SATA Host Card Guide

What SATA Host Card works best in my computer?

  Today’s computer users have several choices in SATA Host Card manufacturers, and more importantly expansion slot types. There are currently three common bus slot types used in desktop computers, PCI, PCI-X (PCI-Extended) and PCIe sometimes called PCI Express. You MUST select the card type that fits the available expansion slots in your computer. Most PC’s have multiple expansion slot types on the motherboard where Macs will have all one type.

  PCI is usually a 33 Mhz Bus often found in older computers and some early Mac G5’s. PCI was replaced with PCI-X which provides much improved performance. Most PCI-X host cards available today are backward compatible and will work in a PCI slot providing there is physically room for the longer PCI-X card. (The physical length of a PCI-X card is about 2" longer than a PCI slot and will hang off the inboard end of a PCI slot.)

  PCIe cards are available in different lane counts, 1-lane, 4-lane, 8-lane and-16 lane. Each lane is capable of 250 Mb⁄s, so a 4 lane slot should be capable of nearly 1Gb⁄s. 16 lane slots are generally only used for graphics cards so check the motherboard specifications before installing a host card in a 16-lane slot. On PC’s, PCIe slots are sometimes physically longer than they are electrically. The available PCIe slot may be physically 8-lanes in length, but only electrically active with 4-lanes. This is quite common because it allows a longer and more capable card to be installed in the longer physical length slot, however they will operate at the slower slot speed. Most cards are designed to allow for reduced bandwidth. For example, the Lycom LYCeSATA-4e card is an 8-lane card and requires an 8-lane slot to physically be installed, however can operate in a slot that is only 4 lanes electrically.

  The photo above is a HP XW-8200 motherboard. Shown from the top down, PCIe 16-lane (graphics only), PCI, PCIe 8-lane and PCI-X slots.

PC’s

   PC’s are so varied that you usually have to check the spec sheet on the computer or motherboard to determine what expansion slots it has. The computer specifications will usually list the available expansion slots, number of each type and their speed in Mhz or lane count. Most PC’s have more than one type of slot on board which may be confusing since the PCIe slots can be of different lengths, some of which are visually similar to other slot types. Bus slot color is irrelevant.

   Common cards available for PCI and PCI-X equipped PC’s include the Lycom and Sonnet brand cards which are both Port Multiplier capable. These cards will support up to 20 drives when attached to our Burly Port Multiplier Enclosure or four drives direct connected with a Burly Hot Swap SATA Kit or Burly SATA Kit (Fixed Drive). The Lycom cards using the Silicon Image chipset offer the most stable drivers available for Mac’s, PC’s and Linux machines.

    PCIe equipped PC’s can use The Lycom or Sonnet four port host cards capable of mounting up to 20 drives or the two port Lycom PCI Express card that will mount up to 10 drives. The 2 port cards use a chipset that’s only capable of 150 MB⁄s and is commonly used for backup purposes. If you’re using the card for video or photo storage choose one the four port cards for the greater speed capabilities.

  PC Laptops have two possible expansion card types. Cardbus (PCMCIA) and Express34. Not all laptop computers have a slot and some have more than one, please check your computer’s specifications. The Cardbus card slot is approximately 2.125" wide and the Express34 slot is approximately 1.375" wide. These cards are available in two port versions that are Port Multiplier capable and can mount up to 10 drives.

Macs - Pre-Intel

    Macs are pretty easy to figure out with a few exceptions. The G5 (Pre Intel) has shipped with three distinct expansion bus types. Please verify which model you have using the simple instructions below to avoid confusion when ordering host cards.

To determine if your computer is a Dual CORE (with PCI Express - PCIe) or a Dual PROCESSOR with either PCI or PCI-X bus types, please open your System Profiler and choose "Memory" in the Hardware section. On the right side of this page, under the "Speed" heading you should see PC-3200 or PC2-4200.

  If you have PC-3200 RAM your computer is a Dual PROCESSOR G5 with either PCI or PCI-X expansion slots (see next paragraph). If the RAM Speed shown is PC-4200 your computer is a PCI Express equipped Dual CORE G5. Another way to verify which you have is to count your ethernet ports on the back of your computer. If you have two ethernet ports the computer is PCI Express, if you only have one it’s PCI or PCI-X. Make sure you don’t count the modem port (if you have one) which looks similar but is slightly narrower.

  To determine if your Dual PROCESSOR G5 has PCI or PCI-X expansion bus slots you’ll also have to check out the "Memory" section in "System Profiler". Count the total number of RAM DIMM slots, you should have either 4 or 8 total. If there are 4 RAM slots the computer has the slower and less capable PCI bus, if it has 8 RAM slots the expansion slots will be PCI-X. PCI-X equipped Macs may use any PCI-X host card that you like.

The PCI equipped Mac computers do not play well with host cards using the Silicon Image Chipset (Lycom). This includes G3, G4 and G5 models with four RAM slots. These computers can only use the Sonnet X4P Host Card. Do NOT order Lycom or other Silicon Image based cards to use in these computers.

ALL INTEL MACPRO TOWERS

  The MacPro is the easiest model to choose a host card for since they are all PCIe equipped. The Lycom LYCeSATA-4e card and the Sonnet X4P 4 port cards as well as the Lycom LYCeSATA-2EMAC 2 port cards will all work. Of these we prefer the Lycom versions because their drivers don’t have to be updated as often and the cards are less expensive. Both cards are capable of any current Apple operating System, 32-bit or 64-bit. When adding a host card into any MacPro make sure you install it into one of the top two expansion slots, #3 or #4, for proper operation.

MacBook Pro

    Some MacBook Pro machines offer the Express34 expansion slot, some do not. All 17" models will have an Express34 slot, 13" models do not offer the slot. If your 15" MacBook Pro was produced since the end of 2008 and has a "Model Identifier" higher than "MacBook Pro5,1" it WILL NOT have an Express34 slot. In it’s place is a smaller and less capable SD card reader slot. 15" models built prior to 2009 will have an Express34 slot. We offer Lycom and the Sonnet Pro Express34 cards that will allow you to mount up to 10 drives when attached to our Burly Port Multiplier Enclosures.

  The older PowerBook uses the Cardbus (PCMCIA) card type which has been phased out of production.

SATAIII & SAS 6G CARDS

  SATAIII or 6Gb⁄s and SAS 6G cards are now available and cost effective. With SATAIII the increase in specification speed is primarily useful for systems using Solid State Devices (SSD’s) with performance exceeding 230 Mb⁄s. Port Multiplier systems are not yet SATAIII compliant, however, we expect to see new chipsets with the increased performance capabilities soon. Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) 6G cards and 6G expander enclosures are readily available and seem to work very well. Tremendous speeds can be had by RAIDing large numbers of fast drives on 6G systems. If you're interested in more information about SATAIII and SAS 6G please read our SATAIII Reference Page.

Please visit our "Port Multiplication Guide" for further information about how Port Multiplication works. Or simply contact us for personalized help.

updated 3-30-11