Comments on: Revised Testing Numbers

By: Shane Ross

Shane Ross — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 18:46:00 +0000

Helmut, that is good to hear. Nice to know that inexpensive solutions are out there. But…that is just the card and box, right? Or is that including two 250GB drives?

The CalDigit solution is more expensive, but has some advantages. I’ll have to sit down and write the first part of my review soon. Explain both sides.

By: Helmut Kobler

Helmut Kobler — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 22:01:00 +0000

P.S. Just for the record, Sonnet Tech just introduced a $79 card with two external SATA ports, and port multiplication so you could connect up to 10 drives across 2 enclosures.
That’s even cheaper than Firmtek’s 2-port card. Add a 2 drive SATA bay (like Firmtek’s Seritek), and you’ve got a pretty good little raid for under $300.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 08:45:00 +0000

Oh, sorry, that first anonymous post about the Firmtek was me, Helmut. Forgot to sign my name. Maybe it's time I get a real account, eh?

So the CalDigit card does port multiplication, eh? That's cool, like the Sonnet e4P. Also, I believe the $99 Firmtek card does port multiplication on its 2 ports. I could be wrong--I seem to remember seeing a reference that the new firmware that enables Intel compatibility also introduced port multiplication, but again, I'm a bit foggy on that!

-Helmut

By: Shane Ross

Shane Ross — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 03:00:00 +0000

Impressive. Same performace for about half the cost. And yes, access is easier for hot swapping. And I was about co comment about MacPro support not being there, until I read the Barefeats review...it is supported on all Intel Macs.

I'll have to test the bootablility of the CalDigit unit, when my testing of it for media performance is over.

The advantage I see with the CalDigit at this point is that with Superlane technology, you can connect up to 5 drives to one port on the card, and the card has 4 ports. So up to 20 drives, if my math isn't fuzzy.

But I like other options. Good to know this is out there. Thanks....uhm...you.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 00:53:00 +0000

Thanks for the update, Shane. Sounds like a solid product, but I will say that the numbers seem no better than you’d get with, say, Firmtek’s 2-port SATA card, and its 2 drive enclosure. For $300, you can have the enclosure and card. Plus, the FirmTek has a much smaller form factor than the CalDigit (it can comfortably fit under my 23″ Cinema Display), and you can swap the drives from the front of the unit, without having to turn it around and access the back. Check out this review at AMUG:

http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/firmtek/2se2e/

and this review at Barefeats:

http://www.barefeats.com/hard83.html

Finally, the Firmtek card lets you boot from one of the sata drives, is really quiet, and also passes SmartData through to the Mac.

Not trying to ding the CalDigit, but just pointing out another good option. I just wish the Firmtek enclosure also had a second, more common port like FireWire 800 or USB 2, so you could take it wth you to other machines more easily…