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 couple of great alternatives—Tempo™ SSD and Tempo SSD Pro. They're fast 6Gb/s SATA PCI Express adapter cards that enable 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 and Tempo SSD Pro use 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. Because 2.5" SSDs are readily available, you're not tied to one retailer or SSD manufacturer should you decide to upgrade to larger, faster SSDs.
Tempo SSD: Includes extension plate to support the additon of a second SSD and PCIe bracket with openings for BNC connectors. The optional PCIe bracket supports the installation of two BNC connectors for HD-SDI output.
Tempo SSD Pro is a full-length, full-height card to which you can install two SSDs; if you've got the space and need the best performance possible, this is the card for you. This Sonnet solution also supports OS X® or Windows® RAID features. The card uses a faster 6Gb/s SATA controller chipset and PCIe 2.0 x4 interface to deliver read speeds up to 960 MB/s from a pair of SSDs configured as a RAID 0 set. Like the Tempo SSD, AHCI compliance ensures installation of the card is simple—attach your SSDs with provided screws, mount the card in an available PCIe slot, and turn on your computer—the necessary drivers are installed automatically. Drive health monitoring is supported through S.M.A.R.T. data reporting. This card is backed with Sonnet's Pro 5-year warranty.
Got a Thunderbolt connection, but no PCIe slot? Tempo SSD and Tempo SSD Pro are ideal for use in one of Sonnet's Echo™ Express chassis or thexMac™ 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. Both Tempo cards include 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 and Tempo SSD Pro offer a fresh twist on high-performance storage connectivity.