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Newertech releases eSATA extenders

Written by Jacob Head

Friday, 20 April 2007

April 19, 2007, Woodstock, IL -- Newer Technology, Inc. (NewerTech) http://www.newertech.com , the leading developer of PC, Macintosh and iPod performance upgrades and accessories, announced today the NewerTech eSATA Extender Cable for Mac Pro 8-Core/Quad-Core computers. The NewerTech eSATA Extender Cable is the first extender cable available on the market that offers Mac Pro owners the ability to utilize the two unused internal SATA ports on the motherboard and add up to two external eSATA devices to run up to 6 hard drives or other devices on your Mac Pro!

"Perfect Fit Solution" Expands Mac Pro Capabilities
The NewerTech eSATA Extender Cable is specifically and thoroughly engineered to be a "Perfect Fit Solution," so it accurately and properly routes inside a Mac Pro case. Users can connect any two SATA-I or SATA-II devices to expand their data storage configuration. A step-by step illustrated installation manual is included to make set-up easy.

NewerTech eSATA Extender Cable Features:

• First Mac Pro eSATA port expansion cable available on the market.
• Provides ability to run external eSATA devices with Mac Pro 8-Core and Quad-Core models.
• "Perfect Fit Solution" for proper and accurate cable routing.
• Enables connection of any two SATA-I or SATA-II devices.
• Full color, photo illustrated, step-by-step installation manual.

The NewerTech eSATA Extender Cable is priced at $24.95 MSRP and is available immediately from NewerTech's exclusive distributor, Other World Computing, as well as through the retail channel. For more information, see http://www.newertech.com/products/esata_cable.php .

PHOTOS:
eSATA Extender Cable Photo at:
http://www.thomas-pr.com/136/photos/newertechesataphoto.html
http://www.thomas-pr.com/136/photos/newertechesatamacphoto.html

Comments (2)

	22-08-2008 18:38
	Well, turns out I was wrong. My LaCie drive was defective, the eSATA on the drive's controller didn't work right. LaCie has repaired the drive, and now I wish to apologize to Newer Tech. Guest

Rob

	22-07-2008 11:49
	I went ahead and purchased the Newer Tech eSATA extender, and actually went through the entire process to the book. Besides one troublesome screw that kept falling during the reassembly, it was really pretty easy and quick, plus I learned a lot about the innards of my early 2008 Mac Pro. Now for the bad news. My Mac crashes every time I try to start it connected to a farily new LaCie external (with current firmware). The drive is powered on before the computer (as it has to be), and the drive works flawlessly with FW400. But no luck with the eSATA connection. I figured I would call the Newer Tech support line, and was very disappointed with the support. Newer Tech treats the product as cable, not an eSATA solution (too bad all the articles make you think of this product as a solution). So as long as the cable is functioning, that's where Newer Tech ends the tech support. Of course, Apple does not support the use of these SATA ports, so there is no turning to Apple for advice, or having any reason to assume they might fix any issues on their end. And how can you start blaming the external drive manufacturer, when you're trying to connect their drive to a full on hack, rather than an official and supported eSATA port? Upon a little further research, there seems to be scores of people complaining on various boards about problems with eSATA and their Leopard macs (to be fair, there are also people having no problems). There's talk of various chipsets, etc used in the external drives, some of which don't work right. But it's a whole can of worms I wasn't expecting, and I don't think any of the product reviews prepare you for these types of potential roadblocks. On top of that, I've seen a FW800 vs. eSATA speed test that showed a drive connected with eSATA was just barely faster than with FW800... So, at this juncture, I would NOT recommend the Newer Technology extender cable to most users, unless you are very knowledgeable about eSATA and feel confident your external drives will play nice with the unsupported Apple SATA ports. I actually plan to post this review in multiple locations as a public service. Guest

Rob

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