What SATA Host Card fits my computer?

 

 Today's computer users have several choices in SATA Host Card manufacturers and more importantly expansion card bus types. Some bus configurations are interchangeable and some are not compatible with another type. In this guide we will identify what bus your computer has and explore some different Host Cards that will work with your bus type and computer platform.

 There are three Bus slot Types, PCI, PCI-X (PCI-Extended) and PCIe sometimes called PCI Express. You MUST select the card type that fits your computer.

 PCI is a 33 Mhz Bus, oday will be backward compatible and will work in your PCI slot at the buses slower speed. If your computer has a PCPCI-X runs at 100 or 133 Mhz. If your computer has a PCI slot it can run PCI cards but most PCI-X cards made tI-X Bus it can run PCI-X cards. Using a PCI card in a PCI-X bus is not recommended because it will be much slower than your computer is capable of and in some cases will slow other cards in the same bus.

 PCIe is a little different. It comes in different lengths, 1X, 4X, 8X and 16X. These "lanes" each carry 250 Mb/s, so a 4X Bus should be capable of transferring data about 1Gb/s. The 16X slots are only used for graphics cards to date.

Macs
 Macs are pretty easy until you get to the G5. The Power Mac G3 and G4 models all have PCI Slots and can use either PCI or PCI-X Cards which are backward compatible. Some of the first generation Power Mac G5's also use the PCI slot and will work with most PCI-X Host Cards. The later "Dual PROCESSOR" G5's have the faster 100 and 133 Mhz slots. When Apple changed the G5 to the "Dual CORE" (Late 2005) they also switched to the newer PCIe (PCI Express) Bus Standard. All Dual CORE machines have PCIe including the Quad and the new MacPro.

 One easy way to tell if you have a Dual CORE or a Dual PROCESSOR is to look on the back of the computer and count the Ethernet Ports. If you have only ONE ethernet port you will have PCI or PCI-X Bus slots. If there are TWO Ethernet Ports you have a Dual CORE machine using the newer PCIe Bus slots. See pictures below. Make sure that you are not looking at the modem port which is narrower than the ethernet port but looks similar.

 

Dual Processor G5 Mac	Dual Processor G5 Mac	Dual Core QUAD	Intel MacPro
Ethernet and Modem	Ethernet - No Modem	Two Ethernet Ports	Two Ethernet - no Modem

 The MacBook Pro uses the ExpressCard 34 expansion slot. We have a Sonnet Two Port Port Multiplier capable card that will allow you to mount up to 10 drives when attached to our Burly Port Multiplier Enclosures or two drives direct connected with the Burly Hot Swap Two Bay Kit or Burly Standard Two Bay Kit. These two bay kits are conveniently portable for on location work including video capture with up to 130 Mb/sec.

 For PCI and PCI-X Macs we have many Host card options including Port multiplier capable cards that support up to 20 drives and others that allow Bootability. You can find them all on our PCI and PCI-X Host Card page. Please visit our "What Are My Storage Needs" page (coming soon) and our "Port Multiplication Guide" for more help in deciding on a host card to suit your needs.

 PCIe Macs have fewer options since the standard hasn't been around as long in the Macintosh platform. You can fill your needs on our PCI-Express Card page. Please visit our "What Are My Storage Needs" page (coming soon) and our "Port Multiplication Guide" for more help in deciding on a host card to suit your needs.

Note: The only host cards we currently endorse for MacPro users are the CalDigit FASTA-4e Four Port , CalDigit FASTA-2e Two Port and the SeriTek 2SE2-E Two Port Host Card. MacPro PCIe slots' bandwidth is user adjustable in the Expansion Slot utility (found- HD/System/Library/Core Services/Expansion Slot utility), so make sure that you set the slot with the host card to the same bandwidth as the host card you have installed.

 

PC's
 PC's are so varied that you usually have to go to the spec sheet on the computer manufacturer or mother board manufacturer's web site. It will usually tell you what your expansion slots are, how many of each type and their speed in Mhz. Most PC's have more than one type of slot on board and can be very confusing particularly since the PCIe slots can be of different lengths, some of which are visually similar to other slot types. Sockets can be of any color.

 PCI and PCI-X equipped PC's can use either the CalDigit FASTA-4x or the less expensive Lycom eSATA 4 Port Host Cards. Both are four port cards that will support up to 20 drives when attached to our Burly Port Multiplier Enclosures or four drives direct connected with a Burly Hot Swap Enclosure Kit or Burly Standard Enclosure Kit. The CalDigit is the fastest non-hardware based card we have ever tested and is quite stable in PC's as well as Macs. The Lycom card supports RAID5 with a few limitations. Please visit our "What are my storage needs" page (coming soon) and our "Port Multiplication Guide" for more help in deciding on a host card to suit your needs.

 PCIe equipped PC's can use the CalDigit FASTA-4e four port host card capable of mounting up to 20 drives or the two port CalDigit FASTA-2e or Lycom's 2 eSATA card for up to 10 drive availability. These are all compatible with our Burly Port Multiplier Enclosures or may be direct connected using our Burly Hot Swap Enclosure Kit or Burly Standard Enclosure Kit. Please visit our "What are my storage needs" page (coming soon) and our "Port Multiplication Guide" for more help in deciding on a host card to suit your needs.

This is an HP XW-8200 shown from the top down, PCIe 16X (graphics only), PCI, PCIe 8X and PCI-X. It's almost impossible to determine what slots you have by looking at them since some computers use long sockets physically but they may only be wired part way. Example: A PCIe 8X slot may be electrically only a 4X. Refer to your computers spec sheet to make sure before ordering.