Keep in mind that your view of eSATA performance is based on a direct
motherboard connection at native SATA 2 speed (3 Gbits/second).
However, many here who might use an eSATA adapter card might not see the
performance advantage you see. If a PCI eSATA adapter is used it is
limited to the 133 M Bytes/second of the PCI bus which equates to approx
1 Gbits/second. If using a PCIe version 1 adapter it will be able to
support 2 G bits/second which is faster than the eSATA transfer rate of
1.5 G bits/second but slower than the 3 G bits/second of eSATA 2. Any
PCI or PCIe eSATA adapter will work but most drives on the market today
are eSATA 2 and run at the faster rate which requires a PCIe version 2
or version 3 adapter if the full speed of the drive is to be realized.
Which of these adapters can be used will depend on the motherboard.
Chuck Norcutt
Moose wrote:
>
> I'm simply not buying any external HD which is USB 2.0 only. eSATA is
> WAY faster, 5x the speed, and only a very few $ more, if that. Maybe it
> shouldn't make a difference for a drive planned for backup use only, but
> it does for me. I simply find it easier when the process goes faster.
>
> I have a couple of earlier external HDs with only USB 2.0, one also with
> Firewire 400/800, a couple with eSATA and an eSATA docking station (or
> "toaster"). So far, all eSATA devices I've seen also have a USB 2.0
> interface. Specs say USB 2.0 should be slightly faster than Firewire
> 400. PC users seem to find USB better and Mac user seem to generally
> find Firewire 400 faster. I don't know how much is perception and how
> much is actual hardware/software implementation. I haven't noticed any
> obvious difference.
>
> The difference between them and eSATA is huge and immediately obvious.
> The external drive connection is just the same speed as my internal
> drives.
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