Sustained Read

Maxtor 250GB SATA interface is green. 250GB in PowerMac front drive bay is blue.

Maxtor 250GB SATA interface is green. 250GB in PowerMac front drive bay is blue.

Where Can I use the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter?
The Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter requires an extra inch of space behind your PATA hard drive. As you can see from the image on the right the adapter plugs into the IDE port on the drive and a "Y" power cable provides power for the drive and the adapter. The SATA connector plugs into the adapter and the other end of the SATA cable plugs into an SATA host adapter PCI card.

PowerMac G4 Gigabit Ethernet
The adapter was mounted in a PowerMac G4 500 (gigabit ethernet model introduced July 2000). In this model you can use a PATA drive with the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter in the two bays to the left of the main drive bay (which is located on the bottom right side). The main drive bay does not work with the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter as there is not enough clearance to shut the door once the adapter is installed on a drive in this bay. The center tray is the easiest fit. A right angle SATA cable was used with the adapter to get the maximum clearance for both the center and left drive trays. The left tray is a tight fit but it will mount there too. You will need to install a FirmTek SeriTek/1S2 SATA PCI host adapter card in an available PCI slot and connect the SATA cables to it. You will have a significantly faster drive interface with these older PowerMac G4 models using this configuration. You can also purchase native SATA drives and use them with the SATA host adapter card if you would like to replace a PATA drive with a larger or faster model SATA drive. One of the big advantages of using an SATA host adapter card in a gigabit ethernet PowerMac is that you will be able to use SATA drives larger than 128GB. In addition, the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter gives you the option to use large PATA drives up to 400GB in capacity with the SATA host adapter.

PowerMac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors & FW800)
When mounting a PATA drive in a PowerMac G4 MDD or FW800 model the layout is a little different. The main drive bay is in the front of the PowerMac G4 case. While you can mount native SATA drives in the front drive bays, the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter mounted on a PATA drive does not provide enough clearance for the PowerMac side door to close.

However, you can use the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter with PATA drives in the rear drive bay. The rear drive bay performed very well compared to the front drive bay in these tests. However, you could mount PATA drives in the rear bay using the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter with a SeriTek/1V4 four internal serial ATA PCI-X host adapter. The 1V4 will allow you to mount up to four SATA drives internally. You could use native SATA drives in the front bay and existing PATA drives you might already own with the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter in the rear bay. You could also use a FirmTek SeriTek/1S2 SATA PCI host adapter instead if you only needed to mount two internal SATA devices. For a few extra dollars, the four port option is nice to have as it is not limited to two devices. The performance between these two host adapters is very similar.

PowerMac G5 (Introduced June 2003)
The PowerMac G5 was introduced with only support for SATA drives internally. In fact, Apple has an article on-line titled, "Power Mac G5: ATA Parallel-to-Serial Adapters Not Supported". I am happy to report that the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter does work in the PowerMac G5 Dual. I use PATA drives on the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter with the G5 Drive Bracket. The G5 Drive bracket provides mountings for up to three drives in front of the processor fans. This keeps the drives cooler than when mounted in the stock PowerMac G5 drive bays. It also has enough clearance for the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter. The drives in the G5 bracket area are powered with a "Y" molex power cable from the DVD drive and they utilize a SeriTek/1V4 four port internal serial ATA PCI-X host adapter which provides a fast interface. I also find that attaching the SATA drives in the original G5 drive bay to the SeriTek/1V4 four port internal serial ATA PCI-X host adapter can provide additional performance advantages. I have been running drives in the G5 bracket for almost a year now with no problems. Note: If you do not want the capability to install more than two drives in your PowerMac G5 but still want the flexibility to use a PATA drive internally you might want to consider the Sonnett Tempo G5 Bridge. It cost $20 more than the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter but it allows you to use the existing SATA and power connections in the original PowerMac G5 drive bay.

External Enclosure
Another way you can use the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter is inside a spare enclosure you may have. The adapter can be placed on a PATA drive inside an enclosure. Just hang the SATA cable out of the back of the enclosure and you have converted an old SCSI enclosure into a useful IDE-SATA interface in about five minutes time. I plugged the new SATA enclosure into a SeriTek/1SE2 two-port external Serial ATA PCI adapter and the PATA drive was working externally on a PowerMac G5. Your mileage on this tip may vary from mine depending on the enclosure and your SATA cable insulation but it worked well for me. The Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter allows you to use PATA drives with SATA interfaces in just about as many ways as you can think of. The only time I found the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter would not work well for me was when I utilized it on the back of a Pioneer 109 DVR. While it worked, copy times dropped significantly from how the Pioneer 109 performed on the stock PowerMac G4 bus.

Discussion
I started this review thinking the tests would demonstrate how the PowerMac G4 1.42GHz Dual would perform faster using SATA drives even when using the converter. What I found was that while the PowerMac G4 1.42 Dual performance did increase when using an SATA interface, it was not by as much as I thought it might be. The Maxtor 250GB Ultra 16 is a very fast PATA drive on its own. It can out perform many SATA drives including the Western Digital 2500JD. These tests indicate that the actual drive performance is as important or more important than the SATA interface itself on a PowerMac. I was surprised how well the rear drive bay of the PowerMac G4 Dual 1.42GHz performed. The Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter is a valuable tool for mounting fast PATA drives inside a PowerMac G5 with the G5 Drive Bracket. It is also a good tool for enabling older PowerMacs to support PATA drives over 128GB. With the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter and a SeriTek/1S2 SATA PCI host adapter you can have the best of both worlds. Large PATA or SATA drive support in a pre-MDD PowerMac G4 at a relatively low cost.

Using the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA adapter can provide an easy way to utilize PATA drives with SATA interfaces. Having the option to use a PATA drive with an SATA interface for only $24 is a nice trick.

Pros

Addonics IDE to SATA gets 4 AMUGs out of 5!
The Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter specifications indicate that it may only be compatible with controllers using the Silicon Image chipset. However, it worked well with the Intel 31244 PCI-X to Serial ATA Controller chip on the SeriTek/1V4 four port internal serial ATA PCI-X host adapter. It is nice to be able to utilize a good PATA drive with an SATA interface by simply plugging an adapter on the back. If you have quality PATA drives that you want to use with your next SATA installation the Addonics IDE to Serial ATA converter is worth considering. If you are looking for a slightly smaller converter FirmTek sells the SeriTek/1SC1 for $24.95.which requires 3/4" clearance behind the drive instead of one inch.

Contact Information:
Addonics Technologies
22466 Kruse Drive,
San Jose, CA 95131
Phone: 408-433-3899
techinfo@addonics.com
http://www.addonics.com/

Copyright 2005
Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG)
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