I have an HP ex490 MediaSmart server that I need to expand the storage in. I already have an Addonics Storage Tower (http://www.addonics.com/products/st.php) that I can reuse for this purpose. Unfortunately, the storage tower is currently configured with 6 individual eSata ports. I would like to use 5 drives in the storage tower connected over a single eSata link to the port multiplier in the ex490. The three backpanel port multipliers that Addonics offers are
AD5HPMREU - (5-Port HPM -XU, eSATA/USB 3.0)
Chipset: JMicron JM393
http://www.addonics.com/products/ad5hpmreu.php

AD5HPMRXA-E - (5-Port HPM with RAID 5, enclosure ver.)
Chipset: JMicron JMB393
http://www.addonics.com/products/ad5hpmrxa-e.php

AD5SAHPM-EA - (5 SATA - 1 eSATA HPM, no RAID 5)
Chipset: Sil4726
http://www.addonics.com/products/ad5sahpm-ea.php

Does anyone have any experience using these port mulipliers with the eSata port on the ex490 which uses a SiL 3726?

Hi cycleback and welcome to the forums!

When you say you already have an Addonics Storage Tower, have you tried to use this with the EX490? The EX490's eSATA port will support up to five drives in a single enclosure. You said you have a tower but it is configured with 6 ports--do you mean 6 drive bays? The tower you linked (st.php) shows as being a 4-bay storage tower.

My recommendation would be to poke around the forums here and see what folks are using and what has worked. If you're a fan of Addonics and want to use their gear, you could always order a 5-bay model and hook it up to your EX490 and see what happens. If it doesn't work, you could always return it--so check the return policy before you order!

If you're open to other options, a good case to consider is the Rosewill RSV-S4-X (http://www.rosewill.com/products/1503/P ... erview.htm) My wife got me one of these this past Christmas, and I loaded it up with 4 x Hitachi Deathstar 2 TB 7200 RPM drives in a Drive Bender pool (WHS 2011). It works perfectly, and is blazing fast for my media streaming demands. Several folks here use this same enclosure, and its closely related (if not identical) sibling, the Sans Digital TR4M-b. Some folks have indicated in the threads that the enclosure seems to "lose" all of the drives. I personally have not had this issue; I installed the latest available Windows 7 64-bit SiI driver for the SiI 3726 card and it works flawlessly. The enclosure has never dropped once on me, and that thing has already done a LOT of I/O.

Since the RSV came with a 2-port eSATA card, I dropped that into a desktop that doubles as my Exchange server and hooked up a couple of external SATA drives to it.

_________________
Matt Sawyer
Owner, Dojo North Software, LLC

HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups

Thanks for the welcome. The Addonics Storage Tower can be configured very flexibly and the I/O options changed through swapping the back panel. The current storage tower I have has 6 individual eSata ports but no port multiplier, Model ST6ESA. The various I/O options the back panel can be configured with are shown at the following:

http://www.addonics.com/products/diagra ... _large.jpg

I hope to put a 5 drive hot swap bay in the tower and change the back I/O panel to a 5 disk port multiplier but before I spend the money on the port multiplier I would like to have some hope that it is going to work.

Hi all

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread but can anyone tell me where I can get the driver mentioned by MSAWYER91. I have searched for it on the Internet to no avail.

This is the only thing I could fine on a quick google search, my drivers are for a different number (3531).
http://www.solvusoft.com/en/update/drivers/processor/silicon-image/sii3726/sub-models/
This page looks a little dicey so no guarantees.

P.S. When I was playing with 2011 I used the driver at the bottom of this page:
http://www.drivers-download.com/en/downloadlist.php?id=153

I can search more later unless somebody comes up with it.

Good Luck

_________________
[X510 CPU/RAM/All 2 TB Red's] [X510 CPU/Sync'ed Backup/All 2 TB Hitachi's]
[X510 /2 in box]
[X710 LIAN LI DIY W2016E] Stablebit Drivepool [EX-503 LIAN LI 5-bay USB3 External]
Fear the Cloud

Thanks for the tip. I am running WHS 2011 and the "MS Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000/Server 2003-2008 64bit v1.5.20.1" drivers for SIL3531 in the link you provided worked fine.

Awesome! Glad to hear they still work, I know many are still looking at whs 2011..
Good Luck and enjoy

_________________
[X510 CPU/RAM/All 2 TB Red's] [X510 CPU/Sync'ed Backup/All 2 TB Hitachi's]
[X510 /2 in box]
[X710 LIAN LI DIY W2016E] Stablebit Drivepool [EX-503 LIAN LI 5-bay USB3 External]
Fear the Cloud