Sonnet USB 3.0/FireWire 800 Combo PCI Express Card
Product ID: 4094429
Details
- BrandSonnet
- Global Trade Identification Number
- Hardware InterfacePCI
- StyleClassic
- UPC732311009433
desertcart.com: Sonnet USB 3.0/FireWire 800 Combo PCI Express Card : Electronics Review: Well built, works in Macs with no additional kexts - The usual Sonnet-quality product. Provides 3 Firewire 800 and 4 USB 3.0 (2 from board bracket, 2 from accessory USB 3.0 bracket or computer case front panel USB 3.0 connectors). The photo is incorrect in that it shows a board with no external power connector but the actual board does have the required 4 pin Molex power connector. The board has a Fresco Logic FL1100-1Q0 integrated circuit for the USB3 interface and an LSI L-FW643E2-F39G integrated circuit for the Firewire interface. Interface to the PCIe bus is handled by a Pericon Semi PI7C9X2G 304SLAFDE PCIe Gen 2 integrated circuit to interface with the motherboard's PCIe bus for a pure PCIe connection, unlike TI chipset-based boards which use a PCI-to-PCIe bridge chip to interface to the motherboard's PCIe bus. This board works in hackintoshes with no additional kexts (tested in OS X 10.8.x), except Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H motherboards, which appear to have a BIOS issue that prevents all boards with the LSI/Agere Firewire integrated circuit from working properly. Expensive, but works very well and provides both Firewire 800 and USB3.0 interfaces in one PCIe board. Review: Overpriced and took down my 4TB! Beware of restocking fees and slow refunds! - On a 2013 Mac Pro Tower, Mountain Lion Mac OSX. Get this instead, 1/2 the price, no return issues and worked without a hiccup: The Inateck 4 Ports PCI-E to USB 3.0 Expansion Card for Mac Pro. I got this after and was a great solution. When I received it, I installed the card and restarted with drives connected. My striped 4TB RAID drive came up with the message "Initialize this device, unreadable by this Mac" instead of mounting and I was using it minutes before, working flawlessly. Unfixable, destroy the remaining data by reformatting or start restoring files. I had to get special RAID restore software and started that 2 week process. The USB 3.0 read/write was under standard for speed with the correct cables, when benchmarked it came up at about 75%, of average for 3.0 and yes, I know about Mac and USB 3.0 dropping to slower speeds. The Firewire didn't work at all until after weeks of trying drivers, etc. When I finally got the Firewire to see the drives, data transfer averaged at about 50% of FW 800. On boot the screen would flash brightly before starting up with this card in the PCIe slot. Anyway, $100 for the card, $100 for the RAID drive rescue and restore software, a 15-25% restocking fee... I'm guessing $25, about 25 hours of work (priceless time) restoring my system and about $5.00 postage to return it. This thing cost me $230 to try it since I haven't gotten my money back yet either. That's the absolute worst thing: I have had this card returned for a week or two and I still can't seem to get them to process the return! Where's my money? Way below my average desertcart experience. Not worthy of the association with them.
| ASIN | B00FKYFVR8 |
| Brand | Sonnet |
| Customer Reviews | 4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars (5) |
| Global Trade Identification Number | 00732311009433 |
| Hardware Interface | PCI |
| Manufacturer | Eizo Nanao Tech |
| Model Number | FW8USB3-E |
| Operating System | Windows |
| Style Name | Classic |
| UPC | 732311009433 |
J**K
Well built, works in Macs with no additional kexts
The usual Sonnet-quality product. Provides 3 Firewire 800 and 4 USB 3.0 (2 from board bracket, 2 from accessory USB 3.0 bracket or computer case front panel USB 3.0 connectors). The photo is incorrect in that it shows a board with no external power connector but the actual board does have the required 4 pin Molex power connector. The board has a Fresco Logic FL1100-1Q0 integrated circuit for the USB3 interface and an LSI L-FW643E2-F39G integrated circuit for the Firewire interface. Interface to the PCIe bus is handled by a Pericon Semi PI7C9X2G 304SLAFDE PCIe Gen 2 integrated circuit to interface with the motherboard's PCIe bus for a pure PCIe connection, unlike TI chipset-based boards which use a PCI-to-PCIe bridge chip to interface to the motherboard's PCIe bus. This board works in hackintoshes with no additional kexts (tested in OS X 10.8.x), except Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H motherboards, which appear to have a BIOS issue that prevents all boards with the LSI/Agere Firewire integrated circuit from working properly. Expensive, but works very well and provides both Firewire 800 and USB3.0 interfaces in one PCIe board.
C**.
Overpriced and took down my 4TB! Beware of restocking fees and slow refunds!
On a 2013 Mac Pro Tower, Mountain Lion Mac OSX. Get this instead, 1/2 the price, no return issues and worked without a hiccup: The Inateck 4 Ports PCI-E to USB 3.0 Expansion Card for Mac Pro. I got this after and was a great solution. When I received it, I installed the card and restarted with drives connected. My striped 4TB RAID drive came up with the message "Initialize this device, unreadable by this Mac" instead of mounting and I was using it minutes before, working flawlessly. Unfixable, destroy the remaining data by reformatting or start restoring files. I had to get special RAID restore software and started that 2 week process. The USB 3.0 read/write was under standard for speed with the correct cables, when benchmarked it came up at about 75%, of average for 3.0 and yes, I know about Mac and USB 3.0 dropping to slower speeds. The Firewire didn't work at all until after weeks of trying drivers, etc. When I finally got the Firewire to see the drives, data transfer averaged at about 50% of FW 800. On boot the screen would flash brightly before starting up with this card in the PCIe slot. Anyway, $100 for the card, $100 for the RAID drive rescue and restore software, a 15-25% restocking fee... I'm guessing $25, about 25 hours of work (priceless time) restoring my system and about $5.00 postage to return it. This thing cost me $230 to try it since I haven't gotten my money back yet either. That's the absolute worst thing: I have had this card returned for a week or two and I still can't seem to get them to process the return! Where's my money? Way below my average Amazon experience. Not worthy of the association with them.
O**T
Four Stars
Still working, years later.
M**Y
Versatile
I originally bought this to add Firewire/IEEE1394 capability to an ASUS/Cooler Master tower I built in 2013 running Win 7 (now Win 10). Lately Firewire is no longer needed (it's obsolete anyway) and I observed when updating a Mac Pro with a set of USB 3.0 ports, the interface was similar (PCIe 2.0) and so popped it into the 2008 Mac Pro Now it has two more USB 3.0 ports, and I don't need the power adapter. The Pro was notorious for a lack of USB
F**Y
Wonderfully Uneventful
Given that my hackintosh had only one free PCIe slot, I was looking for the impossible. And here it came! The first one I ordered from a dodgy outfit came all wrong, namely as a Tango 2. Be careful, these Tango 3s are in short supply. I then ordered directly from the maker. Plugged it into my MSI motherboard with its i5 CPU running OsX 10.8.4, and that was it. It just worked. I got a panel mount dual USB 3.0 bracket to plug into the blue header on the card. I also got some 9 pin/6 pin Firewire cables, and one 9 pin/4 pin for my camcorder. On one card you thus get 3 Firewire 800 ports, 2 USB 3.0 ports, and another 2 on the bracket you connect to the blue header. I haven't had any events, or panics, or anything. It just works. Not surprising, given the top notch new chips they used for maximum compatibility.
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