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E-sata Express card , which one actually works.

G

Guy Mancuso

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 28, 2009
863
46
I have the new 15 in MBP and bought a e-sata express card from OWC which is the Apiotek Extreme Dual e-sata http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apiotek/EC0003D/. At first it could not be seen so I went to there site and downloaded the driver for it and got several grey screens of death kernel panics. I know the Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34 is supposed to work on the new unibody but after all that I bought to get this system up to the speed I need, was trying to avoid another 280 dollars and want another 4gb Ram chip more. http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet Technology/SATAIIPROE34/

I am only running one external drive like this for PS scratch, OS backup and a working drive that is partitioned in 3 sections. Wondering if there is another express card that is working in the new 15 in 2.93 without any issues.
 
I got this one:
works great + its cheap, and the best is that it does not stick out from the laptop side
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and by the way, its bootable.
 
Guy Mancuso said:
You have 10.5.6 loaded. Do you know the speeds of it
Click to expand...

yes, 10.5.6

The speed *should* be up to 3Gb/s but I tried mine with a 5400rpm HDD so it did not max it (xBench said ~40MB/s which was the same as the HDD when it was inside my mac, on usb speeds are ~25MB/s with the same HDD and same enclosure. but again I am pretty sure its up to 3Gb/s [of course theoretical speeds])
 
xoggyux said:
I have the last [non-unibody] MBP, I doubt the card will behave any different in your system though. Anyway its only $13 so you can go ahead and give it a try...
Click to expand...

I took your advice and bought one of these from eBay. The auction pictures show the BC338 but I was sent the BC368. My early-08 17" MBP doesn't recognize it. What drivers did you use?
 
drewdeezee said:
I took your advice and bought one of these from eBay. The auction pictures show the BC338 but I was sent the BC368. My early-08 17" MBP doesn't recognize it. What drivers did you use?
Click to expand...

:eek: I have no idea, i just got that (now that you mention I checked it and I got the BC338) and put it inside and worked, I did not have to install anything at all.
 
I recently got the BC338, and it works great without drivers. I like it better than my old 2-port PPA International card (they sell them on Newegg for about $27) that sticks out a lot and is nearly as thick as the whole laptop.

These cards are limited to 2gbps because that is the speed of the expresscard bus (a PCIe 1x lane). You will probably never notice the difference between that and 3gbps because the hard drive will still be slower.
 
drewdeezee said:
I took your advice and bought one of these from eBay. The auction pictures show the BC338 but I was sent the BC368. My early-08 17" MBP doesn't recognize it. What drivers did you use?
Click to expand...

You contact your seller and get a replacement.

m85476585 said:
I recently got the BC338, and it works great without drivers. I like it better than my old 2-port PPA International card (they sell them on Newegg for about $27) that sticks out a lot and is nearly as thick as the whole laptop.

These cards are limited to 2gbps because that is the speed of the expresscard bus (a PCIe 1x lane). You will probably never notice the difference between that and 3gbps because the hard drive will still be slower.
Click to expand...

So the card doesn't crash or KP your computer when you unplug it? I had that issue with the Silicon Image controller.
 
alphaod said:
You contact your seller and get a replacement.



So the card doesn't crash or KP your computer when you unplug it? I had that issue with the Silicon Image controller.
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No. There is an icon for it in the system tray (not sure what it's called on a mac--the thing with the clock and the battery meter), and if I click on it, there is an option to Power Off Card. If I don't do that, the only issue is that the card still shows up as plugged in, and if I put it back in, two cards will show up (under the same icon). The extra card goes away once I restart.

I got this card first, and it works fine (since it has the Jmicron chipset), but it is kind of big:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16839228002

I got the BC338 on eBay with a link I think xoggyux posted, but I don't remember the link, and I don't know what to search for to find it on ebay. The BC338 also has the Jmicron chipset, so I haven't had any issues with it either. I know the PPA International card is bootable, and the BC338 should be as well.
 

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Just bought it. Thank you for sending the pictures! I almost bought an ugly model that jutted out of the side. Now I can have the thing in all the time without worrying about it.
 
xoggyux said:
http://cgi.ebay.com/eSATA-Express-c...286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:2|65:15|39:1|240:1318

though I bought from another seller which I could not find right now, anyway I think if you just search "BC338 expresscard" you can find it ( I Paid $12 for it, so you keep that in mind and do not pay 20+ for it!)
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Awesome! thanks. So your saying its a good buy? The last eSATA card i bought was a "best buy" generic brand one for $70 that didn't work AT ALL. Do i have to install drivers for this one?

I just want to be sure. From the broken english on the ebay page, i assume i'll be out of luck on returning it if it doesn't work.
 
waywardsage said:
Awesome! thanks. So your saying its a good buy? The last eSATA card i bought was a "best buy" generic brand one for $70 that didn't work AT ALL. Do i have to install drivers for this one?

I just want to be sure. From the broken english on the ebay page, i assume i'll be out of luck on returning it if it doesn't work.
Click to expand...

No drivers needed for Leopard. I'm sure you could return it if you really wanted to, but shipping back would probably cost almost as much as you paid for the card.
 
The disk you buy is still the limiting factor. The $13 card will be just as fast for normal disks, and it probably the same even for a disk near the limit of the card.
 
That article claims "All cards using the Silicon Image SI-3132 chipset are likely to see exactly the same “hit” (essentially every SATA ExpressCard/34 in late 2008 except the Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro)."

But both of my cards have a JMicron chipset.
 
That seems to be the issue just not sure if vendors changed things on there cards or Apple did something else. The one I bought should have worked originally so seems like a guessing game. One reason why I asked to start the thread. One area I am just not sure about and still no real answer on 8gbs either. We have some that actually say it truly works and OWC and Apple saying it won't. Or not stable enough to stand behind it sounds more the case to me. I just may buy the darn chip and find out myself. LOL

I probably already voided my warranty with half the stuff I put on this with the optical bay taken out and a SSD drive in there. I'm not a follow the leader type. I am a guinea pig and will try anything. :):):)

Certainly will report if this one works and what kind of throughput goes on. Hate to buy one of theses things and Firewire 800 is actually faster. I want 7200 drive throughput that you would get inside the box. Worth the money to try it and see. Heck I dumped a load in this thing already with 2 SSD drives, external DVD , Ram etc etc but I'm replacing a MacPro with this thing. Hope my wife is not reading this. LOL
 
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