eSATA confusion!

R

Reginald Linux

New Member
so i just ordered a g1s-a1 and one of the selling points for me was the eSATA port right on the back of it, so i fully intend to take advantage of its 3 gb/s capabilities with a new external hdd (used primarily for video editing), but i dont want some massive 3.5" external. Naturally i came to the conclusion that i should buy a 2.5" laptop hdd (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822146052) and an external enclosure (http://www.amazon.com/Coolmax-External-Enclosure-USB2-0-Backup/dp/B000LM6I6W).
But then i realized that eSATA doesn't power itself through the comps bus, so i've got a few questions that i was hoping you genius techies could clarify:

1. would it be possible to use the eSATA output for the data transfer and the USB 2.0 output to power the drive from the bus?

2. is a 5400rpm 3.0 gb/s drive faster than a 7200rpm 1.5 gb/s drive?

any advice would be much appreciated!
 
1) if you were dealing with a desktop with a 12v auxillery plugin on the board you would run a set pf wires out to an external drive there. Laptops are rather limited in that direction requiring an external power source like seen with the 3.5" external models. For the 2.5" drive there you would have to jerry rig from ?

2)The max speeds drives are rated for are based on peak speeds not any constant transfer rate as mentioned already. The standard use commonly at this time is 7,200rpm with only WD Raptors seeing 10,000rpm on those models.
 
1. Only if the drive was a laptop drive or smaller. USB only puts out 5v, and a standard 3.5" drive requires both 12v and 5v.

2. No. The SATA bus has little to no impact on the drive's actual speed. That is why Western Digital Raptor hard drives only run at SATA 150. Well, I know for sure the 36GB and 74GB models did.
 
The faster drive speeds allow for faster read access while the transfer rates seen for different models is simply the max peak rates there. The transfer rates are from drive to bus not the bus itself there. You see both 7,200rpm ide as well as sata drives. Each of those is a separate item to look at.
 
1. Only if the drive was a laptop drive or smaller. USB only puts out 5v, and a standard 3.5" drive requires both 12v and 5v.
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So the enclosure would use the esata and not USB for transfer if they were both plugged in? I wasn't sure what it would do
 
If I was looking at having an external here whenever and if ever I eventually get another laptop/notebook the WD Workbooks would hold interest for storage and backups reasons. There you simply plug into a usb and you are set to go. The external drives solve the power situation on their own that way.
 
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