Sonnet Technologies

Name: Sonnet Technologies Tempo SSD 6Gb/s SATA PCIe 2.5" SSD Host Adapter
Brand: Sonnet Technologies
SKU: STITSATA6SSDE
Price: 99 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.00 (1 reviews)

Tempo™ SSD
6Gb/s SATA PCIe 2.5" SSD Host Adapter

Mac | PC | PCIe | SATA

Simple SSD Upgrade Solution

If you've been thinking about storage, you've read the stories and seen the reviews; SSDs are hot right now. Not only do they offer tremendous performance and easily outperform hard disk drives, they are more reliable, their prices are dropping and you can get more capacity than ever. If you've got a Mac Pro® or Windows® desktop computer, you could just get a couple of 2.5" SSDs (plus necessary adapters) and install them in some empty drive bays (if there are any) and be done with it-but the 3Gb/s SATA interface in your computer won't support fast 6Gb/s SSDs at full speed. You could also get a 6Gb/s eSATA adapter plus external mount SSD storage, but they come with the excess baggage of power adapters and cable clutter. Sonnet engineered a great alternative - the Tempo™ SSD. It is a fast 6Gb/s SATA PCI Express adapter cards that enables you to attach readily available 2.5" SSDs and install the assembly neatly into a single PCIe slot, no cables or drivers necessary.

Unlike other PCI Express SSD cards that rely on proprietary, premium priced SSD modules, Tempo SSD uses standard 2.5" SATA drives that you choose. This allows you to select from the widest variety of SSDs, and buy the ones that best suit your capacity and performance needs while working within your budget.

One SSD or Two?

Tempo SSD's unique modular design enables installation of a single SSD in half length card spaces, or expand to two SSDs in a full length card space when the included extension plate is attached to the card.

Optimized for Thunderbolt™, RED Rocket Companions

Got a Thunderbolt connection, but no PCIe slot? Tempo SSD is ideal for use in one of OWC's Mercury Helios, Sonnet's Echo Express, or the xMac mini Server-the combo enables you to add high-speed SSDs to iMac®, Mac® mini, MacBook® Air, and MacBook Pro computers!

If you're a RED Rocket user, you already know that the card takes up two PCIe slots; one for the card itself and another for the HD-SDI bracket with two BNC connectors. The Tempo SSD card includes an optional PCIe bracket with openings that supports the installation of the BNC connectors. Just move the BNC connectors to the optional bracket, swap the Tempo SSD card's attached bracket with the optional bracket, and then you can use both the Rocket and Tempo SSD card without requiring a third slot. With this combination of cards plus the Echo Express Pro chassis, you'll have a high-performance transcoding station, with fast mezzanine storage in a single, compact and portable package. Tempo SSD offers a fresh twist on high-performance storage connectivity.

This Card Adds:

Up to two Internal SATA Hard Drive Bays

Requires:

Available PCIe Slot

See specifications below for system and/or OS compatibility information

Highlights

Mounts one or two high-performance 6 Gb/s SSDs (sold separately) in your Mac Pro's, desktop PC's, or Thunderbolt expansion chassis' PCIe slot
PCI Express 2.0 x2 host bus interface for high-performance applications
Great performance with data transfers speeds up to 660 MB/sec
Unique modular design enables installation of a single SSD in half length card spaces, two SSDs in full length card space when extension plate is attached to the card
Optimized for maximum performance over Thunderbolt-perfect for use in OWC's Mercury Helios, Sonnet's Echo Express, and xMac mini Server Thunderbolt expansion products
Supports OS X and Windows RAID features
Included optional PCIe bracket supports installation of BNC connectors like those used with the RED Rocket
Supports booting from attached drives under Microsoft Windows 7, and Mac OS X
AHCI compliant-no drivers required
Supports S.M.A.R.T. data reporting
Sonnet Technology 1 Year Limited Warranty

SPECS
GALLERY
COMPATIBILITY
INCLUDES
RATINGS

Product Specifications:

Manufacturer Part Number

TSATA6-SSD-E2

Ports

Up to two Internal SATA Hard Drive Bays¹

Connections

Internal - Up to 2 Devices

Bus Specifications

PCI Express

Form Factor

PCIe

Data Transfer Rate

Up to 660 MB/s

RAID Functionality

OS dependent

Drives Supported

SATA 6 Gb/s, SATA 3 Gb/s, and SATA 1.5 Gb/s

Boot Support

Single SSD or up to six SSDs in a RAID 0:
- Mac Pro 3,1 (early 2008 and newer)²
- Any Thunderbolt Mac³
Single SSD only:
- Windows 7, 8, or Server 2012 PCs

Advanced Features

Supports S.M.A.R.T. status data reporting

Operating System Support

Mac OS X 10.6.8+
Mac OS X Server 10.6.8+
Windows® 7
Windows Vista®

External Connectivity

None

Internal Connectivity

2x SATA HDD bay¹

Hot Plug Support

Hot Swap Support

Agency Approvals & Compliance

RoHS

Warranty

Sonnet Technology 1 Year Limited Warranty

Notes

SSDs sold separately
Cards with a serial number starting with "B" or later support booting OS X from attached SSDs out of the box. A card with a serial number starting with "A" may be upgraded to support booting OS X from attached SSDs by updating its firmware using the firmware updater.
Does not currently boot a Mac with Thunderbolt 2. Sonnet is working to identify the issue.

Manufacturer provided specifications for Sonnet Technologies p/n TSATA6-SSD-E2 UPC#: 732311009181

Gallery

This product is compatible with... Learn how to find your Mac's model ID

Mac Pro 4-core (Mid 2006)

(August, 2006)

Model ID: MacPro1,1

2.0GHz, 2.66GHz, 3.0GHz

Detailed specs

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Mac Pro 8-core (Early 2007)

(April, 2007)

Model ID: MacPro2,1

3.0GHz

Detailed specs

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Mac Pro 4-Core (Early 2008)

(January, 2008)

Model ID: MacPro3,1

2.8GHz

Detailed specs

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Mac Pro 8-Core (Early 2008)

(January, 2008)

Model ID: MacPro3,1

2.8GHz, 3.0GHz, 3.2GHz

Detailed specs

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Mac Pro 4-Core (Early 2009)

(March, 2009)

Model ID: MacPro4,1

2.66GHz, 2.93GHz, 3.33GHz

Detailed specs

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Mac Pro 8-Core (Early 2009)

(March, 2009)

Model ID: MacPro4,1

2.26GHz, 2.66GHz, 2.93GHz

Detailed specs

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Mac Pro 12-Core (Mid 2012)

(June, 2012)

Model ID: MacPro5,1

2.4GHz, 2.66GHz, 3.06GHz

Detailed specs

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Mac Pro 6-Core (Mid 2012)

(June, 2012)

Model ID: MacPro5,1

3.33GHz

Detailed specs

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Mac Pro 4-Core (Mid 2012)

(June, 2012)

Model ID: MacPro5,1

3.2GHz

Detailed specs

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Mac Pro 12-Core (Mid 2010)

(July, 2010)

Model ID: MacPro5,1

2.66GHz, 2.93GHz

Detailed specs

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Mac Pro 8-Core (Mid 2010)

(July, 2010)

Model ID: MacPro5,1

2.4GHz

Detailed specs

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Mac Pro 6-Core (Mid 2010)

(July, 2010)

Model ID: MacPro5,1

3.33GHz

Detailed specs

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Mac Pro 4-Core (Mid 2010)

(July, 2010)

Model ID: MacPro5,1

2.8GHz, 3.2GHz

Detailed specs

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Power Mac G5 (Late 2005)

(October, 2005)

Model ID: PowerMac11,2

2.0GHz, 2.3GHz, dual 2.5GHz

Detailed specs

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PC Desktops

Compatible with Intel / AMD Process based PCs capable with the specifications listed above. Memory complies with JEDEC Specifications, document JESD79-3B.

Includes

Tempo SSD 6Gb/s SATA PCIe 2.0 Drive Card for SSDs
Extension plate (for mounting second SSD)
Plate and drive mounting screws
Optional PCIe bracket
Documentation

Note: SSDs sold separately

Customer Ratings

Write a Review 4 / 5 1 out of 1 (100%) reviewers would recommend this product

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Chipss36 Location: Texas Age: 55-65 Experience Level: Power User Owned Product: over 6 months

Rating: 5/5 It’s working on 5,1 on Catalina. May 31, 2020 Not sure what happened the first time I tried this card, I lost my boot screen. And was going to return it, but forgot to... After updating my 5,1 to Catalina, thought I would try again, updated the card firmware first , then tried my windows10 drive, that did not work, drive not found, so installed my Catalina and Mojave disks. two drives fit in the 5,1 , but it’s tight, they show up as removable drives, but I can now boot to all three os systems. My boot screen works. Writes are around 500, reads around 530, made for a nice speed increase in my old Mac Pro, over the drive sleds.

I would recommend this item to a friend! Customer Videos:

Verified Buyer

Reviewer: Anonymous Location: Hong Kong Age: 25-34 Experience Level: Home User Owned Product: less than a month

Rating: 4/5 This card is bootable for Mac Pro March 30, 2014 The original 640G HDD in my Mac Pro 4,1 is considered very slow now. So I bought a Samsung 840 Evo 1T SSD and connect it to the SATA 2 port via the 2nd DVD slot. However, with this configuration, I can only get half of it's speed (Blackmagic shows about 240 write and 250 read). So I decided to get a Tempo SSD to expend my Mac's capability.

I contact the OWC online support staff and ask them if this card bootable. The answer is yes, but only in a thunderbolt chassis configuration. That means I cannot install the card inside my Mac Pro's and make it bootable (they are actually wrong) . So, I gave up this option for a while.

Few days later, I downloaded the user manual from Sonnet website. It clearly state that the card is bootable in a Mac Pro 2009 out of the box, provided that the serial number of the card start from letter "B" (new revision). And the "A" revision card will be bootable after a firmware upgrade.

So, I order this card with another 7950 graphic card. I choose the cheapest DHL option, both cards reach my home in 3 days. By considering I live in East Asia, this is a very reasonable speed.

Right after I've submitted my order, I contacted the OWC online staff again and try to manage to get a new revision card. It's because risk always exist during firmware upgrade. If anything goes wrong during the upgrade process, ship the card back from Asia will cost me extra money and time. However, the answer from OWC is no choice to get which card because they won't check the serial number for customers. Since either card should be bootable at the end, so I keep my order.

When I was waiting for my card, I contact Sonnet support and get a email to confirm that no driver or firmware upgrade will be required for revision B card if running 10.9.2. I should able to put my current SSD on it and boot my Mac straight away.

Once the card arrived, I double check it is the new revision card. Then I install everything as per the manual. Unluckily, my Mac can't boot from the card.

I move the card to another PICe slot, nil help.

I boot my Mac from the old HDD (no matter OSX or recovery partition), then select the SSD as the start up disk from preferences (it shows up as a bootable partition there). Nil help.

Study the manual. Nothing there.

So, I decided to upgrade the firmware (which should be totally unnecessary) before I try to refund or put it on the shelf.

The firmware upgrade is simple. Download the software from Sonnet's website, run it, restart as per the on screen instruction, confirm and wait for a few seconds.

After this action, the card finally works as per the manufacture's claim.

I can choose the OSX or the recovery partition from the boot screen. The Blackmagic now shows 440 write and 500 read. Trim supported.

The only downside of using this card is the booting time (white screen time) will be greatly affected. I guess the Mac Pro need about 30-45 seconds to initialise this PCIe card, it basically offset all the boot up speed gain from the SSD. However, once the Apple logo appear, the desktop shows up in 5 seconds. All disk operation is lightning fast.

Since I never shutdown my computer, and only reboot few times per month. So this penalty is virtual nothing for me.

May be most of the people can't feel any differences with or without this card, but I am still happy to extract more performance from my relatively expensive SSD (compare to this card) and have more SATA slots for future use.

I would recommend this item to a friend!

Sonnet Technologies Tempo™ SSD 6Gb/s SATA PCIe 2.5" SSD Host Adapter Mfr P/N: TSATA6-SSD-E2 OWC SKU: STITSATA6SSDE Mount one or two high-performance 6Gb/s SSDs in your Mac Pro, desktop PC, or Thunderbolt PCIe expansion chassis. Sonnet Technologies 1 Year Limited Warranty Ships: Same Day

Reviews (1)

Only ~~$149.95~~OWC Price $99.00

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