eSATA and/or Firewire 800|400 card, cardbus or expresscard 54mm

[parv at pair.com]

Hi there,

Currently I am using FreeBSD 6-STABLE/i386 on Thinkpad T61 laptop[0],
which has 3 USB ports, and vertically combined PC card & 54mm
ExpressCard slot(s).

My current SATA hard disk is going to fill soon.  On soon to be
acquired SATA hard disk[1], I will try first 7-STABLE (and later
8.x).  To continue to be able to reliably[2] use one of the SATA
hard drives, I am looking for suggestions for a eSATA, or Firewire
800 or 400 card either be cardbus or ExpressCard type.

How do the multiports (eSATA with USB sometimes, along with Firewire
[48]00 ports) cards workout?

Is the support for either eSATA or Firewire cards equivalent in
6-STABLE & 7-STABLE?

I am in Hawaii if that matters (well, it does in terms of shipping &
return; so Amazon.com would be my first place to check).


  - Parv


  [0] http://www103.pair.com/parv/comp/unix/freebsd/thinkpad-t61-8897-cto/sys/

  [1] One of Hitachi 5k500 or 5k320 320GB SATA, or WD Scorpio Blue
      320GB or 500GB SATA-ii.

  [2] I had tried an external USB ATA hard disk enclosure (Vantec
      Nexstar) and an USB/SATA hard disk adapter with my older T41
      ATA drive.  During heavy activity over USB connection, FreeBSD
      6.[12] panics using any of the two. AFAIR, I had tried with
      both [ue]hci drivers.

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