So, what's the hands down, best PCIe eSATA card for a Mac Pro that won't interfere with my AJA Kona LHe card? Also, what the best eSATA box for swappable drives that you can buy without any drive pre-loaded? I've been checking around, but places like CalDigit and G-Tech seem to only offer boxes with drive pre-installed.Here's the low-down.

FirmTek, LLC, a pioneer and leader in Serial ATA (SATA) storage solutions for the Macintosh platform, unveiled their new SeriTek/2SE2-E today upon the opening of NAB 2006 (Booth SL 1238). The SeriTek/2SE2-E is a Serial ATA host adapter fully compatible with the new PCI Express bus architecture found in Apple's latest Dual-Core G5 Macintosh.

I have no need for a huge permanent storage RAID. I work on multiple, small, typically SD (DV and 8-bit uncompressed) projects, with occasional DVCPRO-HD projects popping up now and again. Each project gets their own drive. I've been using the internal drive bays in my Mac Pro.

Obviously, at times this can be very frustrating because I have to shut down the computer every time I need to exchange projects, and I'm limited to only four drives. This can sometimes mean four projects (I have my main HD in the second optical bay slot) but if and WHEN I have drives that are RAID'ed together, my projects are limited further. I don't like the idea of starting the project on a big permanent storage device and when finished dumping onto a FW drive for storage, because I have to go back to these projects again and again due to the nature of my business.ANY suggestions would be helpful. Thanks!Winston A.

CelyEditor/Owner Della St. Media, LLC'If God could do the tricks we can do, He'd be a happy Man.' - Peter O'Toole - 'The Stuntman'Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon4 GB RAM Final Cut Studio 5.1.4 Aja Kona LHe. The best card is the one recommended by the RAID manufacturer. In my case, we run both ATTO and LaCie SATA cards because they are recommended by MaxxDigital and LaCie.First pick out the box you want, then purchase the card recommended by that box. If you want suggestions on building your own box, do a search on this forum as there have probably been dozens of suggestions put up here in just the past few months.Walter Biscardi, Jr.HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.Apple Color Training DVD available now!

I am not sure if you are looking for a RAID 0 or RAID 5 solution. All the RAID 5 solutions are very good on the market. All the RAID 0 solutions are more inexpensive (if you are looking to save money), but any product that is based on the Silicon Image 3124 chip set is prone to have your eSATA port multipler products disappear after time. Some people don't see this problem for 3 years, some people see it in 1 month.The generic $300 eSATA cards, sold by Sonnet, Cal Digit, Firmtek, Highpoint Rocket Raid, etc. Have been on the market for about 3 years from now, and they are the most popular product on the eSATA market, because they support both individual eSATA drives, and port multipler chassis that hold up to 5 drives per enclosure. Even if these companies use Marvell chips (like Sonnet and Highpoint), they still communicate with Silicon Image chips in the drive box for port multiplication, and the drives will EVENTUALLY seem to have trouble mounting, and eventually disappear. This is why you see all the drive companies pushing their RAID 5 solutions so hard - the Silicon Image chipset has been an issue for every company that deals with eSATA drives.I go thru this long boring story, because it is very tempting to say 'but I can get 220mb/sec in a 5 bay eSATA chassis, and it will cost me very little money, compared to these RAID 5 solutions from Cal Digit, Sonnet, Maxx, Dulce, etc.'

But these RAID 0 solutions will ultimately give you problems. For some people- they don't care- these products work, and they want to save money. Like I said, I put zillions of these RAID 0 products in, and most of them never had problems (yet) - but TONS of them DID have problems, and I have suffered enough to join the crowd, and now say 'buy a RAID 5 solution' from any of the good companies.Bob Zelin.

' go thru this long boring story,'Bob, Your stories are never boring. I toss a few catalogs on the fire and sit down for a good read.But this Silicon Image 3124 chipset.

You mention it is problematic. Is it the only chipset for sata port multiplier technology? I like the idea of connecting one sata cable to a box of 5 sata drives. Are there other chipsets that allow for sata port multiplier technology? This 3124 problem reminds me of the early firewire chipsets and how if it wasn't the Oxford chipset you would have problems.Thanks for the 'heads up'. These detail you will not find on a distributors website. This is a reply to your questions about port multiplication, and alternate vendors.

This is also a long boring story.This is not film, this is not Sony Beta VTR's. The computer industry moves fast, and port multiplication has been around for about 3 years. It is at the end of life, and better more advanced products (all from Intel) are out now, that do RAID 5 (and RAID 6). These Intel IOP series chips are what are being used by all the vendors you see advertised on Creative Cow. Companies like Dulce, Sonnet (that uses ATTO, but is based on the Intel IOP series), Maxx Digital, Cal Digit, etc.I was one of the first people to jump into port multiplier chassis. It was GREAT, it was amazing.

And then the drives started to disappear. When Walter had his Cal Digit disappear, I had not yet seen the problem on Sonnet chassis. But it eventually happened.

And it happened on EVERYONES product. (and some people, who used Cal Digit, Sonnet, etc. Never had the problem). Some OEM companies said 'use the Highpoint 3124 RocketRaid, you will never have this problem of disappearing drives' - but they were wrong. I use to this day standard Port Multiplier chassis with Cal Digit Fasta 4x cards on every AVID edit system at Fox Sun Sports, and they have NEVER had a problem with these, but plenty of other clients of mine have had the 'disappearing' drive problems.

I thought Walter was crazy - but of course, he is not. People who say 'this never happened to me, this stuff is great' have been lucky. Like I said, I have plenty of 'lucky' clients, never with an issue.Today, you forget the cheapie solutions, and go with what everyone on this user forum (banner ads) is advertising - newer RAID 5 solutions, from Dulce, Maxx Digital, Cal Digit, Sonnet, ATTO, ProMax, G-Tech, and others. You don't save money when all of your media disappears for no reason one day.Bob Zelin.

I don't know the answer to your question. The very first SATA host controllers I used were the original Firmtek SATA I host controllers (the 2 port PCI-X cards). From the photo on the Firmtek website, the 'older' SeriTek 2SE4 appears to be the typical 4 port PCI-X port multiplier card (that looks identical to the CalDigit Fasta4x, Sonnet X4P, and DatOptic port multiplier card) that used the Sil 3124.

This 'older' card was only released last year, as Firmtek was late in the game with port multiplers.However, the card you refer to, the Firmtek Seritek 2SE2-E is a TWO port card (not 4 port card), and I ASSUME that it supports port multiplication, even though it does not say this on the website. If you look at the Firmtek Seritek /5PM, which is their 5 bay port multiplier SATA chassis, the specs say that is works with the Seritek 2SE2-E. Although I don't know this for a fact, I bet you money there is a Sil3124 chipset in this box, because it says that it works with the'older' 2SE4 PCI-X card. Please remember that even if it has the Marvell chip on it (which is used by Sonnet and Highpoint), it still communicates with the 3124 in the box, and this is where the problem lies.Like I said, I have clients that have NEVER EVER had a problem with their Sonnet or Cal Digit port multiplier RAID 0 systems, but I have had too many problems to be comftorable with this these days, with newer choices on the market, coming from companies that include Cal Digit, Sonnet, Dulce, and Maxx Digital. And just for the record, I have NEVER EVER seen a Firmtek (non port multipler) product ever fail.Bob Zelin. Well, the only manufacture I've found that offers just the external eSATA box with no drives pre-installed is Granite Digital.

Now I've had great experience with their enclosures, but I'm wondering if anyone else has a specific eSATA box they like that DOESN'T come with drives. Frankly, I don't need to spend the money on drives. I'd rather use that to go for better hardware, i.e. PCIe card, software etc. The searches I've done here have been very helpful, but they keep leading me back to places like Sonnet, LaCie, Maxx, etc, but no one is offering just the box!:(Winston A. CelyEditor/Owner Della St. Media, LLC'If God could do the tricks we can do, He'd be a happy Man.'

- Peter O'Toole - 'The Stuntman'Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon4 GB RAM Final Cut Studio 5.1.4 Aja Kona LHe. WinstonCheck out Wiebetech.com.They have desktop solutions that range from single-bay to eight-bay chassis.I have their single bay RTX100. I use it for my final backup device. The drive is hot-swappable.The chassis has eSATA, FW800 and USB2. This might be great for what you do if you are always using one drive per project. Plus its portable.

I've started DV50 projects at home and finished them on the road using my laptop and this drive via FW800. It might be a little expensive for a single bay solution but the build quality is great and the 3 connection options come in handy.

I needs a power light in the front though!!Wiebetech also make cases for bare harddrives.You should give them a call. I spoke to one of their techs for about 40 minutes one day asking the same questions you are asking now.Lou.

I just wanted to give everyone a big shout out of thanks!!! It's been a big help and learning experience on this type of technology.I'm unfortunately not able to get everything all at once, and have to build my suite a little bit at a time. The good is that I'm not willing to sacrifice quality to save a few bucks. The bad is that sometimes technology comes and goes too quickly for me to be able to utilize it effectively. Fortunately, I've always received great advice from the members of the Cow, and this thread is a terrific example of that.

I now feel confident to go forth and conquer!The email is coming to you shortly, Bob!:DWinston A. CelyEditor/Owner Della St. Media, LLC'If God could do the tricks we can do, He'd be a happy Man.' - Peter O'Toole - 'The Stuntman'Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon4 GB RAM Final Cut Studio 5.1.4 Aja Kona LHe. Hi BobHave a look at this barefeats review of the Highpoint Rocketraid 3522, with Raid 5; and the Intel IOP341 running at 800MHz with Multiple ADMA engines. It has 256MB DDR2 cache memory with ECC (533MHz). This 'core' provides enhanced RAID 5 and 6 performance as well as improved overall Mac Pro performance due to less host CPU utilization.Unfortunately the mad scientists only tested raid 0 - it is the raid 5 info we want in this business!!!It does not use port multiplication: It has special SAS connectors, and with a special cable can connect up to 8 sata drives seperately, each on their own sata channel!

The drive enclosure needs to have one eSata port per drive.RegardsFrancoisRegardsFrancois. I have a Venus T5 5 bay enclosure with a Griffin eSata 2 port express card. I am having a problem with the Raid drive not showing up or ejecting for no reason. I have four of the drives stripped and one as a media drive. The media drive is where I save my FCPro Documents.

I have been having problem with the raid drive ejecting all the sudden. I have upgraded to Leopard and now the problem is worse.

It has Sil4726. My questions are why is the raid drive failing? Is the chipset of the raid controller in the back of the VenusT5 box? Can you just replace the controller if so?

Do I need a better PCI express card? Could one drive failing cause the whole volume to eject? The T5 is less than a year old.MacBookPro 2.5 GHz Intel Core 26 GB RamFCP2. Welcome to the Cow Daniel. For the record, it makes no sense to tack a new post onto a thread that is over a year old.

I just happened to notice it because I receive all posts in thread to which I previously responded.In any case, most cards with the Sil4726 chips have had issues eventually. Snow Leopard is even worse, but Leopard should not be a problem. In any case, you should first try to determine if the controller card has newer updated drivers and/or firmware. If so, by all means uninstall the current drivers and reinstall. Test that first. Then, consider updating the firmware.Also, do you have Disk Warrior? If not get it, it's essential for all FCP editors and all power users on Macs.

Run it on all drives, including your raid. In addition, fix permissions using the Apple Disk Utility.Finally, if a single drive in your raid goes bad, yes, it will bring down the entire raid.And one last thing, Griffin is not a commonly used controller card. I've never heard of it being used by any FCP users ever before. You might in fact consider another brand. If you go that way I have some inexpensive solutions for you.Good luck,DavidDavid Roth WeissDirector/EditorDavid Weiss Productions, Inc.Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™A forum host of Creative COW's Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums. I did not notice the date.

Thanks for responding. I had the current drivers. I deleted the drivers to see if reinstalling them would help. Now I cant load the drivers. Either from the CD or the web, It tells me to contact the manufacture. I have read in other threads that their is no support after that question is asked. But the strange thing is it will turn on and show up, but then crash the whole computer after 5 mins.

The strange thing is it will turn on and show up, but then crash the whole computer after 5 mins. What I don't want to do is lose the data I have.

I will get another Express card and see if that will help. Any suggestions?

I am looking for a 2TB external hard drive for my Mac Pro (Quad Core 3GHz) and have a question. The Mac Pro has a 500 GB internal boot drive and three internal 500 GB drives RAIDed into a single 1.5TB drive. I would use an external 2TB drive for backing up the 1.5TB daily with Apple's Backup and will use it for Time Machine when I install Leopard. The computer is used primarily for Final Cut Pro Studio.Costco has a Western Digital external 2TB drive with Fire wire 800 (800mb/s) for $600 and a Western Digital external 1TB drive with eSATA (3000mb/s) for $300.

Either way it's $600 for 2 TB. I would need to purchase an eSATA Extender Cable to utilize the two extra SATA ports found on the Mac Pro's logic board for $25.The question is.: Could I connect two of the 1TB eSATA drives with the eSATA Extender Cable and make them a single 2TB RAID with Apple's Disk Utility. And would you recommend doing that over getting the 2TB drive which is 1/4 the speed and the same price?Please see the details below and thank you for your help. I asked the Geniuses at three different Apple Stores and got 3 different answers.2TB - My Book Pro Edition II (Firewire 800) $6001TB - My Book Home Edition (eSATA) $300eSATA Extender Cable $25. Allan.The NewerTech 'kit' includes a PCI pass-thru that does the SATA eSATA.I would recommend the quality and quiet FirmTek 2-drive for $199 which also does a good job cooling drives, and 3-fan speeds.OWC has WD Caviar for $189 but. You really should use RE2 $219 for RAID. I've had trouble with Leopard and Time Machine with stripping Caviar SE16.

Concatenated works. WD warns that RE2 can be used in non-RAID, but SE16 can't or isn't supported (and Leo seems less forgiving).So for about $600: dual drive case, two 750GB drives (1.4TB but always allow for 15-20% free space). Concatenated should work fine.465 x 3 = 1395GB and 1100GB or less of real space that you are actually backing up. Something along those lines.There are 1x PCIe cards, but not designed for RAID at all - except concatenated (Sonnet 2EP, SeriTek) $80-100. The question is: Could I connect two of the 1TB eSATA drives with the eSATA Extender Cable and make them a single 2TB RAID with Apple's Disk Utility.

And would you recommend doing that over getting the 2TB drive which is 1/4 the speed and the same price?Please see the details below and thank you for your help. I asked the Geniuses at three different Apple Stores and got 3 different answers.2TB - My Book Pro Edition II (Firewire 800) $6001TB - My Book Home Edition (eSATA) $300eSATA Extender Cable $25Dear Jeff,I would not buy any of the external options you have listed. Here is why:1. FireWire is a very poor performer with multi-drive RAID sets compared to a pure SATA option.2. The WD My Book and Seagate FreeAgent use non-standard bridge board hardware that does not meet SATA II specifications. The result is that these eSATA/USB enclosures do not work with all SATA host adapters and perform slower than a standard SATA enclosure.3. Dear Jeff,The CADA002SA4 is advertised as a PC solution with no Mac drivers or Technical support.

Mac users that buy this product are on their own 😉You could download the driver from Silicon Image, reformat the hard drives and hope it works. However, I have found this enclosure design can run hot with extended use. You can see just the enclosure used with a Macintosh in the AMUG Review found here:The enclosure uses a SATA PM board inside. As a result, it will not work with the internal Mac Pro ports or any other host adapter that is not SATA PM compatible. You can buy the enclosure alone for $189 but it is junk in comparison to the FirmTek 4-bay found here:If you don't mind the enclosures design. You could purchase it for $189 here:Throw in a SeriTek/2SE2-E card for $99and purchase 4 open-box Seagate drives for $79 eachAt least that would come close to your $600 target and you would still have a good Mac Pro host adapter with Mac drivers included.Personally, I like my earlier suggestion with the FirmTek 4-bay better 😉Have fun! What was the point of this post?

FireWire does have hot-swap functionality, therefore moving to a PCI bracket on-board SATA-to-eSATA adapter will cause the user to lose this functionality. Was it that hard to understand? Just because 'it is known' to you, does not mean it is known to others-I'm just trying to give as much info as possible to the potential upgrader.And while you can use Disk Utility to unmount drives connected via the SATA-to-eSATA bracket and then turn them off/unplug them, your Disk Utility (or any other program that polls for connected disks-like Installer) will hang whenever you use it.

Not recommended! Why even bring FireWire into the topic was my thought. Would I need 4 SATA cables between the MacPro and SeriTek/2eEN4?The FirmTek 4-bay SeriTek/2eEN4 hot-swap enclosure comes with four cables. I would suggest the Sonnet E4P 4-port card with this enclosure not a 2-port card.Here are the links:The FirmTek 4-bay SeriTek/2eEN4 hot-swap enclosure and the Sonnet Tempo E4PIf you had both the FirmTek 4-bay and the CFI enclosure in front of you, you would see the sturdy construction and hot swap tray system of the FirmTek 4-bay and realize that in comparison the CFI unit is more like a tin can with no hot swap trays. If price is the only concern and the enclosure will not get heavy use then the CFI will work.

However, if you ever see the two enclosures next to each other you will wonder why you bought the CFI 😉Take care! Apple Footer.This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided; every potential issue may involve several factors not detailed in the conversations captured in an electronic forum and Apple can therefore provide no guarantee as to the efficacy of any proposed solutions on the community forums. Apple disclaims any and all liability for the acts, omissions and conduct of any third parties in connection with or related to your use of the site.

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