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January 4, 2008

FirmTek 5-Bay SATA Port Multiplier Enclosure
A review of the FirmTek SeriTek/5PM Five Bay, Hot Swap, External SATA PM Enclosure
By Arthur Whalem


Image courtesy of FirmTek

FirmTek is shipping the new SeriTek/5PM which is a 5-bay, hot-swappable, SATA port multiplier compliant external enclosure ($539.95). The SeriTek/5PM features an attractive, heavy duty case made from brushed & anodized extruded aluminum. The enclosure measures 6.2" wide, 8.25" high and 9.1" deep. It weighs 10 pounds, 1.2 ounces when empty and approximately 18 pounds with five 3.5" SATA hard drives installed. The SeriTek/5PM enclosure provides a high quality, server-class universal power supply with a quiet cooling fan. In addition, the SeriTek/5PM delivers several exciting new features such as a multi-second delay front-panel power switch, a unique temperature management system featuring two ultra-quite fans with three user-selectable speeds plus mutable temperature and fan failure alarms. The purpose of this review is to determine how the SeriTek/5PM enclosure will perform with a Macintosh computer.

The SeriTek/5PM enclosure is available alone ($539.95) or can be bundled with a FirmTek SeriTek SATA PM compatible host adapter. The SeriTek/5PM and the SeriTek/2SE4 four-port SATA PM host adapter are available together for use with PowerMac G5 PCI-X configurations. A Mac Pro bundle which includes the SeriTek/2SE2-E, two-port PCIe host adapter and the SeriTek/5PM enclosure is also available. Finally, the MacBook Pro bundle includes the SeriTek/2SM2-E two-port ExpressCard/34 and the SeriTek/5PM enclosure. In the future, FirmTek also plans to sell hard drives with these bundles and is working to add a high performance, 4-port, PCIe bundle option.

System Requirements
Macintosh, Windows or Linux computers.
Requires a SATA Port Multiplier compatible host adapter with external ports.
Requires up to five external 3.5" SATA hard drives.

What's Included?
The FirmTek SeriTek/5PM includes a 5-bay SATA PM enclosure, five 3.5" hard drive trays, drive mounting screws, two keys, power cord, one 39" eSATA data cable and a CD with a users guide.


Connections
The rear panel of the SeriTek/5PM enclosure includes a power connector on the lower left side. Above, two 70mm fans cool the hard drive chamber. A single external eSATA data port supports all five hard drives using the internal backplane mounted Silicon Image SiI-3726 port multiplier. This design allows several SeriTek/5PM enclosures to be configured with a single SATA PM host adapter. The power supply fan at the bottom of the case uses a single 40mm fan that is designed for quiet operation. The SeriTek/5PM provides all of its controls on the front panel for easy user access.

Interface
The SeriTek/5PM enclosure provides hard drive detection and activity lights on the left side of each hard drive tray. The activity light provided by the SeriTek/5PM tray is dependant on the hard drive installed also supporting the use of pin 11 for monitoring HD activity. All of the new large capacity hard drives include this feature which allows them to display activity lights while mounted in the SeriTek/5PM enclosure. However, some older hard drives may not support this feature. The only hard drive that I was able to locate that did not display activity lights with the FirmTek enclosure was a Seagate 160GB 7200.7 model ST3160023AS which is four years old. The FirmTek blue and white activity lights are clear but not over powering. In addition, the user does not have to open a front panel to view them and their location on the hot swap tray assembly provides an interface that is both appealing and intuitive.



The hard drive mounting trays utilized in the FirmTek SeriTek/5PM also work with the dual bay FirmTek SeriTek/2EN2 and the four bay SeriTek/2EN4 enclosures.
This compatibility feature allows users with several FirmTek enclosures to hot swap data between enclosures. Hard drives are very easy to install in the FirmTek hot swap tray system. Four screws secure the hard drives to the bottom of the trays. With the use of additional trays ($22.95) users can create virtually unlimited storage possibilities. Hot swapping hard drives between FirmTek enclosures is amazingly quick and easy.



The FirmTek SeriTek/5PM provides a front-panel power switch with multi-second delay to prevent accidental power-down. This feature allows the user to easily turn the enclosure on/off without having to get up to access the rear of the enclosure. The enclosure also includes a unique temperature management system featuring two ultra-quite fans that have three user-selectable speeds, a fault LED and a mutable temperature and fan failure alarm. All of these controls are provided on the front panel for easy user viewing and access. The front panel user control system provided with the FirmTek SeriTek/5PM is more advanced than any of the 5-Bay SATA PM enclosures that AMUG has previously reviewed.

Acoustics
The SeriTek/5PM dual 70mm cooling fans do not spin when the enclosure is turned on if no hard drives are installed. Once a single hard drive is inserted the 70mm cooling fans begin to spin. The default setting for the three speed, dual cooling fan system featured inside the SeriTek/5PM is the middle setting. In this configuration, the FirmTek SeriTek/5PM enclosure is very quiet. When the SeriTek/5PM sits behind the Mac Pro within five feet of my chair, I can hear a slight wind noise coming from the enclosure with five Hitachi 1TB hard drives installed. When five 1TB hard drives are copying data, the hard drive activity can be heard above the slight wind noise of the enclosure. However, the SeriTek/5PM seems to have the ability to dampen hard drive noise.

The quiet operation of the SeriTek/5PM is a very nice feature. However, the three speed, front panel, fan control button provides the user with even more acoustical options. Clicking the button twice moves the fan speed to low for even quieter operation with noise sensitive environments. While the low setting is not designed for extended use, it can provide the user with another acoustical option during mixing or recording sessions when ultra-quiet computing is desired. Once the session is over, the user can turn up the fan setting which provides the hard drives with a cooler environment. The balance of acoustics and cooling is placed in the hands of the user with the SeriTek/5PM enclosure. This is an exciting new feature that I have not seen on any other 5-bay enclosure.


Cooling
The new FirmTek SeriTek/5PM heat management system provides enhanced airflow throughout the chassis, by using a unique system of cooling vents, holes in the tray handles and perforations in each tray. The hard drive tray alignment has been modified to double the available air cooling between hard drives. This new design technique combined with the dual 70x70x15mm fan system allows more air flow to be pulled from the front of the enclosure, across the hard drives and expelled out of the rear of the enclosure. Large 1TB hard drives typically use more power and produce more heat than smaller hard drives. The new SeriTek/5PM heat management system is designed and tested to comfortably cool the largest high capacity hard drives while also providing user selectable three speed fan control.

Each 70mm cooling fan has its own LED alarm indicator so that users can easily monitor fan performance. Should a cooling fan fail, the front panel of the SeriTek/5PM enclosure will display a red LED and an audible alert will sound. The user can push the mute button and replace the fan that has failed. The 70mm fans can be accessed by removing six screws on the rear of the enclosure and the fans are attached via standard 3-pin fan connectors. This system design provides for easy fan monitoring, repair or replacement.

FirmTek SeriTek/5PM heat management system also provides a temperature alarm. The backplane board includes a temperature probe that will trigger a visual and an audio alarm should the internal enclosure temperature reach 60C (140F). While SATA PM host adapter cards that support SMART applications will already be able to monitor hard drive temperatures using Hardware Monitor, this feature provides additional protection for host adapters that do not support SMART.

I wanted to determine what the hard drive temperature readings would be with five Hitachi A7K1000 Ultrastar 1TB Model HUA721010KLA330, 3.5" SATA hard drives mounted inside the SeriTek/5PM while running the standard AMUG heat test. The SeriTek/5PM enclosure was connected to a Mac Pro 2.66 GHz running Mac OS X and worked very hard continuously duplicating two video files in a folder with a size of 4.2GB. After 90 minutes of continual activity the hard drive temperatures were recorded using Hardware Monitor. Next, the enclosure was left idle for 60 minutes but still mounted on the desktop without sleep mode. This allowed me to determined how the enclo
sure might cool down. The testing was completed with each fan speed setting and recorded in the table below.

SeriTek/5PM Enclosure 1TB Hitachi Hard Drive Heat Test
Temperature in Fahrenheit Low Medium High
After 90 minutes Duplicating
Top Bay 120.2 111.2 107.6
2nd Bay 129.2 114.8 111.2
3rd Bay 127.4 114.8 111.2
4th Bay 127.4 114.8 111.2
5th Bay 123.8 113 111.2
After 60 min. idle (no sleep)
Top Bay 107.6 100.4 98.6
2nd Bay 113 104 100.4
3rd Bay 113 102.2 100.4
4th Bay 113 104 100.4
5th Bay 109.4 102.2 100.4
Five 1TB Hitachi Ultrastar Model HUA721010KLA330 hard drives were installed. Display table in C.

Hardware Monitor was used to provide the temperature readings of the Hitachi A7K1000 Ultrastar 1TB Model HUA721010KLA330 hard drives in the table above in Fahrenheit. The ambient room temperature was 72 degrees Fahrenheit. As you can see, the new FirmTek heat management system is able to easily cool down large 1TB hard drives. The SeriTek/5PM middle fan setting provides great cooling capabilities and low noise. The low and high fan settings allow the user to vary the fan speed to meet special acoustical and cooling environments.

Direct Backplane Mounting
The SeriTek/5PM enclosure features an internal 5-bay, backplane which incorporates a SATA port multiplier into the circuit board design. If you remove the hard drive trays and look inside the front of the enclosure the backplane board shown below can be seen.

Front Backplane Image


As the user slides the SeriTek/5PM hard drive trays into the enclosure, the rear of the SATA hard drive connects directly to the SATA connector on the circuit board. Openings are cut into the circuit board to maximize ventilation and the fans are mounted on the rear cover plate. The rear of the circuit board provides a single eSATA connector which interfaces directly with the SATA host adapter. No internal SATA cables are required inside the SeriTek/5PM enclosure. This design reduces electromagnetic interference, eliminates the possibility of slower performance from poor SATA connections and provides the SeriTek/5PM with the smallest foot print of all 5-Bay SATA PM enclosures that AMUG has reviewed.

Internal Rear Backplane Image


When the rear panel of the SeriTek/5PM is removed, the internal rear direct backplane design can be viewed. Using no internal SATA cables provides less airflow obstructions, enables the rear fans to be mounted closer to the hard drive bays and allows for a cleaner internal enclosure design. The hard drive chamber inside the SeriTek/5PM is well shielded from the power supply. In addition, the power supply assemby includes a modular slide in design for easy removal and replacement.

If you examine several other 5-bay SATA PM enclosures on the market you will find that the clean, compact, direct backplane mounting system shown in the FirmTek image above is a unique design feature.



Energy Usage
According to the Kill-a-Watt electricity usage monitor, the FirmTek SeriTek/5PM enclosure uses 16 watts when the enclosure is turned on but empty (with the fan setting in the middle). The enclosure uses zero watts when it is plugged in with the power button turned off. Adding a single Hitachi A7K1000 Ultrastar 1TB Model HUA721010KLA330 hard drive increases the energy usage to 22 watts while idle. Once five Hitachi A7K1000 Ultrastar 1TB hard drives are mounted inside the SeriTek/5PM enclosure, the power usage increases to 73 watts while idle. When a five drive Hitachi A7K1000 Ultrastar 4.55TB striped RAID set begins copying lots of data, the power usage rises to between 90-94 watts. Any size 3.5" SATA hard drive can be used with the FirmTek SeriTek/5PM enclosure. However, energy usage will be slightly different. Using the low fan speed setting will reduce energy requirements by one watt and using the high speed fan setting will raise the energy usage by one watt.


Performance
The SeriTek/5PM enclosure was tested with several different Macintosh computers and various SATA PM host adapter configurations. The SiI-3726 port multiplier mounted inside the SeriTel/5PM enclosure has firmware 1.0114 installed. The first performance test utilizes the SeriTek/2SM2-E SATA host adapter with an Apple MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz notebook. DiskTester 1GB read and write tests were performed using a run area test. DiskTester 2.0 measures the combined performance of the striped RAID set and the Mac OS X operating system. It is a Terminal application. Using the command: ./disktester run-area-test --chunk-size 128M --test-size 1G --delta-percent 10 DriveName, puts DiskTester to work testing how the storage volume will perform when empty, 10% full, 20% full and so on.

MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz
The table below displays the performance of individual hard drives versus a five drive striped RAID set using the MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz and the SeriTek/2SM2-E ExpressCard/34 with the SeriTek/5PM enclosure and Hitachi A7K1000 Ultrastar 1TB Model HUA721010KLA330 hard drives. Firmware 5.3.1 was installed on the SeriTek/2SM2-E ExpressCard/34 adapter. The Silicon Image SiI-3132 chipset which is used in all ExpressCard/34 adapters for the MacBook Pro has a RAID bandwidth limitation of approximately 150MB/sec. The tested RAID configuration is able to maintain over 106MB/sec. even when the volume is 99% full. As expected, the performance of a single volume decreases as the hard drive fills.

SeriTek/5PM & 2SM2-E Single Drive vs 5 Drive Striped RAID
Performance
1 Hitachi 1TB HUA721010KLA330 5 Hitachi 1TB HUA721010KLA330
Area Full write read write read
empty 83.2 82.1 106 128
10% 82.4 82.2 106 128
20% 83.4 82.1 106 128
30% 79.4 78.2 106 128
40% 77.5 76.3 106 128
50% 71.4 70.4 106 128
60% 67.6 66.5 106 128
70% 62.8 62.6 106 128
80% 55.7 54.7 106 128
90% 51.7 50.8 106 128
100% 41.7 41.1 106 128
Average 68.8 67.9 106 128
Size 932.2GB 4.55TB
Driver 5.3.1 5.3.1
Ports 2 2
Type PCI-Express PCI-Express
Results are shown in MB per second.

The SeriTek/5PM allows the Apple MacBook Pro to expand its external hard drive capacity dramatically. The FirmTek SeriTek/2SM2-E adapter can support up to two SeriTek/5PM enclosures with ten 1 TB hard drives installed while connected to an Apple MacBook Pro. This configuration can provide a 9TB formatted external volume for audio/video editors looking to expand the storage capabilities of the MacBook Pro.

I setup two SeriTek/5PM enclosures with a MacBook Pro and the SeriTek/2SM2-E adapter using a striped RAID set and obtained 150MB/sec. write performance and 146MB/sec. read performance even when the 9TB volume was 99% full. If a dual eSATA ExpressCard ever exists for the MacBook Pro based on the Marvell chipset instead of the SiI-3132, I would expect performance to rise to approximately 200MB/sec.. However, most MacBook Pro audio/video editors will find that a 9TB striped RAID set with 150MB/sec. performance is an amazing notebook storage expansion tool.


PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0 GHz
The next table displays the performance of the SeriTek/5PM enclosure with the original PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0 GHz with a FirmTek SeriTek/2SE4 PCI-X host adapter installed. This 4-port SATA PM host adapter configuration provides great performance and boot capability.


SeriTek/5PM and SeriTek/2SE4 - PCI-X Striped RAID
Set Performance
5 Hitachi 1TB HUA721010KLA330 10 Seagate 320GB ST3320620AS
Area Full write read write read
empty 224 244 445 479
10% 224 244 445 482
20% 224 244 445 482
30% 223 244 445 481
40% 224 245 445 491
50% 224 239 445 481
60% 224 242 445 490
70% 224 245 439 486
80% 224 244 445 485
90% 224 240 433 441
100% 215 198 353 363
Average 223 239 435 470
Size 4.55TB 2.91TB
Driver 5.3.1 5.3.1
Ports 4 4
Type PCI-X PCI-X
Results are shown in MB per second.

When the SeriTek/5PM is connected to the 4-port SeriTek/2SE4 PCI-X host adapter, striped RAID set performance is considerably higher than with a Silicon Image SiI-3132 based two port card. The table above compares the performance of a single SeriTek/5PM with five Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB hard drives configured as a striped RAID set against two SeriTek/5PM enclosures with ten 320GB Seagate model 7200.10 hard drives. The results demonstrate that when two SeriTek/5PM enclosures are utilized users can obtain striped RAID set performance of over 430MB/sec. on average.


Mac Pro 2.66GHz (2-Port Card)
The next table compares the results of using the SeriTek/5PM enclosure with the FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E PCIe 2-port SATA host adapter in an Apple Mac Pro 2.66 with a single Hitachi A7K1000 Ultrastar 1TB Model HUA721010KLA330 hard drive or the Western Digital WD 750GB model WD7500AAKS. This 2-port PCIe Mac Pro card is also based on the Silicon Image SiI-3132 chipset. The SeriTek/2SE2-E provides great individual hard drive performance at a very reasonable price. However, striped RAID set performance will be slower than when a more expensive 4-port PCIe card is used.


FirmTek SeriTek/5PM & SeriTek/2SE2-E Single HD - DiskTester 1GB Test
Hitachi 1TB HUA721010KLA330 WD 750GB WD7500AAKS
Area Full write read write read
empty 83.2 82.1 94.3 94.4
10% 83.3 82.1 93.1 93.8
20% 82.3 82.2 90.1 90.1
30% 79.4 78.2 88 88.1
40% 77.5 76.3 83.8 83.9
50% 70.7 70.5 80.4 80.7
60% 67.5 66.5 75.7 76
70% 63.6 62.6 69.6 69.7
80% 55.1 54.8 64.2 64.2
90% 51.2 50.9 57.2 57.3
100% 41.3 41.1 48.8 48.8
Average 68.6 67.9 76.8 77
Size 932.2GB 698.17GB
Driver 5.3.1 5.3.1
Ports 2 2
Type PCI-Express PCI-Express
Results are shown in MB per second.

Based on the DiskTester results above, the 2-port SeriTek/2SE2-E can provide very nice individual hard drive performance with the SeriTek/5PM enclosure. The WD 750GB model WD7500AAKS provides the best over all performance on a proportional basis. However, the Hitachi 1TB A7K1000 Ultrastar provides 200GB of additional storage capacity. When the 1TB Hitachi is 50% full the WD 750GB will be 66% full. With 465GB of data copied to both hard drives the performance will be very close.

The next test shows how the SeriTek/5PM and SeriTek/2SE2-E performs when a five drive striped RAID set is configured instead of individual hard drives. All 2-port SATA host adapters for the Mac Pro that AMUG has tested use the Silicon Image SiI-3132 chipset which has a bandwidth limitation of approximately 130MB/sec. per eSATA data port and a total bandwidth limit of approximately 150MB/sec. when both eSATA ports are used together. While 2-port PCIe SATA host adapters provide great individual hard drive performance, the SII-3132 bandwidth limitation does not allow these cards to provide the 220MB/sec. striped RAID set performance that a 4-port PCIe card can deliver with the SeriTek/5PM enclosure.

SeriTek/5PM & 2SE2-E Five Drive Striped RAID
- DiskTester 1GB Test
5 Hitachi 1TB HUA721010KLA330 5 Seagate 320GB ST3320620AS
Area Full write read write read
empty 122 128 122 129
10% 122 129 120 129
20% 122 129 121 129
30% 122 129 121 129
40% 122 129 122 129
50% 122 129 122 129
60% 122 129 122 129
70% 122 129 121 129
80% 122 129 122 129
90% 122 129 122 129
100% 122 129 122 127
Average 122 129 121 129
Size 4.55TB 1.16TB
Driver 5.3.1 5.3.1
Ports 2 2
Type PCI-Express PCI-Express
Results are shown in MB per second.

The test above indicates that the 1TB and 320GB hard drives provide similar striped RAID set performance with the SeriTek/5PM and SeriTek/2SE2-E combination. However, the larger hard drive provides significantly more storage capacity. The 2-port cards are a nice value option as they sell for approximately 35-50% of what a 4-port PCIe SATA host adapter costs. However, their one weakness is SATA PM RAID performance. If the user does not intend to configure striped RAID sets or does not require striped RAID set performance over 130MB/sec. the SeriTek/2SE2-E is an excellent option.



Mac Pro 2.66GHz (4-Port Cards)
The next table displays the performance of the SeriTek/5PM while used with the Mac Pro 2.66 GHz and several third party 4-port PCIe SATA PM host adapters. FirmTek is currently developing a 4-port PCIe card but it was not available when this review was completed. Once the FirmTek 4-port PCIe card is available AMUG will update the review.


SeriTek/5PM & Five Hitachi 1TB - PCIe Striped RAID
Set Performance
Tempo E4P eSATA PCIe8 RR 2314 RR 2314MS
Area Full write read write read write read write read
empty 215 243 215 240 224 250 224 252
10% 216 244 218 241 224 252 224 250
20% 216 244 219 240 224 252 224 252
30% 211 234 219 240 224 249 224 248
40% 217 243 219 242 224 248 224 248
50% 216 245 218 238 224 253 224 252
60% 217 241 219 241 224 252 225 253
70% 217 244 216 242 225 251 224 252
80% 217 241 219 241 224 250 225 249
90% 218 241 219 240 223 250 224 251
100% 211 198 215 198 215 198 213 198
Average 215 238 218 237 223 246 223 246
RAID Size 4.55TB 4.55TB 4.55TB 4.55TB
Drives # 1TB 5 1TB 5 1TB 5 1TB 5
Driver 2.1.2 2.0.3 2.20 2.20
Ports 4 4 4 4
Type PCIe PCIe PCIe PCIe
MSRP $299 $189 $200 $199
Results are shown in MB per second.

The DiskTester results above indicate that the HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 and 2314MS were able to provide slightly higher performance than the DAT Optic eSATA_PCIe8 and Sonnet Tempo E4P card. The new HighPoint 2.20 firmware supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and 50 plus adds traditional Macintosh hot swap for striped RAID sets plus a very nice Storage Health Inspector. HighPoint has also released the RocketRAID 2522 which can support up to six FirmTek SeriTek/5PM enclosures with a single PCIe card.

The last Mac Pro performance test uses dual SeriTek/5PM enclosures with the same combination of 3rd party PCIe SATA PM host adapters. A single striped RAID set is used across multiple SeriTek/5PM enclosures to maximize performance.



Dual SeriTek/5PM & Ten Seagate 320GB - PCIe Striped RAID Set
Tempo E4P eSATA PCIe8
RR
2314
RR
2314MS
Area Full write read write read write read write read
empty 418 456 423 463 435 480 434 487
10% 421 454 425 466 436 482 435 483
20% 423 453 425 465 430 481 431 481
30% 422 458 425 464 435 482 430 492
40% 421 450 424 464 436 487 436 482
50% 421 451 426 464 425 489 436 492
60% 421 455 426 463 435 489 436 489
70% 421 448 425 461 433 489 435 493