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September 1, 2006
WiebeTech Tera Card TCES0-2e Host Adapter
Review: Using the WiebeTech Tera Card TCES0-2e SATA host adapter with a Macintosh.
By Arthur Whalem
WiebeTech is shipping the Tera Card TCES0-2e PCIe SATA host adapter ($99.95). It provides two external eSATA ports for a PC or a Macintosh. The Tera Card TCES0-2e SATA host adapter utilizes the Silicon Image SiI 3132 controller which supports up to two individual SATA hard drives or a SATA-PM enclosure with up to five hard drives installed. As the Tera Card TCES0-2e SATA host adapter is a 1x PCIe card it is designed to be installed in a computer with a PCIe expansion slot.
System Requirements
Macintosh OS X 10.4.2 or higher, Windows 2K, XP, Linux.
Compatible with PowerMac G5 with PCI Express (PCIe).
SiI-3132 Mac driver installation.
Requires SATA hard drive(s).
Requires eSATA data cables.
What's Included?
The WiebeTech Tera Card TCES0-2e includes the PCIe SATA host adapter and a CD that contains drivers and a PDF user manual.
Install
The WiebeTech Tera Card TCES0-2e SATA host adapter can be placed in any available PCIe expansion slot within a Dual-Core or the Quad PowerMac G5. If you look at the Tera Card TCES0-2e using System Profiler, you will see that it shows up as a "pci1095, 3132 Other Mass Storage Controller". In the image below, it is installed in slot 4. The FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E two port PCIe SATA host adapter is installed in slot 2. Both cards utilize the SiI-3132 Silicon Image controller.
Once the Tera Card TCES0-2e is installed, you are ready to install the Mac software drivers. The Tera Card TCES0-2e will not work without installing the Silicon Image Mac driver. In fact, if you install the Tera Card TCES0-2e and then boot off of a hard drive without the Silicon Image Mac driver installed, the PowerMac G5 will no longer support sleep. Once the driver is installed, sleep mode is restored and hard drives connected to the TCES0-2e will mount.
The CD that comes with the Tera Card TCES0-2e has a folder that contains BIOS and drivers for Mac OS X, Windows 2000, XP and Linux systems. The Mac OS X folder provides the SiI3132_1.0.4_SiI.Pkg. You can install this version of the software or use the updated SiI-3132 Mac driver version 1.1.6 which is posted on-line at the Silicon Image web site.
When using the Silicon Image 3132 installer the user will need to select the boot drive as the target hard drive. The installation process is straight forward and simple. Just decompress the package and double click on the installer. For the purposes of this article the upgraded Mac driver version 1.1.6 was utilized.
While the 1.0.4 version and 1.1.6 will both work, there are some differences between the versions. Version 1.1.6 fixes a bug that could
cause Hitachi 160GB SATA II hard drives to fail to initialize when building a striped RAID set. In addition, version 1.1.6 changes the hard drive icons to a orange box instead of the standard hard drive icon. Personally, I like the standard hard drive icon and find the orange enclosure strange for a SATA hard drive. If you don't like the orange icon you can simply copy and paste the old hard drive icon into the "Get Info" window of any hard drive connected to the Tera Card TCES0-2e to change it back to the old style. If you use version 1.0.4 of the SiI-3132 Mac driver, the SATA hard drives mounted on the Tera Card TCES0-2e are displayed using the normal silver hard drive icon.Silicon Image
The WiebeTech Tera Card TCES0-2e PCIe SATA host adapter utilizes the Silicon Image SiI 3132 controller. It provides a single-chip, one-lane PCI Express to 2-port Serial ATA (SATA) II host controller. As you can see in the image below it can support two individual hard drive connections at up to 3.0Gbps. This chip also supports SATA PM connections.
Graphic courtesy of Silicon Image.
Features
The single-lane PCI Express (PCIe) Tera Card TCES0-2e SATA host adapter supports Mac OS X deep sleep and hot swap capability. It provides two independent SATA channels that support SATA I and SATA II hard drives, Spread Spectrum Clocking and Native Command Queuing. The Tera Card TCES0-2e PCIe host adapter also supports SATA PM connections. However, every two port PCIe Macintosh host adapter that utilizes the SiI-3132 controller, that I have tested, provided limited SATA PM striped RAID set throughput on a Macintosh.
In these tests, five Maxtor Maxline 300GB 7V300F0 hard drives provided performance of 114MB/sec. using version 1.04 of the Mac driver and 107MB/sec. using version 1.1.6. The same five hard drives can produce 188MB/sec write performance and 245MB/sec. read performance using a Sonnet Tempo E4P PCIe 4x host adapter. What this means is that all two port SiI-3132 SATA host adapters provide limited SATA PM performance when a striped RAID is used, but they work well with individual hard drives using SATA PM or direct connect hard drive setups.
Not Supported
The Tera Card TCES0-2e does not provide boot capability and it does not pass SMART data to Mac OS X, so that Disk Utility and Hardware Monitor can display the data. In addition, if you install the Silicon Image Mac driver while the bootable FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E is installed, the Silicon Image driver blocks the FirmTek card from passing SMART data to Mac OS X. Removing the Silicon Image SiI-3132 Mac driver solves the problem, but then the Tera Card TCES0-2e will not be able to function. As a result, users that like the SMART data provided by the bootable FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E may not want to install the Tera Card TCES0-2e in a Macintosh that also has a SeriTek/2SE2-E.
Stability
During this review a WiebeTech SilverSATA I was used to determine how the Tera Card TCES0-2e SATA host adapter performed when hot swapping drives in and out of a SATA enclosure. A PowerMac G5 Quad was used for these tests along with the SiI-3132 Mac driver version 1.1.6.Single Drives
When individual Maxtor 300GB SATA I, SATA II, Seagate 7200.10 and Hitachi 160GB SATA II hard drives were mounted in the Silver SATA I enclosure they were able to be hot swapped in and out without turning off the computer or the enclosure. These hard drives were hot swapped in and out of the SilverSATA I enclosure twenty times. All of the hard drives mounted within 6-8 seconds of insertion.
RAID
The same hot swap test was performed with a dual Seagate 7200.10 set of hard drives which were formatted as a striped RAID set. The Seagate 7200.10 model was selected as it typically has more problems with hot swap tests and host adapters than any other hard drive AMUG has tested. During this test the Seagate 7200.10 hard drives were dismounted and hot swapped ten times. In each test, the dual drive striped RAID was able to mount using the Tera Card TCES0-2e SATA host adapter without having to turn off the enclosure or the PowerMac G5 Quad. Based on these tests, I would give the Tera Card TCES0-2e high marks for hot swap capability.
SilverSATA II Compatibility
WiebeTech customers may be interested in how the Tera Card TCES0-2e performs with the SilverSATA II enclosure. The SilverSATA II uses an internal hardware RAID that does not always function well with every SATA host adapter available. The results of the SilverSATA II tests are limited to SilverSATA II usage and are not indicative of normal SATA direct drive hot swap tests with the Tera Card TCES0-2e.When testing the WiebeTech SilverSATA II with the Tera Card TCES0-2e SATA host adapter with the Mac driver version 1.1.6, it was found that the hard drives in the SilverSATA II would not mount on a restart. However, turning the SilverSATA II on after a restart mounted the hard drives. The SilverSATA II also does not work properly with deep sleep on a PowerMac G5 with the Tera Card TCES0-2e. It is unable to wake from sleep which gives the user the spinning beach ball, once you try to access the hard drives in the SilverSATA II enclosure. It is best to dismount the SilverSATA II and turn it off, before placing the Macintosh in sleep mode. The SilverSATA II was also tested using the Silicon Image SiI-3132 Mac driver 1.0.4 that is provided by WiebeTech on the Tera Card TCES0-2e CD. It was discovered that while sleep sometimes worked with version 1.0.4, it was still problematic with the SilverSATA II. If you are using the SilverSATA II with the Tera Card TCES0-2e, I would expect to turn it on after a restart and turn it off before placing the computer in sleep mode.
The FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E
If you are looking for a two port PCIe SATA host adapter that is fully compatible with the SilverSATA II, the ONLY one that I have found is the bootable FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E. The SilverSATA II can boot, mount, hot swap, requires no driver install and supports deep sleep properly on a PCIe PowerMac G5 or a Mac Pro when using the FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E. The only issue I have found with the FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E and the SilverSATA II is that if you hot swap Seagate 7200.10 hard drives, you will need to turn the enclosure on and off to mount the 7200.10 hard drives. This is a non-issue to me, but SilverSATA II users might want to know about it.
Sleep
Sleep mode was also tested with the Tera Card TCES0-2e PCIe SATA host adapter using several direct connect enclosures. A PowerMac G5 Quad 2.5Ghz using Mac OS X 10.4.7 was able to sleep with the Tera Card TCES0-2e and the SiI-3132 Mac driver installed. Mounted hard drives attached to the Tera Card TCES0-2e host adapter power down while in sleep mode. Once the PowerMac G5 is awake the hard drives can be utilized within 10 seconds.
If the hard drives were dismounted before placing the PoweMac G5 in sleep mode, they were able to be re-mounted using Disk Utility once the Mac was awake. However, if the connected hard drives were left mounted and then turned off during sleep, the PowerMac had to be restarted as the beach ball of death displays and Mac OS X crashes once the Macintosh is awake. This problem is a result of the Silicon Image drivers not checking to see if the hard drive(s) are still present when the Macintosh wakes from sleep. Based on these tests, the Tera Card TCES0-2e SATA host adapter works well with deep sleep. However, users should know that if they accidently turn off a mounted hard drive enclosure while the Macintosh is in sleep mode it may crash Mac OS X. It would be nice if the Silicon Image Mac drivers were upgraded to fix this in a future version.
Mac Pro
The Tera Card TCES0-2e PCIe SATA host adapter will work in the new Apple Mac Pro models when the SiI-3132 Mac driver version 1.1.6 is installed. This driver is posted on-line at the Silicon Image web site. You should know that version 1.0.4 will not work properly with the Mac Pro. This same Mac driver can also support the FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E. However, the FirmTek card will no longer support SMART data when the Silicon Image SiI-3132 1.1.6 Mac driver is installed.
If you own a FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E SATA host adapter, I would recommend using the FirmTek 2SM2-E driver with the Apple Mac Pro system. You will find it on your FirmTek CD. It allows SMART data to be passed to Mac OS X and works well with the FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E on a Mac Pro system. However, the 2SM2-E Mac driver version 5.1.5 does not support boot capability.
As of September 1, 2006, the Sonnet Tempo E4P, E4i and the RocketRAID SATA host adapters do not have working Macintosh drivers for the Apple Mac Pro. They are working on them and I hope to test them soon.
PerformanceIn this test, a PowerMac G5 Quad 2.5GHz running Mac OS X 10.4.7 was used with the WiebeTech SilverSATA I enclosure and the Tera Card TCES0-2e host adapter in slot 4. A Seagate 7200.10 320GB hard drive was used for testing. DiskTester 10GB read and write tests were performed using a run area test so that this article could display how the 320GB hard drive performed. DiskTester 2.0 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 same tests were completed using the same exact setup with several different SATA host adapters. The object of this test was to see if a definitive performance difference could be detected between using the WiebeTech Tera Card TCES0-2e ($99.95) host adapter versus the FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E ($99.95) or the Sonnet Tempo E4P ($299.95). A single Seagate 320GB 7200.10 hard drive was used in these tests.
Single Seagate 7200.10 320GB PCIe Performance Test
 TCES0-2e |
 SeriTek 2SE2 -E |
 Sonnet E4P |
| TCES0-2e | Slot 4 | 2SE2 -E | Slot 4 | E4P | Slot 4 | |
| Area Full | write | read | write | read | write | read |
| empty | 72.5 | 73.2 | 72.9 | 73.2 | 72.6 | 73.2 |
| 10% | 71.7 | 72.0 | 71.9 | 72.1 | 71.7 | 71.9 |
| 20% | 71.1 | 71.3 | 71.2 | 71.4 | 71.1 | 71.3 |
| 30% | 68.5 | 68.8 | 68.7 | 68.8 | 68.6 | 68.7 |
| 40% | 66.3 | 66.5 | 66.5 | 66.6 | 66.3 | 66.5 |
| 50% | 62.3 | 62.6 | 62.6 | 62.7 | 62.4 | 62.6 |
| 60% | 59.2 | 59.5 | 59.4 | 59.9 | 59.3 | 59.4 |
| 70% | 55.3 | 55.6 | 55.5 | 55.6 | 55.3 | 55.5 |
| 80% | 50.1 | 50.4 | 50.3 | 50.4 | 50.2 | 50.4 |
| 90% | 44.4 | 44.6 | 44.5 | 44.7 | 44.4 | 44.6 |
| Average | 62.14 | 62.45 | 62.35 | 62.54 | 62.19 | 62.41 |
| MSRP | $99.95 | $99.95 | $299.95 | |||
| SATA Ports | 2 ext. | 2 ext. | 4 ext | SATA PM |
Quad 2.5 in PCIe slot 4 and compared using a single Seagate 320GB 7200.10 hard drive.
As you can see in the table above, when using a single Seagate 7200.10 320GB hard drive, all of the SATA host adapters tested in this group provided very similar performance results.
What About a Dual Drive Striped RAID Set?
In the table below you will see how dual Seagate 320GB SATA II hard drives perform with the WiebeTech Tera Card TCES0-2e, while configured as a striped RAID set. Both external SATA ports on the Tera Card TCES0-2e were used in this test. A FirmTek SeriTek/2EN2 dual-bay hot-swap external eSATA enclosure was used to mount the hard drives. Once again, all three PCIe SATA host adapters were compared using the same test methods that were used in the single drive test above. The results are provided below.
Dual Seagate 7200.10 320GB Striped RAID Performance
TCES0-2e |
SeriTek 2SE2 -E |
Sonnet E4P |
| TCES0-2e | Slot 4 | 2SE2 -E | Slot 4 | E4P | Slot 4 | |
| Area Full | write | read | write | read | write | read |
| empty | 145 | 145 | 142 | 146 | 145 | 146 |
| 10% | 145 | 145 | 145 | 145 | 144 | 145 |
| 20% | 142 | 143 | 143 | 143 | 142 | 143 |
| 30% | 138 | 138 | 138 | 138 | 138 | 138 |
| 40% | 133 | 133 | 133 | 133 | 133 | 133 |
| 50% | 125 | 126 | 125 | 126 | 125 | 126 |
| 60% | 119 | 119 | 119 | 119 | 119 | 119 |
| 70% | 111 | 111 | 111 | 111 | 111 | 111 |
| 80% | 101 | 102 | 101 | 102 | 101 | 101 |
| 90% | 89.2 | 89.5 | 89.5 | 89.6 | 89.2 | 89.5 |
| Average | 124.82 | 125.15 | 124.65 | 125.26 | 124.72 | 125.15 |
| MSRP | $99.95 | $99.95 | $299.95 | |||
| SATA Ports | 2 ext. | 2 ext. | 4 ext | SATA PM |
Quad 2.5 in PCIe slot 4 and compared while using dual Seagate 320GB 7200.10 hard drives.
As you can see in the table above, the difference in performance between the three PCIe SATA host adapters while using a direct connect dual drive striped RAID set is minimal. The performance results provided by the Tera Card TCES0-2e are very good.
SATA PM CompatibilityWhile the SiI-3132 controller used on the Tera Card TCES0-2e supports SATA port multiplier enclosures, it does not provide the striped RAID performance that is available with the Sonnet Tempo E4P. This applies to all two port PCIe cards that utilize the Silicon Image SiI-3132 controller, not just the Tera Card TCES0-2e. If you want to use the Tera Card TCES0-2e with an SATA PM enclosure it will work. However, you should understand that this one lane PCIe host adapter will be slower than the four lane Sonnet Tempo E4P. The tests below demonstrate the performance achieved with a five drive striped RAID set and individual hard drives. The FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E is not included in these tests as SATA PM is not listed as a feature of the SeriTek/2SE2-E. However, If you utilize the SeriTek/2SE2-E with the SiI-3132 Mac driver version 1.0.4 installed, it provides SATA PM speeds identical to the Tera Card TCES0-2e performance shown below.
SATA PM Five Drive Striped RAID Performance
|
TCES0-2e |
Sonnet E4P |
| 7V300F0 300GB | 7200.10 320GB | 7V300F0 300GB | 7200.10 320GB | |
| Area Full | write/read | write/read | write/read | write/read |
| empty | 114 / 113 | 113 / 112 | 187 / 247 | 190 / 238 |
| 10% | 114 / 113 | 113 / 112 | 188 / 246 | 192 / 238 |
| 20% | 114 / 113 | 113 / 112 | 188 / 245 | 192 / 237 |
| 30% | 114 / 113 | 113 / 112 | 188 / 247 | 192 / 238 |
| 40% | 114 / 113 | 113 / 112 | 187 / 247 | 192 / 237 |
| 50% | 114 / 113 | 113 / 112 | 188 / 248 | 192 / 237 |
| 60% | 114 / 113 | 113 / 112 | 188 / 246 | 192 / 235 |
| 70% | 114 / 113 | 113 / 112 | 188 / 247 | 192 / 236 |
| 80% | 114 / 113 | 113 / 112 | 188 / 246 | 192 / 233 |
| 90% | 114 / 113 | 113 / 112 | 188 / 222 | 192 / 221 |
| Average | 114 / 113 | 113 / 112 | 187.8 / 244.1 | 191.8 / 235 |
| MSRP | $99.95 | $299.95 | ||
| SATA Ports | 2 ext. | 4 ext |
Quad 2.5 in PCIe slot 4 and compared while using five Maxtor Maxline III 7V300F0 300GB
hard drives or five Seagate 7200.10 320GB hard drives.
As the table above demonstrates the Sonnet Tempo E4P is over 60% faster than the Tera Card TCES0-2e when writing data and approximately twice as fast at reading data when a five drive striped RAID set is used with a SATA PM enclosure. Of course, the E4P is also three times more expensive. The Tera Card TCES0-2e seems to have a limit of 115MB/sec. per channel.
SATA PM Enclosure Individual Hard Drive Performance
|
TCES0-2e |
Sonnet E4P |
| 7V300F0 300GB | 7200.10 320GB | 7V300F0 300GB | 7200.10 320GB | |
| Area Full | write/read | write/read | write/read | write/read |
| empty | 68.9 / 69.9 | 74 / 74.5 | 68.9 / 70 | 74.1 / 74.5 |
| 10% | 67.8 / 68.7 | 73.6 / 73.9 | 67.8 / 68.9 | 73.7 / 73.9 |
| 20% | 65.9 / 66.7 | 72.5 / 72.8 | 66 / 66.9 | 72.5 / 72.8 |
| 30% | 64.1 / 64.8 | 69.8 / 70.1 | 64 / 64.9 | 69.9 / 70.1 |
| 40% | 61.3 / 62.1 | 67.7 / 67.9 | 61.3 / 62.1 | 67.7 / 67.9 |
| 50% | 59 / 59.5 | 63.8 / 64 | 59 / 59.5 | 63.9 / 64 |
| 60% | 56.6 / 57 | 60.4 / 60.7 | 56.6 / 57 | 60.5 / 60.7 |
| 70% | 52 / 52.6 | 56.8 / 57 | 52 / 52.5 | 56.8 / 57 |
| 80% | 48.7 / 49.2 | 51.7 / 51.9 | 48.7 / 49.2 | 51.7 / 51.9 |
| 90% | 44.9 / 45.3 | 45.2 / 45.4 | 44.9 / 45.3 | 45.3 / 45.4 |
| Average | 58.92 / 59.58 | 63.55 / 63.82 | 58.92 / 59.63 | 63.61 / 63.82 |
| MSRP | $99.95 | $299.95 | ||
| SATA Ports | 2 ext. | 4 ext |
Quad 2.5 in PCIe slot 4. All hard drives were mounted in the Fusion 500P SATA PM enclosure.
In the data provided by the table above, you can see that individual hard drive performance in a SATA PM enclosure is a very close match between the Tera Card TCES0-2e and the Sonnet Tempo E4P. Using the Tera Card TCES0-2e with a 5-bay SATA PM enclosure works very well provided the hard drives are not configured as a striped RAID set.
There seems to be a throttle on each channel of the Tera Card TCES0-2e that limits performance to a maximum of 115MB/sec. If I setup a dual drive striped RAID set inside a SATA PM enclosure the best performance I can get with the Tera Card TCES0-2e is 115MB/sec. The same holds true with a five drive striped RAID set installed in a SATA PM enclosure. As this is the case, using the Tera Card TCES0-2e with individual hard drives in a SATA PM enclosure will probably provide the best performance match for most SATA PM users.
DiscussionThe WiebeTech Tera Card TCES0-2e supports deep sleep and is able to mount SATA I or SATA II hard drives. It provides a high performance interface for up to two hard drives that is very similar to other PCIe host adapters. The Tera Card TCES0-2e is small, easy to install and has the ability to support SATA PM enclosures. While the SATA PM striped RAID set performance of the Tera Card TCES0-2e is significantly slower than the Sonnet Tempo E4P, it does a great job supporting individual hard drives in a SATA PM enclosure. It is nice to know that you can attach a SATA PM or a direct connect enclosure to the Tera Card TCES0-2e and it will access the hard drive(s). In addition, the Tera Card TCES0-2e works with the latest Apple Mac Pro model when the SiI-3132 Mac driver version 1.1.6 is installed.
The Silicon Image Macintosh driver that powers the Tera Card TCES0-2e does have some limitations. It does not provide boot capability and it does not pass SMART data to Mac OS X. If these two features are important to you, I would consider the FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E two port PCIe SATA host adapter instead. The FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E provides both of these functions and works very well.
PowerMac G5 models introduced before October, 2005 do not include a PCIe slot that is required for installing the Tera Card TCES0-2e. WiebeTech is selling the Tera Card TCS1-1 ($59.95) two port SATA host adapter for use with PowerMac G4 and G5 PCI and PCI-X models. The Tera Card TCS1-1 is a great value for PCI PowerMac models. AMUG has reviewed the Tera Card TCS1-1 if you need more information.
Pros
Works with a Macintosh or a PC with an empty PCIe slot.
Works with PowerMac G5 using Mac drivers 1.04 or 1.1.6.
Works with Apple Mac Pro using Mac driver version 1.1.6.
Mounts up to two direct connect hard drives using two external eSATA ports.
Can be used with individual hard drives or in a RAID configuration.
WiebeTech is working on a new Mac driver that supports SMART data.
Supports SATA PM 5-bay enclosures.
Provides hot swap for SATA I and SATA II hard drives.
Works well with Disk Utility.
Good Performance.
Supports Sleep.
Supports spread spectrum clocking (SSC).
Cons
Requires installing a Silicon Image SiI-3132 Mac driver.
SATA PM RAID performance is limited to 115MB/sec per channel.
Does not pass SMART data to Mac OS X.
Does not provide boot capability.
Tera Card TCES0-2e gets 4 AMUGs out of 5!
The WiebeTech Tera Card TCES0-2e provides great direct connect performance, hot swap capability and deep sleep support. My biggest complaint is that it does not pass SMART data to Mac OS X or provide boot capability. However, WiebeTech has informed me that they plan to release a new driver for the TCES0-2e that will provide SMART capability. Once we test the updated driver this review will be updated with the results.
WiebeTech Special Offer - (Requires AMUG Membership)
For a limited time AMUG members can save 10% on the entire WiebeTech line including the Tera Card TCES0-2e by using the discount code found in the AMUG members only section.
Contact Information:
WiebeTech LLC
8200 E. 34th St. North #1404
Wichita, KS 67226 USA
866.744.8722 Toll Free
http://www.wiebetech.com
Copyright 2006
Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG). Visit AMUG at www.amug.org for news, discounts and friends. JOIN AMUG!