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LaCie eSATA Hub Thunderbolt & multiple disks on one port

jeroen020

jeroen020

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 25, 2012
32
18
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
As per LaCie's specifications, their eSATA Hub Thunderbolt Series does not allow eSATA port multipliers.

However in the comments on the apple store review page for the device there are two owners who claim they have it working:

I don't know what others are talking about but it works.

I'm using a 5 HD enclosure with port mult with 4 drives set up for RAID 0 and 1 SSD drive for cache. They all mount!
Click to expand...

Unfortunately this doesn't list which enclosure is used

As observed by a previous review, port mult DOES work....at least with my Thermaltake BlacX eSata dual hard drive hub. Just backed up a 15gig folder from a 7200rpm drive in another esata enclosure to one of two WD Green 3tb drives in the Thermaltake in under 2 minutes. My third monitor is daisy chained. Everything PERFECT out of the box. I'm a happy camper... Lose a star though...why can't the hub be powered from the Thunderbolt bus?
Click to expand...

The Thermaltake BlacX Duet info is here: http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1346&ID=1895

Which states:

* When utilizing eSATA interface, Port Multiplier feature is required on the host system’s eSATA controller for two hard disk drives to be seen at the same time. All USB supports Port Multiplier function.
Click to expand...

In other words it looks like there is limited support for port multiplication in the Lacie eSATA Hub. I hope in this thread we can establish a list of devices that have been tried to work - or confirmed not to.
 
radiogoober said:
Because they utilize their own port multiplier, so it presents itself as a single disk to the eSATA port on the Lacie.
Click to expand...

That makes sense, thanks!
But it would also mean that the Thermaltake BlacX Duet wouldn't work, as it states it requires a host system with eSATA port multiplier. Strange that the Apple Store review claims it works. Maybe he's only using one disk at a time.

Those Datoptics towers look really nice but a bit overkill. Would be happy with an enclosure capable of doing two disks and perhaps use RAID 0 (with SSD's).
 
I tried a number of eSATA enclosures but speeds were disappointing. It seems that they all dropped down to SATA I. I've now connected two 256GB Samsung 830 series directly to the Lacie via eSATA to SATA cables and a SATA power supply. I've set them up as a 512GB RAID0 via Disk Utility and get 357 MB/s write, 463 MB/s read. Looks like a keeper.
 
jeroen020 said:
I tried a number of eSATA enclosures but speeds were disappointing. It seems that they all dropped down to SATA I. I've now connected two 256GB Samsung 830 series directly to the Lacie via eSATA to SATA cables and a SATA power supply. I've set them up as a 512GB RAID0 via Disk Utility and get 357 MB/s write, 463 MB/s read. Looks like a keeper.
Click to expand...

There is a new SATAIII Thunderbolt JBoD solution
http://www.amazon.com/Thunderbolt-JBoD-SATAIII-Enclosure-Windows/dp/B00HSA1AOA/
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
jeroen020 said:
But it would also mean that the Thermaltake BlacX Duet wouldn't work, as it states it requires a host system with eSATA port multiplier. Strange that the Apple Store review claims it works. Maybe he's only using one disk at a time.
(with SSD's).
Click to expand...

No it means the host must support port multipliers (i.e. be compatible with port multipliers). Some host eSATA ports are not compatible with port multipliers.

The Thermaltake BlacX Duet has a port multiplier built in. When you connect any port multiplier to a host port that does not support it, only one drive (drive 0) is seen. When you connect the Thermaltake BlacX Duet to a host port that supports port multipliers, both drives will be seen. In other words, the Thermaltake BlacX Duet is no different than any other port multiplier device.
 
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