 Home Members Only Membership Donations Reviews Store Mail List Legal  |
||
September 15, 2006
External USB Powered SATA PM Hub
A Review of the DAT Optic external SATA2 Hub with 5-1 SATA PM features
By Arthur Whalem
DAT Optic is selling the SATA2_HUB ($99.95) which is a small USB powered external box that allows up to five SATA devices to be connected to the rear of this SATA PM hub. An eSATA connection on the front of the device is used to connect to a computer with a SATA PM compatible host adapter. The rear connectors are the original "Type L" SATA style. The SATA2_HUB measures 4" wide, 2.8" deep, less than 1" high and weighs 4.4 ounces. This external SATA PM hub allows up to five SATA direct connect devices to share a single SATA port. The SATA2_HUB comes with the external FIS-based switching SATA PM hub, a 39" USB power cable and a manual. No SATA cables are included.
System Requirements
Works with any computer with a SATA PM compatible host adapter.
Supports Mac OS X 10.3.9 and higher, Windows XP and Linux.
Supports up to five SATA devices.
User provides all necessary SATA cables.
What is SATA PM?
The SATA port multiplier is also known as "SATA PM". It is a circuit board that allows several SATA devices to share a single port on a host adapter. Port multipliers typically reside inside an enclosure and are transparent to the hard drives. However, the DAT Optic SATA2_HUB is designed to bring the features of SATA PM port sharing to all SATA devices. The flexibility of SATA PM is awesome for adding multiple devices to a single SATA port. Now that the DAT Optic SATA2_HUB is available, users can enjoy expanded SATA PM connectivity with any SATA device while using this external 5-1 SATA PM hub. The SATA2_HUB 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.
Connections
As you can see in the image above many types of SATA devices can be connected to the DAT Optic SATA2_HUB. Possible SATA devices include direct connect 4-bay or 2-bay enclosures, 3.5" single drive SATA enclosures, 2.5" SATA enclosures and even SATA optical devices. With the ability to connect up to five devices to a single DAT Optic SATA2_HUB, users can connect a wide variety of SATA devices to their computer. The only requirement is that the SATA host adapter installed needs to support the SATA PM specification. Many SATA host adapters are available that meet these requirements.
While the front host adapter output of the SATA2 hub uses an eSATA cable, the back panel of the hub provides five SATA "Type L" connectors that can be used to plug
in various SATA devices. If your SATA device already uses "Type L" cables, then the existing cables will work with this SATA PM hub. However, if the device uses eSATA connections, users will need eSATA "Type I" to SATA "Type L" converter cables. DAT Optics sells these cables for $9 each which is a very good price.
The rear SATA ports of the SATA2_HUB provide an easy method for expanding the capability of existing direct connect SATA enclosures to include SATA PM port sharing. The DAT Optic SATA2_HUB provides fast FIS-based switching that allows many different SATA devices to share a single port. As this hub allows up to five SATA devices on a single SATA host adapter port, users can dramatically expand the number of SATA devices connected to their computer. A typical four port SATA PM compatible host adapter could connect up to twenty SATA devices when using four of the DAT Optic SATA hubs.
Design
The DAT Optic SATA2_HUB has a light grey aluminum finish that is a little darker than the PowerMac G5 finish. It has 51 small holes in the bottom and three slots on each side of the case to help expel heat. No fan is used which keeps the hub dead silent. However, the SATA2 hub will be warm to the touch after extended use. A small circuit board is installed inside of this very small hub which uses a SiI-3726 SATA PM chip. Firmware version 1.0114 was installed on the SiI-3726 chip in these tests. With a foot print of 4" x 2.8" deep and less than 1" high, it can be used as a portable device or in just about any desktop setup. In addition, having the ability to power the device via a USB port makes installation easy and avoids using an external power adapter. The image above displays a single eSATA cable plugged into the front of the hub. The blue power light is on the left side. Next to it is the SATA PM activity and link lights. On the right side of the case, a green activity light is provided for each device connected to the DAT Optic SATA2_HUB. In this example, a four port SATA enclosure was converted to SATA PM using the DAT Optic SATA2_HUB. Having the ability to convert a group of hard drives that are mounted in a direct connect enclosure to SATA PM format is a very cool feature. With the DAT Optic SATA2_HUB at your side, devices can function either in SATA PM mode or direct connect without having to buy new enclosures or remove the hard drives. The additional functionality that can be achieved with a 5-1 SATA hub is very nice.
Macintosh Host Adapters with SATA PM SupportWhile some users may already have SATA PM compatible host adapters for their PowerMac G4, G5 and Mac Pro, it seemed appropriate for this review to provide information on SATA PM compatible host adapters that AMUG has utilized. To help users discover the world of Macintosh SATA PM, AMUG has complied a list of SATA host adapters that we have tested for Mac compatibility. Both PCI-X and PCIe SATA host adapters are included in the table below. As you can see, there are a wide variety of SATA PM host adapters available for Macintosh users.
| Company | Model | MSRP | Ports | Type | Mac Driver | Review |
| Sonnet | Tempo X4P | $299.95 | 4 | PCI-X | Firmware | AMUG |
| DAT Optic | eSATA_pcix | $99 | 4 | PCI-X | SiI-3124 | |
| Addonics | ADS3GX4R5-E | $85 | 4 | PCI-X | SiI-3124 | AMUG |
| Norco | 4618 | $79 | 4 | PCI-X | SiI-3124 | |
| - |
-
|
|||||
| Sonnet | Tempo E4P (Dual Core ONLY) |
$299.95 | 4 | PCIe | Firmware | AMUG |
| WiebeTech | Tera Card TCES0-2e | $99.95 | 2 | PCIe | SiI-3132 | AMUG |
| Addonics | ADSA3GPX1-2EM (Mac Pro ONLY) |
$39.99 | 2 | PCIe | SiI-3132 1.1.6 | AMUG |
The table above displays information on Macintosh SATA host adapters that AMUG has tested which are SATA PM compatible. PowerMac G4 and G5 models built prior to the October 19, 2005 release of the Dual and Quad Core models will utilize the PCI-X cards listed above. PowerMac G5 and Mac Pro models with PCI Express expansion slots will use PCIe type cards.
As of September 10, 2006 the Tempo E4P does not work with the Apple Mac Pro. Since the Mac Pro does not support open firmware it does not recognize the E4P firmware. Sonnet is working to convert the drivers to the proper format for the Mac Pro. Unfortunately, I am not sure how long it will take to complete this conversion. The Sonnet Tempo E4P is a great SATA host adapter for PCIe Dual Core systems, it will be nice when it works on the Mac Pro too.
AMUG has found that Silicon Image PCIe SiI-3132 SATA host adapters must have DC bias at the REF_CLK pins in order for them to function properly with PowerMac G5 PCIe expansion slots. SiI-3132 cards without this feature will show up in System Preferences using the SiI-3132 Mac driver 1.1.6, but the hard drives will not mount. This explains why some SiI-3132 cards work properly in the PowerMac G5 Quad and some do not.
For instance, the WiebeTech Tera Card TCES0-2e works well with a Quad or a Mac Pro using the SiI-3132 Mac driver 1.1.6 while the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM will only work inside the Mac Pro as it does not have DC bias at the REF_CLK pins. To allow the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM 2-port PCIe card to work in a Mac Pro, the SiI-3132 Mac driver 1.1.6 must be installed.
Energy Usage
According to the Kill-a-Watt electricity usage monitor, the DAT Optic SATA2_HUB uses 5 watts when the hub is plugged into the USB port but no SATA devices are attached. Once four SATA hard drives are mounted on the SATA2_HUB and working hard the energy usage increases to 6 watts. Energy usage of the CPU usually goes up when a four hard drive striped RAID set is actively copying data. The energy readings in this test were not impacted by increased CPU activity, as the SATA2_HUB USB plug was connected to an idle Mac Pro while the hard drives were mounted on a PowerMac G5.2.5GHz Quad. From these tests, I would expect the SATA2_HUB to utilize between 5-6 watts from the USB 2.0 bus while in operation.
PerformanceI wanted to see how the DAT Optic SATA2_HUB performance would compare against using the Sonnet Fusion 500P SATA PM enclosure. To determine this five Maxtor Maxline III model 7V300F0 300GB hard drives were mounted on the SATA2_HUB and tested with a PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz using a single port on a Sonnet Tempo X4P host adapter. The same hard drives were then moved to the Sonnet Fusion 500P and the same computer and host adapter were used to measure the performance. DiskTester 2.0 10GB read and write tests were performed using a run area test so that this article could display how the each setup 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 --chunk-size 128M --test-size 10G --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 results.
SATA2 HUB vs Fusion 500PM SATA PM Enclosure
| Area Full |
write
|
read
|
write
|
read
|
write
|
read
|
write
|
read
|
| empty |
216
|
247
|
216
|
248
|
217
|
243
|
217
|
237
|
| 10% |
217
|
246
|
217
|
248
|
218
|
243
|
218
|
240
|
| 20% |
217
|
248
|
217
|
246
|
219
|
240
|
218
|
242
|
| 30% |
217
|
248
|
217
|
246
|
219
|
242
|
219
|
242
|
| 40% |
217
|
247
|
217
|
247
|
219
|
242
|
218
|
241
|
| 50% |
218
|
248
|
217
|
247
|
219
|
231
|
219
|
233
|
| 60% |
218
|
248
|
217
|
247
|
219
|
224
|
218
|
225
|
| 70% |
218
|
247
|
218
|
247
|
202
|
207
|
202
|
206
|
| 80% |
219
|
247
|
218
|
247
|
193
|
199
|
194
|
200
|
| 90% |
219
|
223
|
219
|
222
|
176
|
177
|
176
|
177
|
| Average |
217.6
|
244.9
|
217.3
|
244.5
|
210.1
|
224.8
|
209.9
|
224.3
|
The DAT Optic SATA2_HUB was able to convert a FirmTek SeriTek/2eEN4 into an SATA PM enclosure in these tests. As you can see in the table above, the SATA2_HUB provides performance that is very similar to an enclosure like the Fusion 500P which has an internal SATA PM board. With the ability to utilize an external SATA PM hub, existing direct connect enclosures and other SATA devices have expanded connection capabilities.
Now that we know that the SATA2_HUB can be used to provide SATA PM port sharing capabilities to direct connect enclosures, I wanted to know if the hub could be used with other SATA PM enclosures. In the tests below a SATA2_HUB was used with a Sonnet Fusion 500P to create 10 drive and 8 drive striped RAID sets using Maxtor Maxline III 7V300F0 hard drives.
SATA2 HUB plus the Fusion 500PM SATA PM Enclosure
| Area Full |
write
|
read
|
write
|
read
|
| empty |
405
|
462
|
387
|
464
|
| 10% |
409
|
458
|
391
|
465
|
| 20% |
410
|
463
|
390
|
462
|
| 30% |
410
|
465
|
391
|
464
|
| 40% |
409
|
465
|
391
|
467
|
| 50% |
409
|
463
|
393
|
460
|
| 60% |
410
|
465
|
391
|
446
|
| 70% |
410
|
471
|
389
|
416
|
| 80% |
410
|
469
|
391
|
397
|
| 90% |
413
|
442
|
353
|
354
|
| Average |
409.5
|
462.3
|
386.7
|
439.5
|
From these performance tests, it is clear that any hard drives attached to the DAT Optic SATA2_HUB can work with other SATA PM enclosures just as if they were also in an SATA PM enclosure. The performance provided by the SATA2 Hub is very good.
DiscussionIf you already own direct connect SATA hard drive enclosures and would like to use them in a SATA PM setup, the DAT Optic SATA2_HUB provides this function. Why buy new SATA PM enclosures when the DAT Optic SATA2_HUB can allow existing direct connect enclosures to work in SATA PM mode? In addition, if you would like to be able to utilize up to five SATA devices on a single SATA host adapter port to expand the number of devices that can be connected at one time, the SATA2 Hub provides this feature too. The SATA2 Hub performs well with individual hard drives or RAID sets. It is nice not to have to waste a SATA host adapter connection on a single hard drive when the SATA2 hub can support up to five SATA devices per port. At a cost of $99.95, the SATA2 hub provides an easy way for users to expand the usage of their SATA connections.
The DAT Optic SATA2_HUB does not come with SATA cables. This keeps the price low. If you already have SATA "Type L" devices, their existing cables will work with the SATA2 Hub. You will need an eSATA cable for the output to the host adapter. The hub output is eSATA, so if your host adapter is eSATA you will need a eSATA cable. If you do not have one they are $15. If your host adapter has SATA "Type L" connections you will need an eSATA "Type I" to SATA "Type L" cable, which is $9. Many users will already have some of these cables as they are bundled with SATA enclosures. You will only need to purchase the cables that you are missing.
Pros
Provides an external SATA PM hub for adding SATA devices.
Can provide SATA PM features to direct connect enclosures.
Allows a single host adapter port to mount up to five SATA devices.
Can mount single devices or a RAID configuration.
Works with SATA I, SATA II, 3.5", 2.5" or optical SATA devices.
Supports hot swap and sleep.
Utilizes FIS-based switching.
Great JBOD and RAID performance.
Provides power and activity lights.
Utilizes USB 2.0 port for power.
Easy to use, small footprint, quiet operation.
Cons
SATA PM can be slower than direct connect with a striped RAID set.
Does not work with Addonics USB 2.0 to eSATA adapter.
SATA2_HUB can become warm with extended use.
Users may need to purchase SATA cables or a SATA host adapter.
DAT Optic SATA2_HUB gets 5 AMUGs out of 5!
If you already have direct connect SATA enclosures and would like to have the option to utilize them with SATA PM connections, the SATA2 Hub is what you have been looking for. In the past, users would have to choose to use direct connect or SATA PM enclosures and stay with that choice or buy all new enclosures. The DAT Optic SATA2 Hub brings SATA PM mounting options to any SATA device you might want to utilize. The ability to purchase a quality external SATA PM hub provides SATA users with many more mounting options. The DAT Optic SATA2 hub is a powerful tool for SATA users.
Contact Information:DAT Optic Inc.
1815 E. Wilshire Ave # 906
Santa Ana, CA. 92705 USA
Phone: (714) 558 1808
Info@DATOptic.com
Copyright 2006
Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG). Visit AMUG at www.amug.org for news, discounts and friends. JOIN AMUG!