• Overview
  • Tech Specs
  • Performance
  • Accessories
  • Reviews

Remarkable Performance, Diminutive Package

Fusion F2 with MacBook ProSpeed, reliability, ruggedness, and convenience—these are the essential qualities of a storage system for on-location video capture. When you need to travel light, choose a Sonnet Fusion F2 portable SATA RAID storage system. Providing 1.5TB(1) of storage in a small enclosure, Fusion F2 uses two eSATA connections to deliver the fastest performance yet from a 2-drive portable storage system, with data transfer rates up to twice as fast as FireWire®. By connecting Fusion F2 through a SATA host adapter like Sonnet’s Tempo™ SATA Pro ExpressCard/34, or to Sonnet’s Qio™ Professional Universal Media Reader, your notebook’s FireWire 800 port is left open for use by an AJA® Video Systems ioHD, which requires dedicated use of FireWire bandwidth. Fusion F2 is cool, quiet, and energy-efficient: side-by-side placement of its drives increases the metal case’s cooling surface area, thereby eliminating the need for a fan, and allowing it to be bus-powered so it can be used even when no grid power is available.

RAID to Go

Fusion F2 In HandConnected to the Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34 eSATA adapter installed in a MacBook® Pro, and with its drives configured as a RAID 0 striped volume, the compact Fusion F2 is capable of sustained read and write data transfers at up to 200 MB/s, fast enough to handle multiple streams of ProRes 422 (HQ). Compared to the slower 66 MB/s performance from a pair of drives connected via FireWire 800, the advantage is clear—Fusion F2 provides you the capability to capture and play more streams of compressed video for field editing. With its drives configured as a RAID 1 mirrored volume, Fusion F2 still can capture Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) HD fed from an AJA ioHD. This protected mode also enables you to safely transfer data from Panasonic® P2, Sony® SxS Pro, or similar memory cards in the field. Verifying captured footage on a MacBook Pro/Fusion F2 system will provide you the peace of mind to erase and reuse cards on location.

Two Data Connections

Fusion F2 features two 3 Gb/s eSATA data ports. By connecting via a direct SATA interface with no bridge chip between the F2’s case and SATA drives, there is no resulting communication slowdown, just the fastest data transfers possible.

Flexible Power Options

Fusion F2 can be powered by your computer through a spare FireWire(2) port using an included adapter cable. Alternatively, you can power the F2 by connecting it directly to Sonnet’s Qio with an included 15cm (6") power cable. For longer field work, the F2 is also compatible with all models of myPower ALL batteries from Tekkeon at an 8-19V setting. Sonnet recommends model MP3450i, which at a 56 Watt-hour capacity, should provide up to 9 hours of F2 run time. Other power options include another FireWire device, powered hub, or Sonnet’s optional World Travel Power Adapter.

Driving Force

Fusion F2 employs two 750GB, 7,200 RPM 2.5" mobile hard drives that offer an optimal balance between speed, power consumption, and reliability. Sonnet chose these high-performance drives because they offer greater areal density than other mobile hard drives (pack more data per platter), use the 3 Gb/s SATA interface, and deliver astonishing performance. Simply put, they are the fastest 2.5" mobile hard disk drives available today. Fusion F2’s drives are also extremely quiet and very rugged, making the Fusion F2 a great travel companion for your mobile studio.

 

Key Features

Ultra-Portable—Two 2.5" SATA drives mounted side-by-side inside a 5.9" x 6.2" x 0.72" aluminum case are bus-powered for the ultimate in portability

Remarkably Fast—With its drives formatted as a RAID 0 volume, Fusion F2 delivers sustained data transfer rates up to 190MB/s read and write, more than twice as fast as a pair of FireWire 800 drives

Field Video Certified—With its SATA data interface, Fusion F2 is the perfect storage companion for a portable video capture system that may saturate a notebook’s FireWire bus

Rugged and Reliable—Both of F2’s drives are individually shock-isolated, virtually eliminating cross-coupled vibration, which, unchecked, can induce soft errors—a potential source of skipped frames

Cool and Quiet—Because of its efficient fanless design, if not for the cool blue LEDs, you may not even know that Fusion F2 was running

Complete Package—Carrying case, eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 800 to 400 and USB 2.0 cables included

Wide Host Controller Card Compatibility—Compatible with Sonnet's full line of Tempo PCIe and ExpressCard/34 host controllers; also compatible with Sonnet’s Qio Professional Universal Media Reader

Cross Platform Compatibility—Supports Mac® and Windows®, and Linux computers

Shadow

Qio Companion

Fusion F2 with QioFusion F2 is the perfect storage solution for Sonnet’s award-winning Qio Professional Universal Media Reader. Sharing the same compact footprint, the F2 and Qio can be stacked on top of each other. You can even connect the F2 directly to the Qio using the short cables included in the package to keep cable clutter to a minimum and eliminate the need for a separate power source for the F2.

Rugged for a Reason

Fusion F2 was devised as a high-performance, high-reliability alternative to existing portable drive solutions. Encased inside a thick aluminum shell, each of Fusion F2’s drives is individually shock-isolated, not only protecting the drives during transport, but also virtually eliminating cross-coupled vibration—a potential source of soft-error-induced skipped frames.

Versatile Performance

Fusion F2 is ideal for use on location as well as the office—various operating systems, editing applications and output demands requiring the flexibility and interoperability that Fusion F2 provides. Fusion storage systems support OS X®, Windows® 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista®, Windows XP Professional, and Linux®. It is compatible with capture cards from AJA, Blackmagic Design, Matrox, and Bluefish444, and works with all mainstream video editing applications from Apple® and Adobe®.

Fusion F2 Editing Workstation

Portable Video Editing Suite. Sonnet’s Fusion F2 is the perfect portable 2-drive RAID SATA storage system for mobile video editing while out in the field.

 

Part No.  
FUS-F2-1500M7 Discontinued
Hardware  
Warranty 2-year
External Connectors
  • Two eSATA
  • One 3.5 mm power(4)
eSATA Interface Speed 3 Gb/s
Data Transfer Speed Up to 200 MB/s, depending on interface used and configuration
Supported Drive Configurations JBOD; software-based RAID 0, 1
Supported Video Formats XDCAM HD, ProRes 422, ProRes 422 (HQ), HDV 720p30, HDV 1080i60, DVCPROHD 720p60, DVCPROHD 1080i60, DV50, DV25, 8-bit NTSC, 10-bit NTSC, ProRes 422 HD, ProRes HD (HQ)
Power 12VDC(3) nominal; 9V min; 24V max
Operating Temperature +32˚ F to 104˚ F (0˚ C to +40˚ C)
Dimensions WxDxH: 5.9 x 6.2 x 0.72 (14.9 x 15.7 x 1.8 cm)
Weight 1.22 lbs (0.55 kg)
Noise Fusion F2: 35 dBA
(MacBook Pro: 35 dBA)
(Private Office: 40 dBA)
(Broadcast Studio: 30 dBA)
RoHS Complaint Yes
Package Contents
  • Disk enclosure with two 2.5" hard drives
  • Two 1-meter eSATA data cables
  • Two 15cm (6") eSATA data cables
  • One 1-meter FireWire 400 to 3.5mm power cable
  • One 15cm (6") 3.5mm to 3.5mm power cable
  • One FireWire 800-to-FireWire 400 adapter
  • Slipcase
  • User’s guide

 

 

 

 

 

Hardware Compatibility

Mac, Windows(3), or Linux computer with a compatible host controller card installed (such as Sonnet's Tempo PCIe and ExpressCard/34 line of cards)

OS Compatibility

OS X and OS X Server 10.4.8+

OS X Mavericks & Server compatible

Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista®, Windows XP Pro, and Windows Server: 2008, 2003

Linux (RedHat ES 3, 4; Suse RedHat ES 3, 4; Suse Linux 9, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 10, 10.1 and the following architectures: i386; x86_64 (AMD64, Intel EM64T)

Technical Notes

  1. Although most hard drive manufacturers and Mac OS X 10.6 define 1 gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 byte, the computer operating systems usually calculate a gigabyte by dividing the bytes (whether it is disk capacity, file size, or system RAM) by 1,073,741,824 (). This distinction may be a cause of confusion, as a hard disk with a manufacturer rating of 500GB may have its capacity reported by the operating system as 454.7GB.
  2. Powered by FireWire 800 or 400 port on computer (FireWire 800 adapter included) or optional powered FireWire hub, or power out port on Sonnet Qio. May also be powered by an optional Fusion F2 World Travel Power Adapter or rechargeable battery pack.
  3. Creating RAID volumes under Windows requires dynamic disk storage, a formatting option available with Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate (32- and 64-bit versions), Windows Vista Enterprise or Ultimate (32- and 64-bit versions), or Windows XP Professional (32- and 64-bit versions).
  4. Mating connector 3.4 mm (OD) x 1.3 mm (ID) x 10 mm (L)


Specifications subject to change without notice.


Mac OS LogoWindows Logo Linux LogoeSATA LogoroHS Logo

Fusion F2 Performance


CONFIGURATION:
Fusion F2 1TB, 7200 RPM connected to Sonnet Tempo™ SATA Pro ExpressCard/34 host adapter installed in a 2.0 GHz MacBook Pro with 2GB of RAM, and an AJA Io HD connected.

VIDEO STREAMS

RAID 0

RAID 1

XDCAM HD
(1 stream=35 Mb/s)

4

3

ProRes SD
(1 stream=47 Mb/s)

7

4

ProRes HQ SD
(1 stream=70 Mb/s)

7

4

HDV 720p30
(1 stream=25 Mb/s)

8

5

HDV 1080i60
(1 stream=25 Mb/s)

5

2

DVCPROHD 720p60
(1 stream=100 Mb/s)

4

2

DVCPROHD 1080i60
(1 stream=100 Mb/s)

4

2

DV50
(1 strm=50 Mb/s)

8

4

DV25
(1 stream=25 Mb/s)

8

5

8-bit NTSC
(1 stream=170 Mb/s)

3

1

10-bit NTSC
(1 stream=225 Mb/s)

3

1

ProRes HD
(1 stream=145 Mb/s)

3

1

ProRes 422 HQ HD
(1 stream=220 Mb/s)

3

1

 

Performance Test

Fusion F2 RAID 0 Speed Chart
Read/Write Performance
Fusion F2 1.5TB, 7200 RPM - RAID 0


Fusion F2 AJA Speed Performance Chart

Fusion F2 IO Transactions Chart

Speed tests on MacBook Pro with Fusion F2 1.5TB 7200 rpm connected to Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34.




Product image Product Name Part No. Description
FireWire Power Cable FireWire 400-to-3.5mm Power Cable CABLE-PWR-P200S 1-meter FireWire 400 to 3.5mm power connector cable for F2
World Travel Power Adapter Kit World Travel Power Adapter PWR-UAC-12V World Travel Power Adapter (12V, 1.25A
Tekkeon Battery Pack Rechargeable Battery Pack   Fusion F2 is compatible with all models of myPower ALL batteries from Tekkeon at an 8-19V setting. Sonnet recommends model MP3450i, which at a 56 Watt-hour capacity, should provide up to 9 hours of F2 run time. Mobile device adapter PA-L34 is required.

Reviews
DV Rating

In Review: Sonnet Fusion F2
"Sonnet is an experienced player in storage technologies, and they have not missed a trick with this remarkable little unit. The drives are mounted side by side not just to create a more portable unit for your computer bag but for an important design reason. Drives mounted on top of each other can create a “cross-coupled vibration” which could drop frames. Increasing the footprint also allows for fanless and thus quiet operation of the unit. The use of FireWire power is ingenious. Of course, keep in mind that the F2 could also work on a desktop Mac with a compatible eSATA card…

Sonnet F2 ranks as one of the most innovative storage products in years and is well worth the consideration…"

MacVideo Rating

Fusion F2: Powered eSATA on the Move
"For those needing high-speed transfer of data eSata the Sonnet Fusion 2 presents a solution which is reliable and faster than either FireWire 800/400 or USB. The Sonnet Fusion F2 is unique in that it provides the world's first truly portable eSata RAID which can powered direct from the Mac. This means in the field one can run MacBook Pro and the Fusion 2 RAID all from the battery of the Apple laptop…

The Sonnet Fusion 2 is solidly built, provides high storage capacities with a guaranteed high-speed, sustained throughput of data…and provides editors with an in-field solution which no other offers."

PC Advisor Review

Sonnet Fusion F2 Review
"The innovative set-up enables you to create a floating edit suite: you can edit on the road just using your laptop and Sonnet Fusion F2, then plug in an LCD screen, decks and other hardware boxes such as the Io for a full-powered studio. As it uses a software RAID, it's not practical to swap the F2 between desktop and laptop edit suites…

…The Sonnet Fusion F2 is a niche device but if you regularly edit on location or in transit, it's going to be highly useful."

Expert Reviews Rating

Sonnet Fusion F2 Review
"I
n the face of serious data throughput demands - like the ones video pros regularly have - the disks in Mac laptops just aren't fast enough. With average throughput speeds of about 20-25MB/sec you'd be lucky to get a few HD video streams playing without suffering the odd dropped frame. For those that find this a problem, Sonnet has the answer: the Sonnet Fusion F2, a portable RAID SATA hard drive designed specifically for MacBook Pro owners…

The Fusion F2 managed to sustain an average throughput of about 125MB/sec…five times faster than the MacBook Pro's internal hard disk and easily twice what would be possible with a FireWire RAID setup."

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Awards & Case Studies
MacWorld Awards 2008 Winner
DVD Black Diamond Award 2008
Best Choice Award
AEA Award
Quote BubbleSee what reviewers and customers have to say about Sonnet products in our News section under Product Reviews and Case Studies.

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