2.5" External HD with eSATA, USB, Firewire

Hi folks,

I searched and searched through NBR and of course "G..gle" and I did NOT find any NEW posting on thsi subject ... the only posting that I saw was by "John Ratsey" and it was pretty good review ... but I am hoping to get a little more info ...

Will be receiving my new laptop NP2092 pretty soon ... so I want to have an External 2.5" Hard Drive with eSATA capable enclosure hoping to get a eSATA Express card ...

Q1: Would this set up give me a much faster file transfer compare to USB and Firewire? I am assuming the answer is yes!!!

Q2: From pre-assembled 2.5" External HDs ... which brand is most dependable? Oh, BTW, I am looking for 250GB or 320GB or even 500GB!!!

Q3: If I have to assemble the 2.5" External ... what External Enclosure do you recommend? Again ... something that it will NOT cause my 2.5" HD to cook and die?

Thanks,

G!

 

Yes, esata is faster than USB and firewire. If your laptop/desktop has ESata your external drive will run as fast as the external harddrive can read/write. With USB/firewire, the external harddrive is limited by the speed of the usb/firewire hub.
With esata, the harddrive is the limit, not the motherboard.

for 2.5" harddrives, go with western digital, or hitachi as they have been excellent in my experience. I have had a bunch of seagate's die on me so I just cant recommend them. I have had a lot of wd's fail on me to, but the wd's failed liek 4 yrs ago and I think they are making better products now.

I have never had a problem with hitachi.

Any external you want will be fine just buy one you like.
I cant offer suggestions cause I built mine.

K-TRON

 

Is this the post you found? It has the same HDD tested using both USB 2.0 and eSATA. USB tops out at less than 30MB/s while eSATA will give you the same HDD performance as if it was installed in the notebook. USB transfer speed will also be reduced if other USB devices are connected.

Firewire is said to be faster than USB but won't be as fast as eSATA since it has an absolute limit of 480Mb/s.

The test results in the above-mentioned thread were using an IcyBox IB-266STUS enclosure which has both USB 2.0 and eSATA. I recommend this combination because it gives flexibility. It is said to be made by Tagan. The enclosure is metal so it dissipates the heat OK.

Another eSATA / USB enclosure is the Brilliant SMini. It is mentioned in this thread. It is sold in UK under the name Newlink. Both these enclosures come with an eSATA cable.

I can't think of any ready-made external 2.5" HDDs which include eSATA. They may exist but the manufacturers may charge a lot more. Assembling your own unit using the HDD of your choice and the enclosure of your choice will take no more than 5 minutes.

If you are concerned about heat then avoid the HDDs with the highest power consumptions. See the Tom's Hardware 2.5" HDD charts.

Hope this helps,

John

 

K-tron has it right -- eSata is the fastest file transfer there is. I have bought eSata/USB enclosures from Oyen and love them.

https://oyendigital.com/esata-hard-drive.html

You can buy the whole setup, or enclosures only and build your own. They are pricey, but I can vouch for their great quality.

I, too, swear by Hitachi's, but recently bought the 320GB WD, with no problems. Newegg has these at a great price --

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136197

 

Hi folks,

Once again the NBR team comes to the aid ...

Thanks for your responses guys (general term ... both of you guys & gals) ... I think I am in the right direction now.

Anyone else anymore suggestion or recommendation ... !!!

BTW, I am +rep K-TRON, John Ratsey, and dnjnyc.

THANKS again,

G!

 

I also prefer Hitachi for 2.5" HDDs.

Are you looking at a more permanent solution or swapping?
I personally like Vantec enclosures:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392016

For a short term solution or swapping, you may want something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817392022

 

Hi JwY,

I have a "bad" taste in my mouth when it comes to "Vantec" external enclosures. I was introduced to this enclosure by a friend that he also loved the cool sleek look of the Vantec and for the 2.5" case the cool zipped bag.

BUT, I lost a 3.5" Hard drive to this Vantec enclosure ... a Western Digital 3.5" ... and not a cheapy HDD. I had lot of irreplacable data on it. If you have data that you can NOT afford to get toasted then Vantec would be my last choice. The metal is cheap thin skin ... not even aluminum ... so where the heck the unit will get it's heat dissipation!?!? Also, it's "Power Supply" comes with 2 Prong blade (NO Ground) ... I don't like that either.

I persoanlly think units that use Aluminum casing is the way to go.

Thanks,
G!

 

I can heartily recommend both AC Ryan 'AluBox' enclosures (I have them in 2.5", 3.5" and 5.25"!), and their eSATA ExpressCard

I actually use their eSATA + AluBox Kit for Notebooks combination (ACR-HD50267) on my XPS M1730.
Together with a speedy 320GB WD Scorpio 'Black' SATA II (WD3200BEKT. 7200rpm/16MB cache)... backups take hardly any time at all

 

Hi FireBlade,

AC Ryan AluBox do look good ... I checked out their website ... it seems they only deal in Europe ... so, I am basically out of luck ... but Thanks for sharing the site ...

G!

 

i like using NAS devices for huge files and such... and many come with cooling fans.... and also have the ability to use USB, FIREWIRE, and RJ45 ethernet it you choose the right make & model

just google NAS STORAGE DEVICES

 

Hi bigozone,

Thanks for the tip ... I will check out the website ...

BTW, did you shoot your own Avatar pic ... love the Bluish background color.

G!

 

If you click the ' Where to Buy' link at the top of the page, you'll see they have distributors on every continent.

AC Ryan products may be available in a number of online stores... but Performance-PC's are their official USA distributors

 

Hi RealFireBlade ...

Would you believe I made the dumbest mistake ... when I clicked on "Where To Buy" and I saw only the Europe countries ... I did not even "Notice" teh "Europe" thing and then did not even bother to Scroll Down to see the US part .. I just assumed "Oh Well" ...

THANKS FireBlade,:D

G!

 

Yes... yes I would! You really do have a problem with reading, don't ya

You made another mistake calling me "Firebird"!
It's Fire blade... not Fire Bird


You're welcome nonetheless

 

What are you talking about ... it is "FireBlade" ...

You know FireBlade ... I think I do need to start wearing my 1.25 reading glasses.

G!