-
e-sata question
HI All, Looking to pick up a LaCie d2 Quadra 1 TB Hard Disk. Can anyone make a recommendation as to what e-sata card will work with this hard drive. I am running SL with a current 2.66 12 core. Mostly editing DV, HDV and ProRes (LT and SQ).
I did a search on this subject (here on the cow) and saw that Mr Zelin mentioned that cheap $20 cards don’t work. I believe Shane had mentioned Caldigit was the way to go. The name firmtek was also brought up. Many of these posts were older though so I wasn’t sure if anything had changed. Would any of the below links work for my situation?
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Firmtek/SATA2SE2E/
https://www.caldigit.com/FASTA-2e/
Any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated.
Thanks guys
Chris -
14 Replies
-
I have a CalDigit Fasta 4e that sure works like a charm! Would figure the 2e is much the same, just fewer ports.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann
DVD:https://store.creativecow.net/p/81/jerry_hofmanns_final_cut_system_setup
8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX Cinema Displays
-
The cards you posted are 1x PCIe cards. They are limited in speed compared to cards that use the 4x slots, like the Sonnet Tempo E4P
https://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo_sata_e4p.html
Note that Sonnet also sells an inexpensive 1x 2-port card (E2P), but warns against using it for high performance RAIDS, as its slower.
You may not need the extra speed for your work, but its worth thinking about. You might start having speed issues with HD work.
Also…I believe the Caldigit FASTA is now discontinued, though you may still be able to get your hands on one.
-
[Chris Cea] “Can anyone make a recommendation as to what e-sata card will work with this hard drive.”
Well now thats going to depend… Are you on a MacPro Tower or a MacBook Pro with a express card slot.
**Hindsight is always 1080p**
-
Thanks for the quick responses guys. This e-sata/external drive thing is somewhat new to me.
Here’s one for you though…If I am looking to connect a single drive (like the lacie) do I need a card with numerous ports? I see the Sonnet mentioned has multiple ports on it.
Zane, I am using a Mac Pro tower.
Thanks again guys
Chris -
The number of ports might be more than you need…but all the faster cards have multiple ports.
The E4P, which is a 4x PCIe card will give you over 200 MB/s
The E2P, which is a 1x PCIe card will top out around 120.MB/s, regardless of the speed of the drive array, which can be considerably faster. Your card will be the bottleneck.
I would imagine the performance would be similar with Firmtek or CalDigit cards.
-
Thanks for the additional info John, That was a big help
Chris
-
I dont know much about the LaCie drive you are using. Check to whether it can actually take advantage of the faster card or not.
-
Check what a 30 seconds search on LaCie own website suggests:
https://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=11217does it help?
Patrice
-
Patrice, I had seen that card on the lacie site but thought $300 for a card so that I connect a single $140 hard drive was a little pricey. This drive will go inbetween my office and home so portability is key. Not looking to run a 4+ drive Raid here. Since the lacie drive offers an E-Sata connection, I thought I might try to take advantage of that. I read on the cow that I shouldn’t mess with cheap $20 cards. I thought I would see if there was something decent in between the $20 price point and the $300, that’s all. Thank You for your snide remark about the 30 second search. That was good of you.
Chris
-
Hi John, the Lacie website (for the 1TB d2 Quadra Enterprise Class drive)is claiming burst reads of up to 115 MBS, more like 80-90 MBS sustained. If I am not looking to add more drives to set up a Raid, is it worth a more expensive card? My understanding is (and please correct me if I’m wrong) that a higher end card like the $299 offering from Lacie (LaCie eSATA II PCI Express Card 3Gb/s 4Ports) adds ports for multiple drives and adds speed but… the speed benefit is only seen if multiple drives are setup as a raid. I have a single drive that I want to work off of. It seems like the basic esata cards I am seeing (Lacie offers one)make claims of 150MBS. Based on this claim…Do you think it makes sense to pick up a basic esata card to work with this single drive?
Thanks again for taking the time to help me out
Chris
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up