Low Cost Mac Pro SATA Host Adapter Review: Addonics PCI Express Two Port SATA Host Adapter for Mac Pro (ADSA3GPX1-2EM) By Arthur Whalem

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1 Home Members Only Membership Donations Reviews Store Mail List Legal September 22, 2006 Low Cost Mac Pro SATA Host Adapter Review: Addonics PCI Express Two Port SATA Host Adapter for Mac Pro (ADSA3GPX1-2EM) By Arthur Whalem Addonics is shipping the 2 esata II RAID5/JBOD PCI Express controller 1 of 14 9/27/2006 4:48 PM

2 ($39.99). It provides two external SATA PM ports for Mac Pro users with an available PCI Express (PCIe) slot. The model number of this SATA PCIe host adapter is ADSA3GPX1-2EM. Mac Pro users can utilize the two external SATA ports on the ADSA3GPX1-2EM to connect two individual hard drives or with a SATA PM enclosure. The ADSA3GPX1-2EM PCIe host adapter uses the SiIicon Image SiI-3132 Macintosh driver version that is provided with this card. Addonics sells a version of this card for PC users with the RAID5 BIOS. That version of the host adapter does not have an "M" at the end of the model name and will not work in a Mac Pro. Be sure to order the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM if you want Mac Pro compatibility. During this review, a Mac Pro 2.66GHz was tested with several of the hot swap Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM two port PCIe SATA host adapters installed to evaluate how they would perform. System Requirements Requires an Apple Mac Pro with an empty PCIe slot. Mac OS X 10.4.x, 2000, XP, 2003 server. Card is flashed with SiI-3132 BASE BIOS b for Mac Pro use. SiI-3132 Mac driver version must be installed. SATA I and II compliant. Requires external SATA hard drives. Requires esata data cables. Install Remove the side cover of the Mac Pro by lifting the rear latch and pull the right side cover off. Next, loosen the two captive screws that secure the PCI bracket to the Mac Pro case and remove the bracket. Now remove the metal PCIe cover for the slot you want to install the Addonics 2-port card in. The Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM SATA host adapter can be placed in any available PCI Express (PCIe) slot within an Apple Mac Pro computer. Once the card is secure in the PCIe slot, reinstall the PCIe bracket and place the Mac Pro side cover back on. Close the rear latch to finish the installation. This install will provide two external esata ports on the rear of the Mac Pro. These ports can be used for connecting up to two individual hard drives or SATA PM enclosure(s). You can install up to three of these cards to provide as many as six external SATA ports on a Mac Pro. 2 of 14 9/27/2006 4:48 PM

3 If you launch Apple System Profiler after installing the SiI-3132 Mac driver 1.1.6, you will find the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM device(s) listed under the "PCI Cards" tab. It is listed as pci1095,3132 with a type of "Other Mass Storage Controller". In the image above, three ADSA3GPX1-2EM SATA host adapters are installed in an Apple Mac Pro 2.66GHz model. The Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM does NOT work in any of the PowerMac G5 models. If it is installed in a PCIe PowerMac G5 the hard drives connected to it will not mount as the card does not have the proper DC bias at the REF_CLK pins. 3 of 14 9/27/2006 4:48 PM

4 Features The Addonics 2 esata II RAID5/JBOD PCI Express controller model ADSA3GPX1-2EM was originally sold only for PCs. However, with the introduction of the Mac Pro and the SiI-3132 Macintosh driver version this card is able to be utilized with Apple Mac Pro models. The SiI-3132 Mac driver version requires that the SiI-3132 controller be flashed with the BASE BIOS for the card to work correctly with a Mac Pro. Once the driver is installed, the Mac Pro will recognize the hard drives mounted on the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM. Addonics is selling this card to Mac Pro users with the BASE BIOS pre-flashed so that they only need to install the card and load the Mac driver. If you order one of these cards from Addonics be sure to get the Mac Pro version. The Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM supports up to two external SATA hard drives with esata connectors on the rear of the Mac Pro. The card supports hot swap and sleep mode. However, the Silicon Image drivers do not pass SMART data to Mac OS X. As a result, Disk Utility and Hardware Monitor cannot display hard drive SMART data with this card. When setting up hard drives or RAIDs, Mac users simply utilize Disk Utility with the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM. The card is compatible with direct connect hard drives and SATA PM connections. The real advantage of the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM is its price. At $39.99 for an Apple Mac Pro 2-port PCIe SATA host adapter, this is the least expensive PCIe card that I have seen. In addition, its performance with individual hard drives is very similar to other more expensive 2-port cards. Users can install several of these cards to expand the number of external SATA ports available on a Mac Pro. As part of this review, AMUG tested three ADSA3GPX1-2EM cards in a Mac Pro and they all worked well together. In addition, internal Mac Pro hard drives can be used with these external ports to create large RAID sets using Disk Utility. Controller & Hard Drives The Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM SATA PM host adapter utilizes the Silicon Image SiI 3132 controller chip. The SiI-3132 is a one-lane (1x) PCI Express to 2-port Serial ATA (SATA) II host controller. It supports all Serial ATA II features, including 3.0 Gbps SATA II transfer speeds, Native Command Queuing, Spread Spectrum Clocking (SSC), port multipliers with FIS-based 4 of 14 9/27/2006 4:48 PM

5 switching, hot swap and ATAPI device support. It supports up to 4Mb of external flash memory for BIOS expansion. A reference design for the SiI-3132 is available in PDF format. You can see a diagram of how the SiI-3132 works in the image below. Image courtesy of Silicon Image I have used the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM with several different models of SATA I and SATA II hard drives. In each case, the hard drives were able to mount and operate correctly while connected to this SATA host adapter. As the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM host adapter is an external SATA solution you will need a SATA hard drive enclosure. AMUG has tested several different enclosures. All of them will work with the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM. If already have a favorite external SATA enclosure that you previously purchased it should work fine with the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM. Direct connect enclosures that were tested with the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM include the Addonics Storage Tower with dual 3SA cages, the FirmTek SeriTek/2EN2 dual bay enclosure, the FirmTek SeriTek/2eEN4 four bay enclosure, and the WiebeTech SilverSATA IV SJ four bay enclosure. SATA PM enclosures that were tested with the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM include the Sonnet Fusion 500P, the DAT Optic Sbox-P 5-bay enclosure and the WiebeTech SilverSATA V SJ. Stability The Addonics Storage Tower was used to test how the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM SATA host adapter performed when hot swapping hard drives in and out of a SATA enclosure. The SiI-3132 Mac driver that is provided with the card was used for these tests. When individual hard drives were mounted in the enclosure they were able to be hot swapped in and out of the enclosure without turning off the computer or the enclosure. Six Seagate 320GB model hard drives were hot swapped in and out of 5 of 14 9/27/2006 4:48 PM

6 the enclosure twenty-five times. All of these hot swap tests mounted within 7 seconds of insertion without any problems. Next, a six drive striped RAID set was created using Seagate 320GB hard drives with three ADSA3GPX1-2EM PCIe cards. All of the RAID hard drives were ejected and placed back in the enclosure in a different order. Fourteen out of fifteen times the six drive striped RAID set was able to hot swap and mount within 8 seconds of the last drive being inserted. The one time that the RAID did not mount, I simply hot swapped the hard drives again and it mounted. The hot swap mounting capability of the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM host adapter is dependable and fast. Mounting a six drive striped RAID set within 8 seconds is one of the best results AMUG has recorded. (Note: If you create a RAID set that combines both internally mounted Mac Pro hard drives and external hard drives mounted on the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM host adapter, hot swapping required that the enclosure be turned off and on as well as removing and reinserting all of the hard drives in the external RAID array.) 6 of 14 9/27/2006 4:48 PM

7 Sleep Sleep mode was tested with the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM host adapter using the Mac Pro 2.66GHz model with Mac OS X installed. Six Seagate 320GB hard drives were attached to the ADSA3GPX1-2EM host adapter and were left mounted while the Mac Pro was placed in sleep mode. The Mac Pro was able to reach sleep mode within 4 seconds. Once the keyboard was touched and the Mac Pro began to wake, the hard drives attached to the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM were able to be utilized within 8 seconds. If the hard drives were dismounted before placing the Mac Pro in sleep mode, they were able to be mounted using Disk Utility once the Mac was awake. Sleep Drive Directory Cache If the hard drive is left mounted on the desktop when the Mac Pro goes to sleep, but the enclosure is turned off during sleep, the drive icon will still be on 7 of 14 9/27/2006 4:48 PM

8 the desktop when the Mac Pro wakes from sleep. The directory of the hard drive is cached so that you can open the hard drive icon even though the drives are turned off. If you try to copy from the unpowered hard drive, Mac OS X provides a status copy bar that looks like the image below. To get the hard drive working again, simply turn the enclosure back on and within 8 seconds the copy action will begin. This is a very cool feature for those users that like to turn the external hard drives off while the Mac Pro is in sleep mode. The down side to this method of handling devices disconnected during sleep mode is that if the user does not turn the missing hard drive(s) back on and instead tries to dismount the icon by dragging it to the trash, Mac OS X crashes and provides the spinning beach ball of death. Most external Macintosh SATA devices handle this type of situation by dismounting any missing hard drives upon waking from sleep. I hope eventually that the Silicon Image Mac drivers take this path in the future. However, as long as the user knows that the enclosure needs to be turned back on to avoid problems, this is not a big issue. (Note: Sleep mode works the same with a RAID connected to the ADSA3GPX1-2EM host adapter whether a combination of internal and external hard drives are used or if only external hard drives are utilized.) Performance In this test, a Mac Pro 2.66GHz running Mac OS X was used with several Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM host adapters installed. The Addonics Storage Tower with dual 3SA cages was attached to the host adapters. Six Seagate 320GB SATA II hard drives model were mounted in the Storage Tower and configured in a striped RAID set using Disk Utility. DiskTester 10GB read and write tests were performed using a run area test. DiskTester was used to measure the combined performance of the striped RAID set and the Mac OS X operating system. It is a Terminal application which requires using a command line executable. Using the command:./disktester run-area-test --chunk-size 128M --test-size 10G --delta-percent 10 DriveName, put DiskTester 2.0 to work testing how the RAID performs when empty, 10% full, 20% full and so on. 8-Port and 6-Port Striped RAID sets - DiskTester 10GB Test Mac Pro ADSA3GPX1-2EM Mac Pro ADSA3GPX1-2EM 8 of 14 9/27/2006 4:48 PM

9 2.66GHz 8 Seagate 320GB 2.66GHz 6 Seagate 320GB Area Full write read write read empty % % % % % % % % % Average RAID Size 2.33TB 1.74TB Results are shown in MB per second. Seagate 320GB model hard drives were used with the Addonics Storage Tower enclosure. The 8 drive test used two internal Mac Pro hard drives plus six drives mounted on three Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM cards. As you can see in the table above, using multiple 2-port Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM host adapters can provide great hard drive performance with an Apple Mac Pro. While an eight drive striped RAID set can provide up to 550MB/sec read and write performance, the six drive version can provide 400MB/sec performance, which is very good too. In the table below, the same DiskTester 2.0 test was utilized with a single and dual Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM cards. The cards were installed in a Mac Pro 2.66GHz with the same Seagate 320GB model hard drives. 4-Port and 2-Port Striped RAID sets - DiskTester 10GB Test Area Full Internal Mac Pro ADSA3GPX1-2EM Mac Pro ADSA3GPX1-2EM Mac Pro two 2.66GHz four 320GB 2.66GHz two 320GB 2.66GHz 320GB write read write read write read empty % % % % % % % % % Average of 14 9/27/2006 4:48 PM

10 RAID Size 1.16TB 595.5GB 595.5GB Results are shown in MB per second. Seagate 320GB model hard drives were used. Results show 2-4 hard drives on the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM cards versus two hard drives on the Mac Pro internal SATA bus. As you can see in the table above, the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM host adapter provides very good performance. A single card with two striped Seagate hard drives can reach 148Mb/sec and a dual card setup with four hard drives provides almost twice as much speed. It is also interesting to note that when using the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM PCIe card with Seagate hard drives, it can out perform the Mac Pro internal SATA bus by a small margin. Being able to buy a third party SATA upgrade that provides not only more ports but also faster performance is awesome. SATA PM Compatibility While the SiI-3132 controller used on the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM supports SATA port multiplier enclosures, it does not provide the striped RAID performance that is available with the Sonnet Tempo E4P when used with the PowerMac G5 Quad. This applies to all two port PCIe cards that utilize the Silicon Image SiI-3132 controller, not just the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM. If you want to use the ADSA3GPX1-2EM 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 when used with striped RAID sets. Unfortunately, as I write this on September 16, 2006, Tempo E4P drivers are not yet available for the Apple Mac Pro. Once they are available I would expect performance very similar to the PowerMac G5 Quad performance provided below. The tests below demonstrate the performance achieved with a five drive striped RAID set and individual hard drives. SATA PM Five Drive Striped RAID Performance ADSA3GPX1-2EM Mac Pro 2.66 Sonnet E4P PowerMac G5 Quad 7V300F0 300GB GB 7V300F0 300GB GB Area Full write/read write/read write/read write/read empty 107 / / / / % 107 / / / / % 107 / / / / % 107 / / / / % 107 / / / / of 14 9/27/2006 4:48 PM

11 50% 107 / / / / % 107 / / / / % 107 / / / / % 107 / / / / % 107 / / / / 221 Average 107 / / / / 235 MSRP $39.99 $ SATA Ports 2 ext. 4 ext Results are shown in MB per second. All hard drives were mounted in the Fusion 500P SATA PM enclosure. SiI-3132 Mac driver was used with ADSA3GPX1-2EM. The table above demonstrates that the Sonnet Tempo E4P is over 70% faster than the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM when writing data and almost twice as fast at reading data, when a five drive striped RAID set is used. The Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM seems to have a write performance limit of 107MB/sec. per channel when used with a SATA PM enclosure with a striped RAID set. However, if you utilize individual hard drives inside a SATA PM enclosure with the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM on a Mac Pro, you will find that the E4P and the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM have much closer performance characteristics. You can see these results in the table provided below. SATA PM Enclosure Individual Hard Drive Performance ADSA3GPX1-2EM Mac Pro 2.66 Sonnet E4P PowerMac G5 Quad 7V300F0 300GB GB 7V300F0 300GB GB Area Full write/read write/read write/read write/read empty 68.9 / / / / % 67.9 / / / / % 66 / / / / % 64 / / / / % 61.5 / / / / % 58.9 / / / / 64 60% 56.5 / / / / % 52.1 / / / / 57 80% 48.8 / / / / % 44.9 / / / / 45.4 Average / / / / MSRP $39.99 $ SATA Ports 2 ext. 4 ext Results are shown in MB per second. All hard drives were mounted in the Fusion 500P 11 of 14 9/27/2006 4:48 PM

12 SATA PM enclosure. SiI-3132 Mac driver was used with ADSA3GPX1-2EM. The data in the table above demonstrates that individual hard drive performance in a SATA PM enclosure is a very similar between the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM and the Sonnet Tempo E4P. Using the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM 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 Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM that limits performance to a maximum of 107MB/sec. for writes and 127MB/sec. while reading data. As this is the case, using the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM with individual hard drives in a SATA PM enclosure will probably provide the best performance match for most SATA PM users. Discussion Currently, Apple Mac Pro SATA host adapter options are limited. The WiebeTech Tera Card TCES0-2e 2-port card and the FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E 2-port card both work with the PowerMac G5 Dual Core/Quad PCIe models and the Apple Mac Pro. They both retail for $ The SeriTek/2SE2-E provides boot capability and passes SMART data to Mac OS X when used with a PowerMac G5 Dual Core or a Quad. However, the SeriTek/2SE2-E does not provide boot capability with the Mac Pro driver yet. The $39.99 Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM SATA host adapter provides nice hard drive performance when used with an Apple Mac Pro and costs less than any other SATA host adapter solution available for the Mac Pro. It supports hot swap, sleep and allows Disk Utility to create RAID sets across multiple cards. It is not bootable and it does not pass SMART data to Mac OS X. I am hoping that a future Silicon Image Mac driver upgrade will support SMART data. At this price, I will not be surprised if quite a few Apple Mac Pro users will want one or two of these cards. If you purchase three Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM cards, they will provide connections for six SATA hard drives. Using the Storage Tower with dual 3SA cages works great for holding all six hard drives in a single enclosure. If you are interested in learning how to build one of these enclosures you can read the AMUG Addonics Dual Disk Array 3SA review. An image of the Dual Disk Array 3SA sitting on top of an Apple Mac Pro is shown above. If you purchase two cards you will need a 4-bay enclosure or two 2-bay enclosures. While the Apple Mac Pro supports four internal hard drives, the drives can 12 of 14 9/27/2006 4:48 PM

13 become warm inside the Mac Pro if all four bays are full and the computer is in operation for extended periods of time. Using an external SATA solution can reduce internal Mac Pro heat and provide the hard drives with a cooler environment. In addition, using Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM cards in a Mac Pro can provide expanded RAID performance and provide alternative hard drive mounting options. The Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM can also provide a more compatible SATA interface for those hard drive models that do not perform well with the Mac Pro internal SATA bus. Pros Works with Apple Mac Pro models. Provides two external SATA ports. Multiple cards can work together to extend SATA mounting options. Works with SATA I and SATA II hard drives. Works with SATA PM or direct connect enclosures. Supports hot swap and sleep. Utilizes FIS-based switching. Works with individually formatted hard drives. Works with RAID1 or RAID0 created RAID sets. SiI Mac drivers included. Pre-flashed with BASE BIOS for Mac users. Low cost, value Mac Pro SATA solution. Cons Requires installing additional drivers for Mac OS X. Will not work with any PowerMac G5 model. Does not support booting. Does not pass SMART temperature data. Sonnet Tempo E4P provides faster SATA PM RAID performance. No uninstall program for SiI Mac driver. Drivers are not as refined as the FirmTek drivers. Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM gets 4 AMUGs out of 5! The Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM 2-port SATA host adapter for the Apple Mac Pro provides exceptional value and good performance. For as little as $39.99 this card can add SATA PM compatibility and two additional SATA ports to any Mac Pro model. I would like to see the Silicon Image drivers upgraded to support SMART data in the future but at $39.99 its hard to complain. If you are looking for additional SATA ports for an Apple Mac Pro, the Addonics ADSA3GPX1-2EM 2-port SATA host adapter will do the job. Remember - this card will NOT work with any model of PowerMac G5. However, it works great with the Apple Mac Pro. You can obtain more information about this product at the Addonics web site. Contact Information: Addonics Technologies 13 of 14 9/27/2006 4:48 PM

14 2466 Kruse Drive, San Jose, CA USA Copyright 2006 Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG). Visit AMUG at for news, discounts and friends. JOIN AMUG! 14 of 14 9/27/2006 4:48 PM