Price : Too low to display
When file transfer speeds in the field can make or break a project, call in the pro-Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34. This Sonnet exclusive two-port eSATA adapter delivers the highest available throughput performance from a SATA host controller for notebook computers-40% faster than standard SATA controller cards-and is ideal tool for video capture and editing in the field, studio, or office. Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34's exceptional sustained data throughput capability of up to 200 MB/sec empowers it to support more simultaneous video streams during playback, and enables faster file transfers for content of any kind.
This review is from : Tempo Sataii Pro Expresscard 34 2PORT
Disappointing performance at a premium price . I bought the Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro Expresscard with high hopes of getting better throughput compared to the JMicron-based OWC ExpressCard/34 eSATA SATA I/II Add-On Card for MacBook Pro with ExpressCard/34 slot that I had previously used. Since the JMicron card costs about $20, I figured the Tempo card should provide much greater performance, somewhere near the "40% faster than standard SATA controller cards" claimed in the Amazon listing. Alas, when used with my unibody Apple MacBook Pro it did not provide any better performance than the $20 card when used with a single external eSATA hard drive.
Here is a quick comparison of sequential read and write performance with a single 7200 RPM Seagate eSATA drive and 4k blocks, tested with Xbench:
Tempo SATA Pro, uncached write: 82.95MB/sec; uncached read: 23.79 MB/sec
JMicron-based card, uncached write: 85.02MB/sec; uncached read: 21.82 MB/sec
With a single drive, the performance is essentially the same for the two Expresscard eSATA adapters.
The Tempo card has two eSATA ports and is supposed to be capable of working with port-multiplier eSATA devices, but I did not have the drives to test this. Using two drives in a striped array, the Tempo card should perform much better, although overall performance will be constrained by the 1x PCIe bus performance of the MacBook Pro's Expresscard slot.
The Tempo card is also capable of running in Snow Leopard 64-bit mode, but 64-bit use requires the latest drivers from Sonnet -- as does 32-bit operation. In other words, to use the Tempo card, you have to install drivers.
In contrast, the JMicron card runs in Snow Leopard 64-bit mode without any drivers other than those that come built-in to Snow Leopard.
In summary, if you need two eSATA ports and eSATA port-multiplier compatibility, then the Tempo card is one of the few Expresscard options available. If you don't need these two features, then comparable performance is available for a much lower cost.
Disappointing performance at a premium price . I bought the Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro Expresscard with high hopes of getting better throughput compared to the JMicron-based OWC ExpressCard/34 eSATA SATA I/II Add-On Card for MacBook Pro with ExpressCard/34 slot that I had previously used. Since the JMicron card costs about $20, I figured the Tempo card should provide much greater performance, somewhere near the "40% faster than standard SATA controller cards" claimed in the Amazon listing. Alas, when used with my unibody Apple MacBook Pro it did not provide any better performance than the $20 card when used with a single external eSATA hard drive.
Here is a quick comparison of sequential read and write performance with a single 7200 RPM Seagate eSATA drive and 4k blocks, tested with Xbench:
Tempo SATA Pro, uncached write: 82.95MB/sec; uncached read: 23.79 MB/sec
JMicron-based card, uncached write: 85.02MB/sec; uncached read: 21.82 MB/sec
With a single drive, the performance is essentially the same for the two Expresscard eSATA adapters.
The Tempo card has two eSATA ports and is supposed to be capable of working with port-multiplier eSATA devices, but I did not have the drives to test this. Using two drives in a striped array, the Tempo card should perform much better, although overall performance will be constrained by the 1x PCIe bus performance of the MacBook Pro's Expresscard slot.
The Tempo card is also capable of running in Snow Leopard 64-bit mode, but 64-bit use requires the latest drivers from Sonnet -- as does 32-bit operation. In other words, to use the Tempo card, you have to install drivers.
In contrast, the JMicron card runs in Snow Leopard 64-bit mode without any drivers other than those that come built-in to Snow Leopard.
In summary, if you need two eSATA ports and eSATA port-multiplier compatibility, then the Tempo card is one of the few Expresscard options available. If you don't need these two features, then comparable performance is available for a much lower cost.
Tempo Sataii Pro Expresscard 34 2PORT Reviews
Tempo Sataii Pro Expresscard 34 2Port . Tempo Sataii Pro Expresscard 34 2PORT
As far as I know, there is no other eSata card that outperforms this product that currently exists in the market. I've done some research on this and tried out different brands, but none really suited my needs like this one.
Ahhh, now let's go to the meat of the review...the ugly, the bad, and the good...
The Ugly: Price! This is the most expensive eSata card known to man! Don't buy this product if your usage of peripheral devices is minimal, in which case the cost immensely outweighs the benefits. Enough said, now let's go to the bad...
The Bad: I purchased this product for use in both my Mac and PC. The product works wonderfully with EITHER Mac or PC, but not both. The product WILL NOT WORK if you use VMWare with Windows, regardless if it's Vista or XP. I've been through several forums to address this issue, but apparently nobody has any solutions for the issue. Windows will not recognize the card at all, even through proper installation. It will work if you use it exclusively on a PC, but not with VMWare. I think that the issue resides primarily with the VMWare more so than the card itself. Well, enough with the Debby Downer issues, on to the good...
The Good: It's fast! Although internal-external data transfer depends on the laptop specs as well as the external hard drive specs, for the most part, this card is very efficient and fast in transferring files. A few gigabytes in a few minutes! Of course, the transfer speed decreases dramatically if these "few gigabytes" consist of several thousand folders as opposed to one or two. Internally, transfer speed is 7200RPM for a laptop hard drive and externally, I've used Western Digital Velociraptor with 10,000RPM speed, so transfer speed is limited to the slower of the two. Now if the transfer is between 10,000RPM HDD and another 10,000RPM, perhaps 3GB/s transfer speed will be achieved? Haven't tried it yet...if anyone knows, post your review!
Tempo Sataii Pro Expresscard 34 2Port . Tempo Sataii Pro Expresscard 34 2PORT
As far as I know, there is no other eSata card that outperforms this product that currently exists in the market. I've done some research on this and tried out different brands, but none really suited my needs like this one.
Ahhh, now let's go to the meat of the review...the ugly, the bad, and the good...
The Ugly: Price! This is the most expensive eSata card known to man! Don't buy this product if your usage of peripheral devices is minimal, in which case the cost immensely outweighs the benefits. Enough said, now let's go to the bad...
The Bad: I purchased this product for use in both my Mac and PC. The product works wonderfully with EITHER Mac or PC, but not both. The product WILL NOT WORK if you use VMWare with Windows, regardless if it's Vista or XP. I've been through several forums to address this issue, but apparently nobody has any solutions for the issue. Windows will not recognize the card at all, even through proper installation. It will work if you use it exclusively on a PC, but not with VMWare. I think that the issue resides primarily with the VMWare more so than the card itself. Well, enough with the Debby Downer issues, on to the good...
The Good: It's fast! Although internal-external data transfer depends on the laptop specs as well as the external hard drive specs, for the most part, this card is very efficient and fast in transferring files. A few gigabytes in a few minutes! Of course, the transfer speed decreases dramatically if these "few gigabytes" consist of several thousand folders as opposed to one or two. Internally, transfer speed is 7200RPM for a laptop hard drive and externally, I've used Western Digital Velociraptor with 10,000RPM speed, so transfer speed is limited to the slower of the two. Now if the transfer is between 10,000RPM HDD and another 10,000RPM, perhaps 3GB/s transfer speed will be achieved? Haven't tried it yet...if anyone knows, post your review!
Tempo Sataii Pro Expresscard 34 2PORT Opinions
Works great but the price may be high . Amazon sold this for about 75% off list for a while... they recently bumped it up to less than 50%. I'm not sure it's worth it at that price... but for the price I paid, the perfect Sonnet/OS X integration (works great with 10.5, 10.6, and 10.7) is well worth it.Off-brand/no-name cards tend to have issues, are seldom supported by new OS's after release (Lion doesn't seem to like most generic Silicon Image 3124 cards), and cause kernel panics. Trust me, I've used them and gone through all of that before.The Sonnet's been golden for months. Not a single kernel panic & performance is great.
Works great but the price may be high . Amazon sold this for about 75% off list for a while... they recently bumped it up to less than 50%. I'm not sure it's worth it at that price... but for the price I paid, the perfect Sonnet/OS X integration (works great with 10.5, 10.6, and 10.7) is well worth it.Off-brand/no-name cards tend to have issues, are seldom supported by new OS's after release (Lion doesn't seem to like most generic Silicon Image 3124 cards), and cause kernel panics. Trust me, I've used them and gone through all of that before.The Sonnet's been golden for months. Not a single kernel panic & performance is great.
Cons Review
didn't fully work . i bought this item for 2 reasons. 1) to format a drive for mac (which worked fine) and 2) to transfer data from one SATA drive to another (which it inexplicably stopped, after many failures i had to transfer by USB) i bought this because i thought it was good and i like the company, but i wouldn't recommend it.
Bad product no customer service . I purchased this because it claimed to be compatible with Windows 7. However, its drivers would not install on my Windows 7 machine. When I phoned Sonnet technical support I got a technician with an attitude and no help at all. They first claimed it was the fault of the disk drive enclosure I was trying to attach to their esata card and they told me to call the enclosure manufacturer to see if their enclosure used a particular chip, which (a phone call revealed) it did not. A second call to Sonnet produced no help at all -- from the same technician with the same attitude. Let the buyer beware.
Feature Tempo Sataii Pro Expresscard 34 2PORT
- 2 port adapter
- Delivers the highest available throughput performance from a SATA host controller for notebook computers
- Exceptional sustained data throughput capability of up to 200 MB/sec
- Supports more simultaneous video streams during playback
- Enables faster file transfers for content of any kind.
Product Details
EAN : 0102646069394UPC : 102646069394
MPN : TSATAII-PRO-E34
Brand : Sonnet Technologies
Weight : 1 pounds
Height : 1 inches
Length : 8 inches
Width : 6 inches
Binding : Personal Computers
Manufacturer : Sonnet Technologies
Model : TSATAII-PRO-E34
Platform : Windows Vista
Publisher : Sonnet Technologies
SKU : CL PU-70305
Studio : Sonnet Technologies
Where To Buy
You can buy Tempo Sataii Pro Expresscard 34 2PORT on Amazon . Click here to Read More
