The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Internal external question.

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by SunWalrus, Aug 9, 2006.

  1. SunWalrus

    SunWalrus Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    8
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    OK... I've been shopping to put an internal hard drive into an external encloser. So my question is this, What are the benifits of having an eSATA, SATA, USB or combo. I know, SATA vs. PATA internal benifits. So i guess what I am getting at is, What is the most efficient internal-external combo for normal everyday use?
     
    SunWalrus, Aug 9, 2006
    #1
  2. adinu

    adinu I pwn teh n00bs.

    Reputations:
    489
    Messages:
    2,842
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    It wont really matter if u get a SATA or IDE hard drive, as the connection to the laptop is still gonna be either usb2 or firewire, which in sort making it the bottleneck not the drive itself.
     
    adinu, Aug 9, 2006
    #2
  3. dragonesse

    dragonesse Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    251
    Messages:
    1,176
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Well, the speed of USB is going to render the speed differences between PATA and SATA as null. So, a combination enclosure would give you the most options -- maybe you have a PATA drive you want to use in it now, but when it dies you upgrade to a SATA or something.
     
    dragonesse, Aug 9, 2006
    #3
  4. ChangFest

    ChangFest Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    19
    Messages:
    259
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    For normal everyday use you could get by with an IDE and a USB2.0 enclosure. If you want the fastest transfer speed, you would need to get a SATA drive and use eSATA. You'll also have to get an eSATA card for your notebook to achieve the transfer speeds the eSATA interface allows. Most enclosures that offer eSATA will require a SATA drive. They also have USB2.0 so you can connect with that if you don't want to get an eSATA card right away.
     
    ChangFest, Aug 9, 2006
    #4