PCI-X eSATA Card Recommendations?

[mac57mac57]

I have several external HDDs with eSATA interfaces, and I would like to connect one of them to my PowerMac G5 DP (late 2005).

To do this, I need to add an eSATA interface card to the G5. This means I need a PCI-X eSATA card that is Mac compatible. I did some research and turned up the FirmTek/Seritek 4SE2 card... seems like it fits the requirements, but it is no longer for sale. There are none on eBay either, but I have established a watch for it. If one comes up, eBay will alert me.

Does anyone know of any other more readily available eSATA card for PowerMac G5s? Alternatively, another source from which I can purchase the FirmTek card?

Thanks!

 

[wnlewis]

FirmTek/Seritek has a four port card that might work.

They are a bit of an odd company. They started out as an American developer/Chinese manufacturer. When the Americans left, the Chinese assumed complete control of the business.

What they have in the U.S. is essentially, a U.S. phone number and shipping location.

They will respond to emails (but not quickly), and very occasionally to a phone call. If they return a call, the person will probably be only slightly English literate. Be patient, listen, and don't get angry.

So do your due diligence. Read all the fine print, draw inferences and make conclusions, then purchase. You will get the product. It may take several weeks, to more than a month. I have a feeling that they only produce some items after they get enough orders to justify a production run.

If you feel safer to use PayPal, or similar, for a front end for your transactions, do it.

They continue to advertise products that are no longer made, but the information about the old products can be valuable to your search.

The current store front appears to be a place that does not use https. That does not seem to be a high priority.

The equipment does work, and it works well.

The biggest plus is, that if you buy all the parts for what you want to do from them, the thing that you want to accomplish, will work. Don't try to do like what a whole lot of people do and buy cheap from several different places, and then expect it to work, or try to make it work.

This is not the source of the least expensive components. This is a source of components that do work, work well together, and will work in your Mac.

Be careful and patient and you can deal with FirmTek/Seritek.

 

[Amethyst1]

All Late 2005 G5s have PCI-Express ("PCI-E" or "PCIe") slots, not PCI-X ones. If you have a Late 2005 G5, you need a PCIe eSATA card, of which there are many generic ones (search for e.g. "esata pcie" on eBay). Leopard includes an AHCI driver that should™ just work with these. Bootability is a different matter but I assume you're not interested in that.

Some threads to illustrate this:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...mance-ssd-upgrade-kit-in-late-2005-g5.1965081
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/pci-sata-cards-what-is-the-state-of-compatibility.1650568
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/owc-accelsior-s.2369894

 

[mac57mac57]

Wow! My mistake - thanks! I pulled the WRONG specs for my PowerMac. You could not be more correct: it is a PCI-E card I need, not a PCI-X. I will start the search over again.

 

[B S Magnet]

Wow! My mistake - thanks! I pulled the WRONG specs for my PowerMac. You could not be more correct: it is a PCI-E card I need, not a PCI-X. I will start the search over again.

The following may or may not be instructive for you:

I have an older, PCI-X model of the G5 tower (mid-2004 2.0 DP). I have had a SeriTek/1v4 card running with it throughout, and all four SATA ports are always in use.

Although you may be considering external SATA only, I can more than confirm that the power supply in these G5s, along with the internal spaces within, can more than accommodate the power and cooling requirements of putting SATA disks within the case — whether you use SSDs or HDDs. What I use to negotiate power distribution are molex splitters and molex-to-SATA power adapters.

Unfortunately, at least within the FirmTek realm, an internal option was never made available for PCIe systems, leaving you with basically three card solutions, all external: SeriTek/e6G (2-port, SATA III speeds & port multiplier-capable); SeriTek/2ME4-E (4-port, port multiplier-capable); and SeriTek/2SE2-E (2-port, SATA II speeds).

Sonnet, meanwhile, also carried a good variety of PCIe SATA cards, including an all-internal analogue of what I use on my system: the Tempo SATA E4i (all internal, SATA II, 4-port). They also carried the Tempo SATA E4P (all-external, SATA II; 4-port) and the Tempo SATA E2P (all-external, SATA II, 2-port).

Arguably, finding a Sonnet card might be a bit tougher. And given the brand recognition, prices for used Sonnet stuff tends to carry a bit of a premium. But you have at least six options here, if you’re willing to bide your time for when one shows up for sale.

 

[mac57mac57]

Thanks @B S Magnet , you are right on the money. What I want is more high speed storage for my G5. Since I have some idle external eSATA drives, this seemed a simple and low cost solution.

However, an internal drive would be dramatically superior, and because of that, I have scoped out the interior of my G5, looking for places I could put one. My concern there has been both cooling and power, especially considering the thermal issues I am having with my G5 Quad (different thread).

I have zeroed in on Sonnet's E2P card for my external eSATA drives, and it is available at a reasonable price on eBay. I haven't placed an order yet however.

Based on your comments, I will take a closer look at where I could mount one more internal drive without radically obstructing the internal airflow (hence cooling). It will take a bit of clever mechanical engineering to secure it well, but that is a challenge I can deal with. If only the PowerMac G5 had the same drive slot arrangement as the Mac Pro that succeeded it - those initial Mac Pros were pure genius in their internal layout.

Thanks for the pointer!