eSATA Expresscard opinions

I've been thinking about going the eSATA external drive route on my HP dv6400 since my USB drive is not cutting it for video encoding. I'm looking at this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16839150001

Has anyone had any luck with actually getting an eSATA ExpressCard to work consistently with an external drive? There are not many reviews on the subject, and most of them appear to be negative in some way (either the drive is never detected or the connection is unstable, etc...).

I thought about getting this Seagate drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822148262

And this Apricorn enclosure http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817362002

Do these items seem like an acceptable combo, or are there better alternatives? Also, does an eSATA ExpressCard have to be removed every time before booting the laptop? I was hoping just to leave it in the slot.........

Thanks for any advice or help.

 

im having a terrible time trying to get esata going with my laptop. the card seems to work fine but i've tried 2 esata external disks and neither work via esata but work fine with usb. I think it might be my cable but there are so few options that im just gonna stick to firewire and get an esata cable in the future. I think the esata card can be left in but depending on the drive it may not be hotswappable.

 

I noticed a wide range in eSATA cable pricing, from $2 to $30 for a 6ft cable. The ExpressCard is not exactly cheap itself, which is why I'm hesitant about wasting money on something that may not work right anyway.

Do you have any opinions on Firewire800? I noticed these Expresscards and enclosures are available and was wondering what average transfer speed I could see on a typical setup of this nature. My USB drive is around 21.5MB/sec at maximum, which is not enough for my encoding projects.

 

I've never had a problem with my eSATA hdd which I've had for 12 months now. I have a seagate 500GB 3.5" that is eSATA only and I connect it to my laptop via a Vantec eSATA pcmcia card. It's only 1.5G, not 3G, but I get good speeds with it. Let me look for the hd tune.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=108825

 

i bought a different card from newegg and it works great. only thing i had to do was install the driver so itwouldnt think that my usb power was the main connection. and mine came with a bracket to mount on my desktop. definetly way faster then i benchmarked usb vs esata

 

You could also consider getting a firewire external drive. They generally beat USB drives in Mb/sec.

 

I bought the cheapest eSATA enclosure I could find (very good package with support for USB, eSATA, PATA & SATA 2.5" HDDs, and includes USB, eSATA and USB power cables).

Then I bought the cheapest eSATA ExpressCard I could find (this one has the Silicon Image 3531 controller). The driver wanted a reboot, but after that everything is fine and the external HDD speed is as good as the internal. Perhaps I was lucky to get an enclosure which includes what seems to be a good eSATA cable (although it is actually quite thick and heavy and not convenient for travel).

John

 

Nice. Even with a SATA150 card, the tranfer rate is still double that of my USB drive. I would not mind that at all.......

I'm debating that as well. Even though I'd be stuck at FireWire400 because of my laptop, it will be the likely alternative should the eSATA not work out.

You seem to have an odd enclosure John. This is the first time I've ever seen one that accepts both IDE and SATA drives. Looks like a gem.

I'll see if I can hunt that down at a US retailer (as well as the Expresscard) and go from there. It seems like a good starting point.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

 

The enclosure is here.

The name on the manual is "Brilliant sMini". Because it has support for two HDD interfaces (at each end of a board) it is a bigger than most 2.5" enclosures. However, it is very versatile. The one thing it won't do is to run a PATA HDD through the eSATA connection.

John

 

I have no problems with my eSATA card or enclosures.

I use an iConnect expresscard eSATA card.
I have a vantec eSATA enclosure and two generic ones, all three work perfectly fine.

 

Thanks for the link John. It looks like this particular enclosure is marketed under different monikers, as I think I saw something on NewEgg nearly identical in appearance.

Can you guys tell me if your eSATA Expresscard gets very hot in use (I've never used the EC interface before).


Thanks.