I want/need an external HDD.. eSata or USB?

linkin

linkin

VIP Member
I'm looking into an external HDD for my games, music and downloads. I was wondering whether to get one with eSATA or USB, because as far as i know i don't have any eSATA ports, only internal and USB 2.0
Can i get an add in card (like sound cards) that will give me some eSATA ports, and are they worth the price?
 
As long as you have a spare SATA plug inside your computer, there are converters that allow you to use SATA or eSATA drives outside your computer. My previous Asus actually came with one.

But, without any limitations such as port availability, eSATA hands down. You're basically asking if you want 33MB/s or 300MB/s :P
 
I see. I'll just get an eSata PCI card. Those work fine, don't they? I'm still deciding on the size of the drive i want.... i'm think around 320gb... I have lots of games!
 
The_Other_One said:
But, without any limitations such as port availability, eSATA hands down. You're basically asking if you want 33MB/s or 300MB/s :P
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Hi,
Not sure I can agree with your numbers. The specified raw data rate for USB 2 is 480 mB/sec. Where did you come up with 33 mB/sec?

Sparky
 
Either way, i have bought a PCI eSata card. It also has 2 regular SATA and on IDE port. Now all i need is an external HDD. Ebay here i come!
 
Be careful Karma, I believe you mean 480Mb not mB and you are right, it is 480 Mbps vs the ESATA of 3.2 Gbps (or 400MBps). Even with that said, the actual transfer rate that most ppl experience on a USB is about 22 to 25 MB (MegaBytes). Firewire is going to rise to about 6.4 Gbps eventually and eventually ESATA will rise to about 6 Gbps however right now, you are are looking at 480 Mbps (USB) vs 3.2 Gbps (ESATA).

EDIT* That is the theoretical speed, I suppose any number of factors could make it transfer at slower speeds.

EDIT* sorry for the second edit, I want to add something else. Just to say, why the theoretical transfer rate of a USB is 480Mb but it only generally transfers about 22 to 25 MBps. Even though it is rated at 480 Mbps, the USB protocol has quite a bit of overhead. Essentially, you are not just sending the data you want to send but also a lot of the preprogrammed data that that Indian dude on the intel commercial invented!!! It helps it get to where you want and unravel itself into something the other computer can understand.
 
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SteveThePirate said:
Be careful Karma, I believe you mean 480Mb not mB and you are right, it is 480 Mbps vs the ESATA of 3.2 Gbps (or 400MBps). Even with that said, the actual transfer rate that most ppl experience on a USB is about 22 to 25 MB (MegaBytes). Firewire is going to rise to about 6.4 Gbps eventually and eventually ESATA will rise to about 6 Gbps however right now, you are are looking at 480 Mbps (USB) vs 3.2 Gbps (ESATA).

EDIT* That is the theoretical speed, I suppose any number of factors could make it transfer at slower speeds.

EDIT* sorry for the second edit, I want to add something else. Just to say, why the theoretical transfer rate of a USB is 480Mb but it only generally transfers about 22 to 25 MBps. Even though it is rated at 480 Mbps, the USB protocol has quite a bit of overhead. Essentially, you are not just sending the data you want to send but also a lot of the preprogrammed data that that Indian dude on the intel commercial invented!!! It helps it get to where you want and unravel itself into something the other computer can understand.
Click to expand...

Hi Steve,
All data transfer technologies have significant overhead associated with them. It would be simple to run a benchmark between these two (eSATA and USB 2) when transfering data to/from external hard drives. This way we would have real numbers to work with rather than guessing. Does anyone know of such a published test? I'll bet the difference is not great.

Sparky
 
karma said:
Hi,
Not sure I can agree with your numbers. The specified raw data rate for USB 2 is 480 mB/sec. Where did you come up with 33 mB/sec?

Sparky
Click to expand...

First off, I'm referring to megabyte not megabit. Yes, USB 2.0 has a theoretical speed of 480 megabits a second, but this converted to megabytes a second is only 60MB/s. On top of this, most drives I've come across simply show up as an ATA33 device. Even if they were to show up as ATA66, it's highly unlikely they'd achieve even full speeds at this setting.
 
Hi All,
So, does no one have benchmark results for the two transfer rates? Or are we going to continue to guess? Hard to believe.

Sparky
 
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