Anyone use a ExpressCard/34 SATA II card?

NickK

NickK

NickK

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I'm looking for fast (not USB/FW) external SATAII speed storage.

There's a multitude of ExpressCard/54 but these will not fit the MBP.

I have found "***** ExpressCard/34 eSATA II Card" but it's specified as Windows.

I'm expecting that this is just that it's been verified only on the windows platform and that the chipset will also work with Leopard.. just sent the manufacturer an email to enquire but I was wondering if anyone else one of these cards?

Would really like to get a 2 drive external closure too but the only ones I can see have inbuild raiding (ie act as a large SATA drive themselves).

edit: more info..
The card uses a Silicon Image 3132 chip and low and behold there's OS X 10.5.1 drivers for it..

edit: just noticed the producer has a webshop too so starred them out.
 
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Well I've heard back - they have one Mac user and they downloaded the drivers too.

So I've ordered one along with a WD Studio 1TB (has eSATA 300). Will update on how I get on!
 
I have a Silicon Image 3132 chip eSATA 2 card

Very quick and stable now with 10.5.2, had issues before then.

:)

However the eSATA cables keep falling out which is a pain in the backside!
 
Well the MyBook has arrived. Currently plugged in via FW800 as the card is to arrive tomorrow..

Hmm currently zeroing to check the drive is fully ok - only 4 hours to go..

edit: finished 6 hours later!
 
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Benchmarks! :p

Do you feel up to XBenching USB v FW400 v FW800 v eSATA?

When I had a FW800 MyBook it was benching better than my internal SATA drive in my PowerMac. I'm curious to see just how eSATA stacks up.
 
Well funny you've just mentioned that ;)

Bear in mind I have the MyBook Studio 1TB (single drive) split into two partitions:
P1 - 530GB partition for speed (JFS, no journaling, excluded from spotlight)
P2 - 401GB Time Machine backup partition (journalled and not excl from spotlight)

Running XBench on P1. For comparison my internal MBP's drive achieves a mighty Disk Test score of 29.63 (hence going for a fast external drive for the task I have in mind). During the drive's initial testing (complete wipe with zeros to test the entire drive) it was stably achieving 50MB/sec sustained write speed (FW800).

XBench:

USB2.0
Code: 
Disk Test	40.46	
	Sequential	35.97	
		Uncached Write	39.91	24.50 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	40.70	23.03 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	21.58	6.32 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	65.61	32.97 MB/sec [256K blocks]
	Random	46.22	
		Uncached Write	20.02	2.12 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	74.30	23.79 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	78.90	0.56 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	95.63	17.75 MB/sec [256K blocks]

FW400
Code: 
Disk Test	52.25	
	Sequential	52.74	
		Uncached Write	52.94	32.50 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	55.84	31.60 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	39.39	11.53 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	73.21	36.80 MB/sec [256K blocks]
	Random	51.77	
		Uncached Write	22.11	2.34 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	98.08	31.40 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	82.34	0.58 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	102.96	19.10 MB/sec [256K blocks]


FW800
Code: 
Disk Test	64.76	
	Sequential	76.64	
		Uncached Write	79.66	48.91 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	89.94	50.89 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	47.61	13.93 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	132.98	66.84 MB/sec [256K blocks]
	Random	56.08	
		Uncached Write	22.50	2.38 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	134.88	43.18 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	83.38	0.59 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	133.63	24.80 MB/sec [256K blocks]

I should get the eSATA card and cable tomorrow.
 
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Bear in mind that I've had a reboot for the drivers since yesterday's marathon hard disc hammering (which shows less memory used in 'fixed' for example).

Ok, odd happenings at the Circle-K.. after stopping TM attempting a backup, then spotlight decided to index.. once that had finished I ran the test a few times to get an average.

eSATA

Code: 
Disk Test	46.17	
	Sequential	43.23	
		Uncached Write	70.27	43.15 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	96.75	54.74 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	16.49	4.83 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	136.78	68.74 MB/sec [256K blocks]
	Random	49.53	
		Uncached Write	18.99	2.01 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	138.60	44.37 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	75.77	0.54 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	130.00	24.12 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Code: 
Disk Test	44.73	
	Sequential	44.53	
		Uncached Write	93.59	57.46 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	89.37	50.57 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	16.49	4.83 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	136.78	68.74 MB/sec [256K blocks]
	Random	44.93	
		Uncached Write	16.75	1.77 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	138.65	44.39 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	70.31	0.50 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	126.67	23.50 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Code: 
Disk Test	46.94	
	Sequential	44.51	
		Uncached Write	79.46	48.79 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	104.25	58.99 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	16.56	4.85 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	136.98	68.85 MB/sec [256K blocks]
	Random	49.66	
		Uncached Write	19.02	2.01 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	139.89	44.78 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	75.97	0.54 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	130.44	24.20 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Quite what has happened to the read performance *shrug*

Just to compare, my MBP's internal Fujitsu 5400rpm SATA 150 drive:
Code: 
Disk Test	25.42	
	Sequential	33.01	
		Uncached Write	36.87	22.64 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	31.44	17.79 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	25.52	7.47 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	43.37	21.80 MB/sec [256K blocks]
	Random	20.66	
		Uncached Write	7.27	0.77 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Write	42.72	13.68 MB/sec [256K blocks]
		Uncached Read	57.50	0.41 MB/sec [4K blocks]
		Uncached Read	65.83	12.21 MB/sec [256K blocks]
 
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Tempted to rip two 320GB drives out of my RAID5 array and run a RAID0 test with the card for comparison but I don't have two SATA to eSATA cable. I'm also considering running a retest of the FW800 just to see if there's any variation.

Still it goes faster than my internal drive and is far larger so it's plus :)
 
Seems to correspond with this too:
Timed Trials
Copy 1GB file to FireWire 800 0:32
Copy 1GB file to FireWire 400 0:43
Copy 1GB file to USB 2.0 0:51
Copy 1GB file to eSATA 0:31
Duplicate 1GB file via FireWire 800 0:47
Duplicate 1GB file via FireWire 400 1:12
Duplicate 1GB file via USB 2.0 1:20
Duplicate 1GB file via eSATA 0:49
Low-Memory Photoshop: FireWire 800 1:21
Low-Memory Photoshop: FireWire 400 1:31
Low-Memory Photoshop: USB 2.0 1:34
Low-Memory Photoshop: eSATA 1:24

Scale = Minutes: Seconds

How We Tested: We ran all tests with drives connected to a Mac Pro Quad 2.66GHz Xeon with Mac OS X 10.5 installed and 1GB of RAM. We tested the drive with each available port—FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2, and eSATA. We copied a folder containing 1GB of data from our Mac’s hard drive to the external hard drive to test the drive’s write speed. We then duplicated that file on the external drive to test both read and write speeds. We also used the drive as a scratch disk when running our low-memory Adobe Photoshop CS3 Suite test. This test is a set of four tasks performed on a 150MB file, with Photoshop’s memory set to 25 percent.—Macworld Lab Testing by James Galbraith and Jerry Jung
Click to expand...
Source: Macworld

It wouldn't suprise me if the FW drivers were better written and more optimised than the Silicon Image drivers.. The CPU load for the FW800 bench is high when it's transferring a butt load (ie 68MB/sec) but really low when it's waiting on the drive.

So I conclude that FW800 > eSATA on so many levels..
 
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NickK said:
Seems to correspond with this too:

Source: Macworld

It wouldn't suprise me if the FW drivers were better written and more optimised than the Silicon Image drivers.. The CPU load for the FW800 bench is high when it's transferring a butt load (ie 68MB/sec) but really low when it's waiting on the drive.

So I conclude that FW800 > eSATA on so many levels..
Click to expand...

I only have one FW800 port, I have two eSATA HDs :p
 
NickK said:
So I conclude that FW800 > eSATA on so many levels..
Click to expand...

I agree with that conclusion.

I really want one of those QuickPort drive caddies, but with the only alternative to USB being eSATA...

Those benches being near-identical apart from the 4k block sequential read, I'm not really put off :)

[edit] I've just ordered it :D just waiting for the card to come back into stock, think it's the same one you have, certainly the same chipset.
 
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As the card is PCMIA it's actually possible to disconnect and reconnect the drives without rebooting or shutting down the computer & drive (unlike internal SATA).

1. Eject All volumes (rather than just one of the volumes on the drive.
2. Wait until the HD activity subsides and the drives disappear
3. Select Power Off from the Sil 3132 menu and the card is shutdown for normal PCMIA removal.

Just don't Powerdown without ejecting the volume first! The drivers/OX10.5.2 don't understand what's going on and Leopard sits there attempting to access the volume but can't and spends ages timing out each operation..

Hot plug in also works too - both at the eSATA cable and PCMIA card level :D

Just a few points about the MyBook Studio that I've noticed:
1. There's Leopard 10.5.2 firmare update (1.0.28) on the WD site
2. It gets very warm as it's passively cooled.
3. Not bootable as the Sil chipset does support EFI booting.
 
Well, since my card and QuickPort arrived on thursday, I've had a good play around.

Quite happy with the throughput, even with old drives. It's so convenient to just pull out a drive and stick another in, fantastic :)
 
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