 Home Members Only Membership Donations Reviews Store Mail List Legal  |
||
External SATA Drives at Internal Speeds
A review of the FirmTek SeriTek/1VE4 Four Port External Serial ATA PCI-X Host Adapter
By Arthur Whalem
FirmTek has released the SeriTek/1VE4 Four-Port external serial ATA PCI-X host adapter for PowerMac computers with an available PCI slot. The SeriTek/1VE4 is PCI-X 1.0a, 64-bit compliant when operating at 133/100/ 66MHz bus speeds. The card is also backward compatible with standard 32/64-bit PCI slots at 33MHz and 66MHz bus speeds. This allows the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter to support a simple PowerMac 7300 up to a powerful PowerMac G5 Dual. The SeriTek/1VE4 package includes a PCI-X host adapter and a manual on CD. With this card installed your PowerMac has four external SATA ports ready for connections. SATA drives are the future and FirmTek is providing an excellent way to add fast storage without adding heat to the inside of your PowerMac G4 or G5. While the SeriTek/1VE4 works very well for video usage the testing in this article is designed to explore how the card performs when used to expand normal everyday Macintosh desktop storage. If you are looking for video specific testing of the SeriTek/1VE4 check out the article at barefeats.
System Requirements
OS 9, OS X10.1.5 or later (works best with 10.2 or later).
Compatible with ALL PowerMac G3, G4 & G5 computers.
32/64 bit, 33/66MHz PCI
133/100/66MHz PCI-X
Compliant 32-bit PCI bus version 2.2
Compliant with PCI-X bus version 1.0a
Supports up to four external SATA 3.5" drives.
Which PCI Slot Works Best?
The SeriTek/1VE4 Host Adapter can be placed in any available PCI or PCI-X slot within a PowerMac. There are four external ports on the card that are used for connecting up to four external SATA drives. If you are installing the SeriTek/1VE4 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.
For those using the SeriTek/1VE4 card in a PowerMac G5, I would suggest you read 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". With this information in mind, I tested the SeriTek/1VE4 in slot 4 (133 MHz), and slot 2 & 3 (100 MHz). I also tested a 1VE4 in slot 2 and a 1V4 in slot 3 to measure if any bus contention existed between the two 64-bit cards. Next, I tested a 1VE4 in slot 2 and a Miglia AlchemyTV DVR card in slot 3 to see if a slower 16-bit TV card would slow down the SeriTek/1VE4 when used on a shared bus. A SeriTek/1EN2 dual-bay enclosure was used along with two Maxtor 300GB SATA drives formatted as a RAID to perform these tests while connected to the SeriTek/1VE4. Here are the results:
| Test Maxtor 559GB RAID | Slot 4 (133MHz) | Slot 3 (100MHz) | Slot 2 (100MHz) | Time |
| Copy 4.25GB | 1VE4 | empty | empty | 1:22 |
| Copy 4.25GB | empty | empty | 1VE4 | 1:24 |
| Copy 4.25GB | empty | 1V4 | 1VE4 | 1:24 |
| Copy 4.25GB | empty | AlchemyTV | 1VE4 | 1:56 |
| - | ||||
| Repair Permissions | 1VE4 | empty | empty | 1:45 |
| Repair Permissions | empty | empty | 1VE4 | 1:48 |
| Repair Permissions | empty | 1V4 | 1VE4 | 1:48 |
| Repair Permissions | empty | AlchemyTV | 1VE4 | 1:53 |
| - | Score | |||
| Xbench Disk Score | 1VE4 | empty | empty | 235 |
| Xbench Disk Score | empty | empty | 1VE4 | 232 |
| Xbench Disk Score | empty | 1V4 | 1VE4 | 231 |
| Xbench Disk Score | empty | AlchemyTV | 1VE4 | 149 |
As you can see from the results, using the SeriTek/1VE4 in slot 4 is a little bit faster than using it in slot 2 or 3. When using a 64-bit 1VE4 card in slot 2 and a 64-bit 1V4 card in slot 3 there was no measurable slow down in performance even though slots 2 and 3 are shared as per Tech Q&A 1307. The key is that both cards are 64-bit. On the other hand, once I placed a 16-bit AlchemyTV card in slot 3 while the 1VE4 was still in slot 2 the write capability of the SeriTek/1VE4 was impacted. In order to see the performance change, I used Drive Genius to benchmark the Maxtor dual drive RAID while the AlchemyTV PCI card was in slot 3 (green) and compared that data to having the 1V4 in slot 3 instead (blue). Here are the results:
Sustained Read
Green = Maxtor RAID with AlchemyTV PCI card installed. Blue = AlchemyTV card NOT installed
Looking at the sustained read chart above there is not much of an impact when the 16-bit TV card is in slot 3 while the 64-bit 1VE4 is in slot 2. In fact, if you are just reading data with the Maxtor RAID you will not notice much of a difference.
Sustained Write
Green = Maxtor RAID with AlchemyTV PCI card installed. Blue = AlchemyTV card NOT installed
Once I compared the sustained write difference above, you can see that the 16 bit AlchemyTV card reduced the 1VE4 card write speed substantially. I would only use 64-bit cards with the 1VE4 when using the shared bus of slot 2 and 3, or leave the other slot on the shared bus empty. It is very cool that the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter can perform almost as well in slot 2 or 3 as in slot 4 as long as you do not slow it down with another slow card on the shared PCI bus.
Retrospect Duplicate 144GB Test
In this test Retrospect 6 was used to duplicate 144GB from a single Maxtor 300GB SATA drive to two Maxtor 300GB SATA drives configured as a RAID in a SeriTek/1EN2 dual-bay enclosure. Several configurations were tested. Retrospect was the active front process in the finder and no other work was performed on the PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz while the copy was in progress.
| Configuration | Average MB/minute | Copy MB/minute | Verify MB/minute | Time in Hours |
| 300GB on 1V4 slot 3, RAID on 1V4E slot 4. | 1924 | 1722 | 2180 | 2:31 |
| 300GB on G5 SATA, RAID on 1V4E slot 4. | 1879 | 1700 | 2101 | 2:35 |
| 300GB on 1V4 slot 4, RAID on 1V4 slot 4. | 1851 | 1663 | 2086 | 2:37 |
| 300GB on 1VE4 slot 4, RAID on 1VE4 slot 4. | 1766 | 1561 | 2062 | 2:44 |
Using a Dual 300GB Maxtor RAID allowed me to see how much speed could be achieved from a single Maxtor 300GB in this copy test. A 1722 MB/minute copy speed is a nice score and the 2180MB/minute verify speed is the highest I have recorded for this test using a PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0GHz. While all of the results were very good for this backup set, using the Maxtor dual 300GB RAID on the SeriTek/1VE4 in slot 4 and the single internal Maxtor 300GB source drive on the SeriTek/1V4 in slot 3 provided the best results. The performance recorded by using the internal 300GB on the PowerMac G5 internal SATA connector while copying to the RAID on the 1VE4 SATA host adapter was not far behind.
In a previous review, the SeriTek/1V4 (which is the internal version of this host adapter) was tested for speed with a PowerMac G5. You may wish to read that review if you are interested in additional information on how the SeriTek/1VE4 performs when used with a PowerMac G5. The SeriTek/1V4 and SeriTek/1VE4 have similar performance results. The main difference between them is that the SeriTek/1VE4 supports external drives, while the SeriTek/1V4 supports internal drives. In addition, the SeriTek/1VE4 also supports hot swappable external SATA drive mounting and provides on-screen feedback as each drive mounts. The FirmTek 1VE4 and 1V4 cards are the only bootable 64-bit SATA host adapters that I have seen. Having the ability to boot from an SATA card gives me many more options. As such, I will not purchase an SATA host adapter that does not have boot capability. Using the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter with a PowerMac provides a high performance external hard drive interface which keeps extra heat out of the PowerMac case.
Possible Uses for the SeriTek/1VE4
1. If you would like to backup your Macintosh to an external SATA drive and set the drive aside afterwards, the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter and the SeriTek/1EN2 enclosure combination provides a great way to create a bootable SATA hot swappable backup drive.
2. If you would like to be able to transfer large amounts of data between sites or computers you might place a SeriTek/1VE4 card and a SeriTek/1EN2 enclosure at each site and hot swap the drive from one Mac to another. This makes 300GB drive swapping simple.
3. If you want to build an ultra fast drive RAID for video editing or other purposes you can use 4 drives with one card or 8 drives with two cards and enclosures for very high drive performance.
4. If you want to add lots of hard drive storage while NOT adding heat inside the PowerMac, the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter is a great choice.
5. If you have a PowerMac G4 and want to add storage, but want it to be an SATA hard drive so that it will be compatible with a future PowerMac G5 system, the SeriTek/1VE4 is a excellent solution too.
Enclosures
As the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter is an external SATA solution you will need an enclosure to power your external SATA drives and to provide cooling. My favorite external SATA enclosure is the SeriTek/1EN2 dual-bay model. The SeriTek/1EN2 dual-bay enclosure has drive trays that slide in and out of the enclosure. This feature makes hot-swappable SATA hard drive usage very easy. You can hot swap an entire RAID of drives or individually initialized hard drives. The SeriTek/1VE4 and the SeriTek/1EN2 dual-bay enclosure combination turns any SATA drive into removable storage. All you have to do is dismount the SATA drive and pull it out of the SeriTek/1EN2 dual-bay enclosure. Slide another drive in and it mounts automatically. All of this happens while the Macintosh is still running. Cooling: The SeriTek/1EN2 dual-bay enclosure has a quiet, yet efficient fan that keeps drives from over heating. Many hard drive enclosures provide no fan. This can reduce the life of the drive if it is becomes over heated for long periods of time. Connector: In addition, the SeriTek/1EN2 is designed so that the SATA hard drive connectors slide into the rear backplane connector of the enclosure for a great fit, free of additional wiring. It is rare to find an enclosure like the SeriTek/1EN2 that stays cool, quiet, uses very little space and provides high quality engineering.
The PowerMac G4 and SATA Drives
The PowerMac G4 is a great candidate for external SATA drives. The bus speed capability provided by the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter is faster than any PowerMac G4 internal ATA bus. In addition, the PowerMac G4 drive bays can reach a temperature of 120 degrees or more from my tests. Moving to external SATA drives can help reduce the internal temperature of a PowerMac G4 while allowing you to purchase SATA drives that can be used with a future PowerMac G5 upgrade.
PowerMac G4 1.42GHz Dual Test #1Even though most PowerMac G4 models do not have factory FireWire 800 ports, (as they were only released with the last model of PowerMac G4 1.25 and 1.42 duals) I thought it might be interesting to see how a Seagate 300GB SATA drive performed while mounted in a SeriTek/1EN2 enclosure attached to a SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter compared to using the same drive in a WiebeTECH TrayDock with the factory Apple FireWire 800 port. The test computer is a PowerMac G4 1.42GHz Dual with 1.5GB of memory installed. It has an internal Maxtor 250GB ATA drive on the rear ATA/100 bus, a SeriTek 1S2 host adapter installed for internal SATA storage and a SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter for external SATA storage. The WiebeTECH TrayDock has the awesome ability to mount ATA or SATA drives using FireWire 800 on the Macintosh. In these tests, the same exact Seagate 300GB SATA drive was tested with SATA and FireWire connections to determine how each interface compares on a PowerMac G4 1.42GHz Dual. The graphs below were created using Drive Genius 1.1.1. The green line is the Seagate 300GB SATA drive in the WiebeTECH TrayDock using FireWire 800. The blue line is the same Seagate 300GB SATA drive mounted in a SeriTek/1EN2 enclosure attached to a SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter.
Sustained Read
Green is the FireWire 800 interface. Blue is the 1VE4 SATA interface.
The graph shows the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter performing slightly better in the sustained read test.
Sustained Write
Green is the FireWire 800 interface. Blue is the 1VE4 SATA interface.
The SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter comes in a little faster in the sustained write tests as well.
Random Read
Green is the FireWire 800 interface. Blue is the 1VE4 SATA interface.
The SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter edges out the FireWire 800 interface in the random read tests.
Random Write
Green is the FireWire 800 interface. Blue is the 1VE4 SATA interface.
In the random write test the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter once again edges out the FireWire 800 interface when using the same exact SATA drive.
PowerMac G4 1.42GHz Dual Test #2In order to see how the bench test results of the Seagate 300 SATA above compare with real usage a number of disk intensive activities were recorded with the same PowerMac G4 1.42GHz Dual. Tests performed include rebuild permissions, running Disk Warrior, temperature and other operations. The Seagate 300 SATA drive is bootable and has 143GB of data on it.
| Seagate 300 SATA Activity | 1VE4 SATA | FireWire 800 |
| Copy 4.25GB to Seagate | 1:33 minutes | 1:30 minutes |
| Repair Permissions | 2:26 minutes | 2:57 minutes |
| DiskWarrior Directory Rebuild | 7:41 minutes | 7:52 minutes |
| Duplicate 4.25GB | 3:40 minutes | 3:50 minutes |
| Temperature after 16 hours of use | 116 degrees | 124 degrees |
Discussion
In most cases, overall performance of the Seagate 300 SATA was improved by using the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter instead of the FireWire 800 interface. The speed increases achieved with the SATA interface over FireWire 800 on a PowerMac G4 1.42 are measurable. If your drive will be in use for more than 16 hours a fan will help keep it from getting too warm. The fan in the SeriTek/1EN2 enclosure was able to keep the Seagate 300GB SATA drive several degrees cooler than the TrayDock (with no internal fan) when in operation for an extended period of time.
The Intel 31244 PCI-X to Serial ATA Controller chip
The SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter card utilizes the Intel 31244 PCI-X to Serial ATA Controller chip. It provides a dedicated DMA channel for each SATA port, supports hot-plug SATA drives and is compliant with both SATA 1.0 and SATA II including Native Command Queuing (NCQ). The Intel 31244 chip supports PCI-X 1.0a specification bus operation and 64-bit at 33/100/66MHz. It provides for burst data rates of up to 1064 MBps. In addition, the Intel 31244 PCI Expansion ROM enables boot-up capability in the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter which some other host adapters lack. The one issue with the Intel 31244 chip is that it does not support Spread Spectrum Clocking (SSC). Only Hitachi drives have SSC set on as the default. Unfortunately, legacy Hitachi SATA drives do not have a mechanism to turn off SSC and as such they are incompatible with the Intel 31244 and the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter. FirmTek discloses this compatibility issue on their website and they also state that, "At this time, the following Hitachi Deskstar hard drives have the SSC feature disabled, and are compatible with the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter:"
Model 7K500 (500GB) - Part Number HDS725050KLA360
Model 7K400 (400GB) - Part Numbers 0A30984 and 0A30985
Model 7K250 (250GB) - Part Number 0A30340
Model T7K250 (250GB) - Part Number HDT722525DLA380
Model 7K250 (160GB) - Part Number 0A30339
Model T7K250 (160GB) - Part Number HDT722516DLA380
Model 7K250 (120GB) - Part Number 0A30338
Model 7K250 (80GB) - Part Number 0A30337
Model 7K80 (80GB) - Part Number HDS728080PLA380
Model 7K80 (40GB) - Part Number HDS728040PLA320
ThoughtsSATA drives are the future. It is hard to purchase PATA drives knowing that their usage will be more and more limited as new Macintosh models are introduced using internal SATA drives. If you would like to add SATA drive power to your PowerMac the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter does a great job. The SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter provides a 64-bit SATA bus, support for Native Command Queuing and connections for up to four external drives. If you want to configure a fast external multiple drive RAID using Disk Utility or just add external SATA hard drive capability to your PowerMac, the FirmTek SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter does the job. The FirmTek SeriTek/1VE4 is a very reliable and easy to use four port external SATA host adapter. The only drawback to the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter is the Spread Spectrum Clocking (SSC) issue with legacy SATA Hitach drives. If you have legacy SATA Hitach drives you will need to use them some where else as they cannot be upgraded and will not work with the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter. That said, using the SeriTek/1VE4 host adapter and SeriTek/1EN2 external enclosure(s) can be a powerful drive upgrade for any PowerMac model.
Pros
Mounts up to four external SATA drives.
Supports Mac OS 9, and OS X version 10.1.5 or later.
Can be used with boot drives.
Provides fast transfer rates.
Performs better than FireWire 800 in most situations.
Allows data transfer to all four drives simultaneously.
Multitasks disk transfers which increases CPU efficiency.
Supports Power Mac G5 PCI-X bus.
No Bus contention issues on a PowerMac G5 when used with 64-bit cards.
Backward compatible with standard 32/64-bit PCI.
User-upgradeable firmware.
48-bit LBA support for drive sizes larger than 137GB.
Can mount single drives or a RAID configuration.
No additional Mac drivers needed.
Works on all PowerMacs with a PCI slot.
Supports deep sleep.
Well designed and easy to install.
Cons
Does not support legacy Hitachi SATA drives.
FirmTek SeriTek/1VE4 gets 5 AMUGs out of 5!
The SeriTek/1VE4 is a great external SATA host adapter. It can increase your PowerMac external drive performance substantially, even more than FireWire 800. When you are ready to add external SATA hard drives the SeriTek/1VE4 will support them, up to a total of four. What can I say? I think the SeriTek/1VE4 is the best way to add external SATA connections to a PowerMac. You can see more details on the 1VE4 at http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-1ve4/
FirmTek Special Offer - (Requires AMUG Membership)
AMUG Members can save $10 on the SeriTek/1VE4 ($139.95 retail), $25 on the SeriTek/1VEN2-1 External Bundle ($305.95 retail) or $35 on the SeriTek/1VEN2-2 External Bundle ($469.95 retail) by ordering it at http://www.store.yahoo.com/firmtek/ and entering the code found in the AMUG members only area in the comments section of the FirmTek order page. This promotional code will expire September 15, 2005. FirmTek will adjust the price of the SeriTek/1VE4 from $139.95 to $129.95, the SeriTek/1VEN2-1 External Bundle from $305.95 to $280.95 or the SeriTek/1VEN2-2 External Bundle from $469.95 to $434.95 when the order is processed. The SeriTek/1VEN2-1 External Bundle includes one dual enclosure and the SeriTek/1VE4 and the SeriTek/1VEN2-2 External Bundle includes two enclosures and the the SeriTek/1VE4. AMUG membership is required for these discounts to apply.
Contact Information:
FirmTek, LLC
sales@firmtek.com
http://www.firmtek.com
Copyright 2005
Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG). Visit AMUG at www.amug.org for news, discounts and friends. JOIN AMUG!
Use a Green sidebar.