Tempo Sataii Pro Expresscard 34 2PORT

by Sonnet Technologies

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001HBJ4KS
• Item model number: TSATAII-PRO-E34
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #62 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Computer Components > Network Cards
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 21, 2008

Product Description

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing performance at a premium price, February 26, 2010

By 

Printer User (Dayton, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tempo Sataii Pro Expresscard 34 2PORT (Personal Computers)

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.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tempo Sataii Pro Expresscard 34 2Port, June 5, 2009

By 

H. Tanuwijaya (California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tempo Sataii Pro Expresscard 34 2PORT (Personal Computers)

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!

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Card Very Fast, January 4, 2012

By 

Foxy - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tempo Sataii Pro Expresscard 34 2PORT (Personal Computers)

I am running OSX 10.4.11 and I installed the latest Sonnet Pro driver and everything seems to be working fine. I am running an eSATA GRAID 2 TB. Initial impressions seems very fast!