eSATA is absolutely amazing.

I had a WD My book 1TB (7200rpm) that was using USB 2.0. I have now had to reinstall my OS about 3 times and I was getting sick of how long it was taking (I had to transfer about 400gb). So I decided to get a Rosewill SATA to eSATA/USB2.0 enclosure. HOLY CRAP! A 750mb movie copies in 1-3 seconds. Games install in minutes. And it only cost $35. I do not think I will ever get a manufacturer external HDD ever again, I will just buy the drive and then buy the enclosure. I strongly advise anyone in the HDD market to do the same.

 

I'm getting my ICY Dock eSATA external enclosure this week.

 

Fro mwhat I remember reading in another thread, when you have eSata your bottleneck will generally become the HDD itself, not the connection.

I have that Rosewill enclosure, as well as an Antec MX-1. I like the Antec better, but the Rosewill isn't bad. It's just noisy (Which can be fixed by turning off the fan with the switch) and bright (which can be fixed by unplugging the LED light).


And yeah, eSata is awesome. Lack of an eSata port is one thing that turned me off to the vaunted G73.

 

I have the MX-1 also, and I absolutely love the eSATA speeds. How does the Rosewill compare to the Antec in terms of build quality? From the Newegg pictures, they look to be similar in size, is that true? If so, I take it that it's not meant to be very portable then.

 

USB3.0>eSata imo...1 less cable for 2.5" drives (which are a majority for me) because usb3.0 does power as well while eSata does not.

 

Well, if USB 3.0 wasn't > eSATA, I'd be extremely disappointed. It's a major revision to the ubiquitous USB, and it should be able to beat out existing ports in terms of versatility and performance if it is to succeed. Unfortunately, USB 3.0 adoption will be slow until Intel adopts it in its next platform revision.

As a more on-topic remark, my Cavalry 3.5" drive's eSATA is working just great - with the computers that actually have an eSATA port (good thing it came with one PCI-E eSATA bracket)

 

My external hard drive gives my fits, so I thought about buying the much loved Hitachi 500 GB HD and putting that in a external enclosure. I'll end up buying two, one to put in my computer and put the other one in a enclosure.

 

The build quality of the Rosewill is great. All the parts are sturdy, the paint does not flake off, its solid with no loose ends, and except for the metal mesh on one side, its visually appealing.

 

Yep, I doubt in the future I will buy a laptop that doesn't come with an eSATA port. I can't imagine anybody backing up their hdd with USB 2.0.

*shudder*

 

Well, it will be much better with usb 3.0.

 

Do they have a SATA III to USB 3 enclosure? What would be cool is to buy a express card with usb 3.0 then hook that up to the usb 3.0 enclosure.

 

Except there are pretty much no SATA/600 drives out yet... (not that HDDs can even benefit from SATA/600, let alone SATA/300).

 

correct, only SSD's benefit from sata III

 

Is there any Portable hard drive with eSATA but no ac adaptor?
maybe powered by USB?

thanks

 

More do-it-yourself, but http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-enclosure-supports-power-combo-usb-port.html.

 

My XPS has a 120GB SSD for the OS and most applications. I created symbolic links in Windows 7 for my media directories which are stored on a 2.5" 320GB Western Digital Black in an eSATA enclosure. Best of both worlds, plenty of media storage and lightning fast SSD performance in Windows.

 

no. not even possible.

 

possible if both drives are SSDs, in ~3 seconds.

 

Well my cheap HDD enclosure gives me about 125 mb/sec

 

One question, if you plug a cord that doubles as a eSATA and USB, into a port that doubles as a eSATA and USB, what happens?

 

That solution looks good if you have a laptop that has a powered USB/eSATA combo port. Not all laptops have this. However, most eSATA capable enclosures come with a USB to AC input cable that will work with any USB port.

 

which he doesn't have.

 

Nothing, until you plug something in the other end

But it works just like a USB cable, basically. Except that you get SATA data transfer speeds. It just uses the USB pins for power, and the eSATA pins for data from the port.

 

Shweet. Sounds like the best of both worlds!!

 

That's the whole point I love my enclosure. The only problem is the cable's a little stiffer than a normal USB cable, so a bit harder to keep out of the way.

 

The Delock doesn't seem to be available in the US anymore. Startech makes one, but it's kind of expensive and doesn't come with the combo cable. Buying a combo cable separately looks to be pretty expensive too.

 

Are you using a SSD inside that though, since no HDD can hit that sustained speed in any real life transfer.

 

Yeah, when I copy movies from my external HDD to my lappy's SSD, peak at 125mbs!

 

Hand time a large file transfer and divide that from the file size and I guarantee you, the HDD won't write anywhere near that speed. Peak speed isn't really a useful measure if you don't have average and minimum speed.