this 8x PCIe SATA host adapter to provide a large capacity, high performance data storage interface.The SiI-3124 provides Serial ATA II technology capable of running SATA second generation speeds of 3Gbps. It supports FIS-based switching for enhanced port multiplier performance. It also supports NCQ, spread spectrum clocking to reduce EMI and provides four independent DMA channels with 2KB FIFO per channel. The ADSA3GPX8-4EM SATA host adapter supports deep sleep, hot swap and works with Disk Utility to format hard drives and create RAID sets.
No Boot or SMART Capability
The Silicon Image 2.0.3 Mac Pro driver does not provide boot capability. In addition, the Silicon Image driver lacks SMART data support with Disk Utility. Users can verify this by connecting a hard drive to the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM host adapter and launch Disk Utility. Select a hard drive on the left side of the Disk Utility window that is mounted using the ADSA3GPX8-4EM. Disk Utility will display that SMART data is not supported.
Energy Usage
According to the Kill-a-Watt electricity usage monitor, the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM SATA host adapter hardware requires approximately 8 watts while idle when installed in a Mac Pro 2.66 GHz model. This was determined by measuring the energy usage with and without the card installed while the computer was idle for at least 10 minutes. The difference between the two readings is 8 watts. SATA host adapters that utilize the Intel serial to parallel PCI bridge interface like the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM and the NORCO-4629, require a little more energy to power them than the Sonnet Tempo E4P and the HighPoint RocketRAID 2314.
SATA PM RAID PerformanceThe Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM SATA host adapter was installed in slot 4 configured with eight lanes in an Apple Mac Pro 2.66 GHz with 3GB of memory using the SiI-3124 driver version 2.03 and running Mac OS X 10.4.10. Several five bay port multiplier enclosures were used with the ADSA3GPX8-4EM during these SATA PM tests. DiskTester 10GB read and write tests were performed using a run area test so that this article could display how the RAID performs. DiskTester is a Terminal application that measures the combined performance of a volume and the Mac OS X operating system. Using the command: ./disktester run-area-test --transfer-size 131072 --test-size 10240 --delta-percent 10 DriveName, puts DiskTester to work testing how the RAID will perform when empty, 10% full, 20% full and so on. The table below displays the performance of the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM with several striped RAID set configurations.
Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM Striped RAID Set Performance Comparison
| Area Full | write | read | write | read | write | read | write | read |
| empty | 215 | 212 |
415
|
419
|
563 | 582 | 652 | 728 |
| 10% | 215 | 211 |
418
|
421
|
580 | 582 | 656 | 727 |
| 20% | 216 | 212 |
418
|
421
|
578 | 587 | 662 | 727 |
| 30% | 215 | 212 |
419
|
422
|
580 | 587 | 659 | 729 |
| 40% | 215 | 213 |
418
|
424
|
578 | 589 | 660 | 730 |
| 50% | 216 | 214 |
418
|
427
|
577 | 590 | 656 | 727 |
| 60% | 215 | 217 |
417
|
432
|
575 | 597 | 664 | 726 |
| 70% | 215 | 235 |
418
|
435
|
578 | 597 | 659 | 727 |
| 80% | 214 | 234 |
418
|
434
|
575 | 603 | 661 | 724 |
| 90% | 213 | 227 |
418
|
433
|
580 | 605 | 655 | 722 |
| 100% | 182 | 185 | 370 | 368 | 548 | 543 | 665 | 716 |
| Average | 211 | 231 |
413
|
421
|
574 | 587 | 659 | 725 |
| # of Drives | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | ||||
| Size | 1.45TB | 2.91TB | 4.36TB | 5.45TB | ||||
| MSRP | $199 | $199 | $199 | $199 |
In the table the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM provided 725MB/sec average read performance when twenty hard drives were connected using four SATA PM enclosures. Utilizing fifteen hard drives mounted inside three SATA PM enclosures provided more than 570MB/sec. average read and write performance. The ability to add up to twenty hard drives to the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM host adapter provides room for expansion.
Another interesting configuration uses sixteen hard drives with four hard drives installed in each enclosure. This sixteen drive setup can provide outstanding performance. The table below displays the results for both 12 and 16 hard drive configurations using four PM enclosures.
16 vs 12 Drive Striped RAID Set Using 4 PM enclosures - DiskTester
| Area Full | write | read | write | read | write | read | write | read |
| empty | 650 | 709 |
667
|
648
|
659 | 700 | 673 | 638 |
| 10% | 663 | 711 |
673
|
650
|
666 | 702 | 670 | 644 |
| 20% | 672 | 709 |
675
|
646
|
673 | 702 | 670 | 640 |
| 30% | 665 | 708 |
674
|
649
|
669 | 707 | 668 | 642 |
| 40% | 669 | 708 |
674
|
650
|
669 | 704 | 675 | 643 |
| 50% | 666 | 706 |
672
|
651
|
668 | 706 | 673 | 644 |
| 60% | 673 | 710 |
676
|
646
|
673 | 703 | 658 | 640 |
| 70% | 667 | 710 |
603
|
609
|
668 | 705 | 659 | 641 |
| 80% | 669 | 699 |
568
|
587
|
670 | 696 | 618 | 602 |
| 90% | 663 | 695 |
516
|
528
|
669 | 693 | 545 | 537 |
| 100% | 596 | 594 | 447 | 448 | 584 | 578 | 446 | 441 |
| Average | 659 | 696 |
622
|
610
|
661 | 690 | 632 | 610 |
| # of Drives | 16 | 12 | 16 | 12 | ||||
| Size | 4.36TB | 3.27TB | 4.65TB | 3.49TB | ||||
| MSRP | $199 | $199 | $199 | $199 |
The Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM can provide 660MB/sec average write performance and 690MB/sec. read performance when using sixteen Seagate 320GB model 7200.10 hard drives with an eight lane PCIe slot. Using twelve hard drives with four PM enclosures also provides very good performance.
Direct Connect RAID PerformanceThe table below demonstrates how a four drive direct connect striped RAID set performs with the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM SATA host adapter. This method utilizes all four ports of the ADSA3GPX8-4EM, each with its own SATA hard drive.
ADSA3GPX8-4EM Direct Connect 4 Drive Striped RAID Test
| Maxline 300 7V300F0 | Seagate 250 7200.10 | Seagate 320 7200.10 |
| Area Full | write | read | write | read | write | read |
| empty | 256 | 276 | 306 | 308 | 296 | 301 |
| 10% | 255 | 271 | 305 | 305 | 298 | 297 |
| 20% | 248 | 260 | 303 | 302 | 293 | 291 |
| 30% | 244 | 257 | 292 | 292 | 286 | 283 |
| 40% | 238 | 247 | 281 | 281 | 272 | 272 |
| 50% | 226 | 233 | 270 | 269 | 260 | 259 |
| 60% | 219 | 226 | 252 | 252 | 244 | 243 |
| 70% | 202 | 206 | 234 | 234 | 229 | 228 |
| 80% | 196 | 198 | 215 | 214 | 207 | 206 |
| 90% | 177 | 179 | 189 | 189 | 178 | 182 |
| 100% | 149 | 152 | 156 | 156 | 154 | 154 |
| Average | 219 | 228 | 255 | 255 | 247 | 247 |
| Size | 1.09TB | 930GB | 1.16TB | |||
| MSRP | $199 | $199 | $199 |
The Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM host adapter works well with four hard drives in a direct connect configuration. However, a large SATA port multiplier setup can provide significantly higher performance.
The Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM SATA host adapter provides good read and write performance with a twenty drive SATA PM configuration. Having the ability to utilize the four eSATA data ports with either individual hard drives or SATA PM enclosures provides lots of configuration options. The Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM host adapter is the only card that AMUG has tested that utilizes a fan/heat sink combination to dissipate heat created by the Intel parallel PCI bridge chip. This design keeps the card cooler than most other SiI-3124 based PCIe 4-port host adapters.The Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM is a high quality PCI Express eight lane card. However, it does has a few limitations. The ADSA3GPX8-4EM does not provide SMART data support to Disk Utility. Hard drives attached to the card are not bootable. No uninstall program is included for removing the Silicon Image Mac driver. In addition, the fan mounted on the card can generate a small amount of wind noise once a high speed RAID is attached to it and working hard.
SATA host adapters that utilize the Intel parallel PCI bridge tend to produce more heat than cards with a native PCI Express interface. The fan/heat sink design provided by the Addonics solution dissipates heat very well. The Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM is easy to install, provides hot swap capability and performs well with the Apple Mac Pro.
Pros
Mounts up to four external direct connect SATA hard drives.
Mounts up to twenty external hard drives using SATA PM enclosures.
Nice performance capabilities.
FIS-based Port Multiplier-aware hardware.
PCI Express (PCIe) 8x host bus interface.
Spread Spectrum Clocking (SSC) support.
Supports OS X version 10.4.8 or later and Windows XP.
Allows data transfer to all four ports simultaneously.
Multitasks disk transfers which increases CPU efficiency.
48-bit LBA support for drive sizes larger than 137GB.
Easily mounts individual hard drives or a RAID configuration.
Supports deep sleep and hot swap.
Fan/heat sink combinations provides good cooling
Measured read performance of 725MB/sec with 20 SATA PM drives.
Measured write performance of 659MB/sec with 20 SATA PM drives.
Cons
Does not pass SMART data to Disk Utility.
Fan can generate some wind noise when card is active.
No uninstall program for Mac driver.
No boot capability.
ADSA3GPX8-4EM gets 4 AMUGs out of 5!
The Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM is a high quality, high performance eight lane SATA host adapter. The ADSA3GPX8-4EM controller provides a good value for expanding Mac Pro storage capabilities. The fan/heat sink cooling system allows the Addonics ADSA3GPX8-4EM to provide a cool running PCI-Express eight lane solution while using the Intel parallel PCI bridge to SiI-3124 design. If the Mac Pro PCI-Express bay is
already warm from the use of a high performance video card, the ADSA3GPX8-4EM SATA host adapter design can help to minimize the introduction of additional heat inside the PCI Express bay.Contact Information:
Addonics Technologies
2466 Kruse Drive,
San Jose, CA 95131 USA
408-433-3899
addonics@addonics.com
http://www.addonics.com
Copyright 2007
Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG). Visit AMUG at www.amug.org for news, discounts and friends. JOIN AMUG!
Additional Resources
AMUG DAT Optic eSATA_PCIe8 4-Port PCIe Host Adapter Review
AMUG NORCO-4629 4-Port PCIe SATA Host Adapter Review
AMUG RocketRAID 2314 PCIe 4-Port SATA RAID Controller Review
AMUG Sonnet Tempo E4P Review