My old Firmtek eSata card lost compatibility after El Cap. I am aware of newer compatible cards from Sonnettech and Firmtek (at least up through High Sierra) but they cost $200. Don’t want to sink that much into eSata but for about $30 or so I would. Any such item out there?
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Inexpensive PCIe eSata card compatible w Mohave?
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there sure are, I actually was looking at this yesterday. this card says 10.6.8 or higher. $200 sounds steep for that type of card btw
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/MXPCIE6G3S2/
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/MXPCIE6G3S2/
Just like I do with USB cards, I'd recommend getting a card that uses a chipset supported by native drivers in MacOS. That way you aren't relying on third parties to update their drivers for every new version of MacOS, which they will inevitably give up on, and it sounds like that's what happened to you.
IIRC, any eSATA card with ASM1061 chipset should work. There are a dozen on Amazon for $15-$30. Make sure you buy one from a place with good return policy just in case my information is out of date.
Keep in mind that all of the cheap cards only support basic use, as is typical for running a hard drive or SSD. If you need anything fancy like port multipliers or RAID or whatever, you're probably going to need one of the more expensive fully featured cards.
IIRC, any eSATA card with ASM1061 chipset should work. There are a dozen on Amazon for $15-$30. Make sure you buy one from a place with good return policy just in case my information is out of date.
Keep in mind that all of the cheap cards only support basic use, as is typical for running a hard drive or SSD. If you need anything fancy like port multipliers or RAID or whatever, you're probably going to need one of the more expensive fully featured cards.
Thank you guys. Those higher priced cards are, indeed, for port multiplication (which I have sworn off), booting and 4 ports. Don’t need any of that; that basic Newertech card looks like it fits the bill (asm1062 chip should be same as asm1061 right?).
Some are under $10 at eBay... I've been using one such SATA3 PCIe card for years.
I picked one up at the local Fry's for $20 - a Vantec Sata III 2 port model - works well and it has port multiplication but don't know it that would work under mac os. I was reluctant, at first, to get it because they - like a lot of these manufacturers - don't say what chipset they are using. Same with the Vantec - not a clue on the spec sheet or any mention of mac os except in the manual where they mention installing the Windows driver which was an ASM106xx. Then I knew it might work and it did.
So thank you AM for that note on the ASM1061 chipset.
So thank you AM for that note on the ASM1061 chipset.
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I have settled on the NewerTech card and will be returning the Vantec one. The Vantec works fine with single eSata devices but did not consistently recognize my CalDigit VR 2-disk raid enclosure while the NewerTech has no problem with it. The differences between these two cards is that the Vantec has port multiplication, 2 internal data ports + 2 external Sata (only 2 of which can work simultaneously) and apparently is an x1 lane card while the NewerTech utilizes x2 lanes, 2 external ports only and has no port multiplication and the newer ASM1062 chip; oh and it is bootable. So, it would seem that having an asm106xxx chip alone is not a guarantee of full compatibility.