Connect a Full-height, Half-length+ PCIe Card (Plus One Daughter Card) to Computers with Thunderbolt 2 Ports
Ultra-light notebooks, small form factor and all-in-one Mac®, Windows®(1) and Linux® computers are slender, and frequently offer a lot of processing power, but thinness comes with a cost—there’s nowhere for you to install PCIe cards for the additional connectivity and processing capabilities beyond what’s offered by a computer’s standard ports. Sonnet’s Echo™ Express SE I is a compact, desktop Thunderbolt™ 2 to PCIe card expansion system that fixes that issue, enabling you to connect a single PCIe card to any computer with Thunderbolt 2 ports.
This compact desktop expansion system supports one professional PCIe card (video capture, audio interface, 6Gb or 12Gb SAS or SATA host bus adapter, 8Gb or 16Gb Fibre Channel, 10Gb Ethernet, or RAID controller) and connects it to your computer through a single Thunderbolt 2 cable.
Use a high-performance PCIe card with any computer with a Thunderbolt 2 port.
Supports one half-length+ (up to 7.75 inches long), full-height, single-width PCIe card (plus one daughter card).
Full Thunderbolt 2 performance; backward compatible with 10Gbps Thunderbolt.
Takes up little space on the desktop, but large enough to support nearly every Thunderbolt-compatible PCIe card, at full performance.
One port connects to computer; second port supports daisy-chaining of up to five additional Thunderbolt peripheral devices.
Temperature-controlled, variable-speed fan automatically and quietly cools the card.
Powers on/off automatically with the computer.
Provides robust and secure protection.
Daisy chain port provides up to 10W of power to connected peripherals.
Compatible with M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max Macs (with PCIe cards that have M1 compatible drivers).
Compatible with Intel® Macs with Thunderbolt 3 ports, and Thunderbolt 2 ports (with adapter and Thunderbolt 2 cable, both sold separately); and Windows computers with Thunderbolt 4 and Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Compatible with Linux computers with Thunderbolt 4 and Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Designed to accommodate cards up to 7.75 inches long, and measuring a compact 5.6 inches wide by 8.6 inches long by 3.5 inches tall, the Echo Express SE I has a small footprint, yet it is large enough to support nearly every Thunderbolt-compatible PCIe 3.0, PCIe 2.0, and PCIe 1.1 card available. Do you have a card in mind but aren’t sure it’s compatible? We’ve put together a list in our supporting PCIe Card Thunderbolt Compatibility Chart (PDF). There you’ll find cards identified as conforming to Thunderbolt technology requirements, and organized by fit and power compatibility with specific expansion system.
Echo Express SE I features an x8 PCIe slot, and supports one half-length+, full-height, single- or double-width PCIe card. Double-width? Some pro video and audio interface cards, such as Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink 4K Extreme, and RME’s HDSPe MADI FX card, include a daughter card that mates with and provides additional external connections to the main card. The daughter card occupies the adjacent space without filling a PCIe slot.
1. Space for a daughter card
2. PCIe 2.0 x8 slot
Sonnet includes a 1-meter Thunderbolt 2 cable and a Sonnet ThunderLok™ Thunderbolt connector retainer clip(2) to prevent accidental cable disconnections—just slide it over one end of the cable, and then plug in the connector and secure it to the chassis by turning a thumbscrew. Because of its unique design, ThunderLok remains on the cable so it won’t get lost when not in use.
Thunderbolt 2 cable secured to enclosure with ThunderLok
Echo Express SE I features 20Gbps Thunderbolt 2 which provides ample bandwidth for many of the most demanding, highest performance PCIe cards, and incorporates support for the DisplayPort 1.2 protocol which enables video streaming to a 4K video monitor. While the SEL delivers maximum performance when connected to a computer with Thunderbolt 2 ports, it is also fully compatible with computers with 10Gbps Thunderbolt, supporting most cards at full-performance.
The original 10Gbps Thunderbolt interface provided breakthrough bandwidth for external expansion, more than sufficient to support the maximum performance of most PCIe cards. However, some high bandwidth adapters such as 16Gb Fibre Channel cards, multi-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet cards, and other bandwidth-hungry cards require more than 10Gbps. Thunderbolt 2 removes this barrier by providing more bandwidth for demanding applications.
If you already purchased an Echo Express SE I (Thunderbolt 2), Sonnet offers a Thunderbolt 3 upgrade card – the upgrade is as simple as switching a PCIe card in the chassis.
If you’re in the market for a Thunderbolt 3 to PCIe card expansion system, the Echo Express SE I is also available.
