ESata port multiplier boards

E

Edward Diener

I have been looking for an ESata port multiplier board, since the
built-in Promise T3 ESata controller on my K9A2 Platinum does not
directly support port multiplier functionality and I want to buy an
external ESata device that needs port multiplier functionality ( ICY
DOCK MB662USEB-2S Pearl White Dual 3.5" Bay FireWire 400/800 eSATA & USB
RAID Enclosure ).

I have been mostly looking on New Egg, who is always reliable in my
experience, and I see ESata boards which say "Port Multiplier
compatible" or "Port Multiplier ready" or "Port Multiplier Support" but
I have no idea whether this means the board has port multiplier
functionality built into it or whether it means it just works with an
external Sata enclosure which says it has built-in port multiplier
functionality. Or maybe I am confused and external Sata enclosures which
handle 2 or more Sata drives and say that they need ESata "port
multiplier" support simply means that they need to connect to an ESata
board which is "Port Multiplier compatible" or "Port Multiplier ready"
or "Port Multiplier Support".

Anybody who can shed light on this ? Any recommendations for an ESata
port multiplier board ?
 
D

DevilsPGD

In message <[email protected]> Edward Diener
I have been looking for an ESata port multiplier board, since the
built-in Promise T3 ESata controller on my K9A2 Platinum does not
directly support port multiplier functionality and I want to buy an
external ESata device that needs port multiplier functionality ( ICY
DOCK MB662USEB-2S Pearl White Dual 3.5" Bay FireWire 400/800 eSATA & USB
RAID Enclosure ).

I have been mostly looking on New Egg, who is always reliable in my
experience, and I see ESata boards which say "Port Multiplier
compatible" or "Port Multiplier ready" or "Port Multiplier Support" but
I have no idea whether this means the board has port multiplier
functionality built into it or whether it means it just works with an
external Sata enclosure which says it has built-in port multiplier
functionality.

It means that you can use an external port multiplier. This can be
compared with devices that don't support port multipliers at all.
 
A

Arno

Edward Diener said:
I have been looking for an ESata port multiplier board, since the
built-in Promise T3 ESata controller on my K9A2 Platinum does not
directly support port multiplier functionality and I want to buy an
external ESata device that needs port multiplier functionality ( ICY
DOCK MB662USEB-2S Pearl White Dual 3.5" Bay FireWire 400/800 eSATA & USB
RAID Enclosure ).
I have been mostly looking on New Egg, who is always reliable in my
experience, and I see ESata boards which say "Port Multiplier
compatible" or "Port Multiplier ready" or "Port Multiplier Support" but
I have no idea whether this means the board has port multiplier
functionality built into it or whether it means it just works with an
external Sata enclosure which says it has built-in port multiplier
functionality. Or maybe I am confused and external Sata enclosures which
handle 2 or more Sata drives and say that they need ESata "port
multiplier" support simply means that they need to connect to an ESata
board which is "Port Multiplier compatible" or "Port Multiplier ready"
or "Port Multiplier Support".
Anybody who can shed light on this ? Any recommendations for an ESata
port multiplier board ?

Ok, a bit of theory: For a port multiplier set-up you have
2 controller chips:

1. The SATA host controller, which has to be port-multiplier capable.
That is what the eSTA boards have. They have "port multiplier
host-side functionality", whoch is necessary for them to be
able to talk to SATA disks through a port-multiplier chip.
They do not do any port multiplication themselves.

2. The port-multiplier chip, that has one SATA port on one side
(going to the host controller) and several on the other side
(going to the disks). This is were the actual port multiplication
takes place.

In practice, while possible, you rarely see separate
port multiplier boards on the market. What you see instead
is external multi-disk SATA cases with port multiplier
boards in then, so they only need one eSATA cable.

You can still get discreete port multipliers, e.g. these:
http://www.addonics.com/products/pm/


Arno
 
E

Edward Diener

Ok, a bit of theory: For a port multiplier set-up you have
2 controller chips:

1. The SATA host controller, which has to be port-multiplier capable.
That is what the eSTA boards have. They have "port multiplier
host-side functionality", whoch is necessary for them to be
able to talk to SATA disks through a port-multiplier chip.
They do not do any port multiplication themselves.

2. The port-multiplier chip, that has one SATA port on one side
(going to the host controller) and several on the other side
(going to the disks). This is were the actual port multiplication
takes place.

In practice, while possible, you rarely see separate
port multiplier boards on the market. What you see instead
is external multi-disk SATA cases with port multiplier
boards in then, so they only need one eSATA cable.

You can still get discreete port multipliers, e.g. these:
http://www.addonics.com/products/pm/

Thank you very much for the explanation.
 
E

Edward Diener

This is the chip set on my card, which has 2 eSATA ports and
it also fits in a PCIe slot:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...=port_multiplier_esata-_-16-710-001-_-Product

Has this card worked well for you ? The two reviewers found some
problems with it, but that may be their own fault.

I assume the designation "eSATA Port Multiplier" just means that it is
"port multiplier compatible" and that an external enclosure which you
may use with it will have a port multiplier chip on it if it needs to
address more than 2 devices.
 
E

Edward Diener

Hardest problem was getting the motherboard to see the card.
Once the card is seen, the rest is pretty easy.

The SiI (Silicon Image) chipset is considered one of the
standards for eSATA. The SiI 3132 chipset is on my PCIe
card, which has 2 eSATA ports. The 4-drive box is connected
to one port and the other port is open (max 4-5
drives/port--an 8-bay eSATA box requires two eSATA cables to
two ports). I am considering getting another 4-bay eSATA box
when drive capacities hit 4TB/drive and the price becomes
reasonable for those drives (say $100 each or less).

Thanks for the information. I talked to ICY DOCK tech support and they
said that any ESata port multiplier compatible card which supports at
least 4 drives per ESata connector should work with their enclosure. I
do not know what problems you had with your mobo and the SNT SNT-PCIX
Card but I will assume that my mobo can handle an ESata card in the
appropriate PCIX slot.
 
Y

Yousuf Khan

I have been looking for an ESata port multiplier board, since the
built-in Promise T3 ESata controller on my K9A2 Platinum does not
directly support port multiplier functionality and I want to buy an
external ESata device that needs port multiplier functionality ( ICY
DOCK MB662USEB-2S Pearl White Dual 3.5" Bay FireWire 400/800 eSATA & USB
RAID Enclosure ).

I have been mostly looking on New Egg, who is always reliable in my
experience, and I see ESata boards which say "Port Multiplier
compatible" or "Port Multiplier ready" or "Port Multiplier Support" but
I have no idea whether this means the board has port multiplier
functionality built into it or whether it means it just works with an
external Sata enclosure which says it has built-in port multiplier
functionality. Or maybe I am confused and external Sata enclosures which
handle 2 or more Sata drives and say that they need ESata "port
multiplier" support simply means that they need to connect to an ESata
board which is "Port Multiplier compatible" or "Port Multiplier ready"
or "Port Multiplier Support".

Anybody who can shed light on this ? Any recommendations for an ESata
port multiplier board ?

Hmm, this is the first time I have heard about eSATA port
multiplication. I wasn't aware this was even possible until now. How
many drives can you get on a single eSATA port with port multiplication?
2, 7, 15, etc.?
 
D

DevilsPGD

In message <[email protected]> Yousuf Khan
Hmm, this is the first time I have heard about eSATA port
multiplication. I wasn't aware this was even possible until now. How
many drives can you get on a single eSATA port with port multiplication?
2, 7, 15, etc.?

Same as SATA, up to 15.
 
A

Arno

Hmm, this is the first time I have heard about eSATA port
multiplication. I wasn't aware this was even possible until now. How
many drives can you get on a single eSATA port with port multiplication?
2, 7, 15, etc.?

The product I have seen puts 5 on it. No idea about
the protocoll limits.

Arno
 
D

DevilsPGD

The product I have seen puts 5 on it. No idea about
the protocoll limits.

The design limits seem to be at the 15 drive range, but keep in mind
that you're still limited to interface speeds here.

Unless drive speed and performance is of no concern at all, even 5
drives might start to stretch your patience.
 

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