Native PCIe-based SATA II host adapter

NitroAV.com on Friday released NitroAV SATAStar Plus, a new host adapter for Macs that delivers 3Gb/sec SATA II performance. The company says the card is "the industry’s first" native PCIe chipset based 4-Port external host adapter and that it is specifically designed for the ultra fast PCIe bus on Apple's high-end MacPro desktops and PowerMac G5 PCIe-based desktop computers (as well as compatible Windows and Linux systems). The 4-Port PCIe provides maximum bandwidth for data throughput with its native PCIe host connection. Leveraging the Silicon Image 3132 chipset, it is compatible with 4x, 8x and 16x PCIe slots.

"The 4-Port PCIe host adapter is designed for optimum performance and reliability required for large data storage needs as well as digital audio, digital video and graphic professionals alike," the company said. "For video professionals this SATAStar Plus adapter supports 10-bit uncompressed HD, 8-bit uncompressed HD, DV, HDV, DVPRO HD, 8-bit and 10-bit SD video workflow."

The card offers sustainable transfer rates -- with four drives OS stripped and utilizing AJA KONA Systems Test -- exceeding 295Mb/s reads and 301Mb/s writes sustained; it is even faster with larger number of drives, the company noted.

The 4-Port NitroAV SATAStar Plus eSATA II PCIe Host Adapter is $130; it supports multiple RAID levels as well as port multipliers.