Seagate 500GB eSATA External HDD - bit-tech.net Forums

Tim S · 5th Dec 2006, 12:20

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...nal_hdd/1.html

antiHero · 5th Dec 2006, 12:38

Very good article (as usual). I think i stay with USB for now as nobody i know has eSata yet and Nas for backup as i can place it virtualy everywhere in my apartment.

Buzzons · 5th Dec 2006, 14:27

I thought USB two was able to go at about 400mb/s when SATAII could only do 300mb/s so how come SATA is now faster? is it just from the NCQ etc offered by the SATAII standards?

oh and why are mobo makers dropping PCI slots of their motherboards???

Tim S · 5th Dec 2006, 14:35

The USB 2.0 interface is capable of a maximum throughput of 480Mbit/sec, while the eSATA300 interface is capable of up to 3Gbit/sec.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buzzons

oh and why are mobo makers dropping PCI slots of their motherboards???

We are attempting to find out...

DougEdey · 5th Dec 2006, 14:39

They need to get more space for graphics cards, as most high end ones are coming out with dual slot coolers now, enthusiast boards probably have a redundant PCI slot now.

So to save money the manufacturers are removing them, they should really transfer to E-ATX and get more PCI-E Cards out.

M4RTIN · 5th Dec 2006, 14:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougEdey

They need to get more space for graphics cards, as most high end ones are coming out with dual slot coolers now, enthusiast boards probably have a redundant PCI slot now.

doesnt explain it 100% tho, why are tehy removing pci slots for pointless pci-e x1 slots is the real question. my board has 3 pci's and 3 pci-e x1's.. guess which ones i use, id imagine its not just me either. pci-e x1 hasnt exactly took off as a replacement

Nature · 5th Dec 2006, 14:53

I just purchased a new external drive with eSATA and usb, and noticed that no laptop's have the eSATA interface.... It seems that most consumers looking for a massive external drive use it for carrying their media/sensitive business materials with them on the go whilst laptop drives can't accomedate with stock space. Seggate should look for a mobile pci eSATA card or on the lower spectrum an eSATA to USB cable.

M4RTIN · 5th Dec 2006, 15:09

im not sure i like the idea of the bundled pci card, if you have esata your paying for something you dont need, and if you havent got it built in then you can just buy a pci card then. it'd be like having to pay for a bundled pci wifi adaptor with every router or a firewire card being in the box with every dvi camera. its money you dont need to spend

DougEdey · 5th Dec 2006, 15:49

Hence my second statement, more PCI-E cards need to be produced, bringing the cost of manufacture down.

BUFF · 5th Dec 2006, 16:51

you can get pretty much everything in PCI-E form these days with the 1 main exception looking to be sound cards.

Saivert · 5th Dec 2006, 17:31

Well, as with everything you don't really have to buy it.

If Seagate pushes the price of eSATA adapters down by bundling them with eSATA harddrives that is a good thing.

On the other hand this is really nothing new. You could have bought empty enclosures with SATA pass-through for a long time now altough not officially eSATA but then again there is not that much difference between SATA and eSATA except for the electrical (max cable length of 2 meters) and physical requirements (heavy duty connectors) equipment must meet in order to get eSATA approval.

More and more motherboards come with eSATA ports anyway so I don't really see any problems. ASUS Crosshair and Striker Extreme has it.

And I can understand the move from PCI to PCI-e x1, but why do they place the PCI-e x1 slot between the two PCI-e x16 slots ? That is so annoying. How are you supposed to fit a card inbetween there.
It looks like you have to make a compromise with any motherboard because of the weird layouts. Either Dual-Graphics (SLI/Crossfire) or Single-Graphics and a PCI-e x1 RAID controller f.ex.

shomann · 5th Dec 2006, 19:38

Cool article and nice discussion. I just want to add that there are a few ExpressCard/34 SATA II adapters out in the wild right now. I know of 2 (but haven't had experience with either):

The Sonnet Tempo Express/34 SATA Adapter

SABRENT SATA-EXC2 ExpressCard

This is good news for anyone hoping to have fast storage in the field like video and audio pros...

speedfreek · 5th Dec 2006, 22:10

Theres enclosures that will do both esata and usb2, but sata blows away the usb so much it isnt funny.

Aankhen · 5th Dec 2006, 22:24

I have a slightly older version of this drive: 300 GB, smaller cache (I think), and USB + FireWire ports rather than eSATA. It worked alright till I accidentally dropped it about three weeks after I bought it, and half of the stuff I'd brought to Canada from India was lost.

(The other half was mirrored on my other 300 GB external.)

Jipa · 5th Dec 2006, 22:30

/me wants one or two of those things

pillow · 6th Dec 2006, 05:10

yet another way to steal our money. i think that a new thread should be started on why are manufactures rasing the prices of their boards, why is extra crap inculded (thats not free, such as wireless, who uses wireless for their main rig especially for gaming??), and why less pci slots? but thats getting off topic. and esata for now i belive is another way to steal average joe's money and every one else who must have the latest techonology.

edit:unless u are transfering large files and have very little time, whats the point in having one?

this is the same with quad core and quad gpu. it will be useful but right it is not useful for most.

IccleD · 7th Dec 2006, 11:02

This thread appears to have gone a little off topic, heres an attempt to get it back on the Subject Matter.

Was I right in reading the this 500Gb External SATA Drive is CHEAPER then the same Internal Drive?

Any chance you great people took some screws out, in the intrest of the pubic of course, and saw whats inside?

I mean, could I really save money by buying this, and stripping it out? Maybe instead replacing the insides with an older EIDE Drive with SATA Converter / Controller attached?

Tim S · 7th Dec 2006, 13:28

The internal drive is around £40 cheaper than the external drive.

There aren't any obvious screws to undo without removing stickers, etc - it's got to go on to other publications, so we can't go taking it apart unfortunately.

fathazza · 29th Jan 2008, 13:16

holy thread revival for a quick heads up that this is now £70 inc vat on ebuyer.
im pretty tempted by it at that price.

Hazardous · 30th Jan 2008, 19:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by fathazza

holy thread revival for a quick heads up that this is now £70 inc vat on ebuyer.
im pretty tempted by it at that price.

Holy thread revival reply: I bought one meself back in October last year, as my main backup unit. They're stonkingly quick

5th Dec 2006, 12:20	#1
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	Seagate 500GB eSATA External HDD http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...nal_hdd/1.html __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

5th Dec 2006, 12:38	#2
antiHero An Ugly Pineapple! Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Hellsinki Posts: 1,813	Very good article (as usual). I think i stay with USB for now as nobody i know has eSata yet and Nas for backup as i can place it virtualy everywhere in my apartment. __________________ Laptop: Acer Aspire One, 1.6GHz Atom, 1.5GB Ram, 30GB 1.8" HDD, Windows 7 Gaming Rig: Athlon 64 3000+ s754 @ 2.15GHz, 1,5 GB Ram, 800 GB Hdd, Radeon HD 2900 Pro 512 MB Linux Box: VIA Epia 550mHz, 512mb Ram, 200GB Hdd, Ubuntu Server 7.10 Project ~Sinus~ - Update 27.02.2007 Front Bay done! Mini Project "SuperUser" - Update 10.06.2008

5th Dec 2006, 14:39	#5
DougEdey I pwn all your storage Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Southampton Posts: 13,933	They need to get more space for graphics cards, as most high end ones are coming out with dual slot coolers now, enthusiast boards probably have a redundant PCI slot now. So to save money the manufacturers are removing them, they should really transfer to E-ATX and get more PCI-E Cards out. __________________ Burnout: Paradise Stats!XBL: DougEdey Bindi PSN ID: DougEdey Twitter

5th Dec 2006, 14:53	#7
Nature Supermodder Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Jinan, China Posts: 417	I just purchased a new external drive with eSATA and usb, and noticed that no laptop's have the eSATA interface.... It seems that most consumers looking for a massive external drive use it for carrying their media/sensitive business materials with them on the go whilst laptop drives can't accomedate with stock space. Seggate should look for a mobile pci eSATA card or on the lower spectrum an eSATA to USB cable. __________________ Peace, Love, Empathy, Respect, Generosity, Smiles, and Hugs

5th Dec 2006, 15:49	#9
DougEdey I pwn all your storage Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Southampton Posts: 13,933	Hence my second statement, more PCI-E cards need to be produced, bringing the cost of manufacture down. __________________ Burnout: Paradise Stats!XBL: DougEdey Bindi PSN ID: DougEdey Twitter

5th Dec 2006, 14:27	#3
Buzzons Mod Master Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 2,086	I thought USB two was able to go at about 400mb/s when SATAII could only do 300mb/s so how come SATA is now faster? is it just from the NCQ etc offered by the SATAII standards? oh and why are mobo makers dropping PCI slots of their motherboards???

5th Dec 2006, 15:09	#8
M4RTIN Ultramodder Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Birmingham, UK Posts: 1,257	im not sure i like the idea of the bundled pci card, if you have esata your paying for something you dont need, and if you havent got it built in then you can just buy a pci card then. it'd be like having to pay for a bundled pci wifi adaptor with every router or a firewire card being in the box with every dvi camera. its money you dont need to spend

5th Dec 2006, 16:51	#10
BUFF Hypermodder Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Glasgow Posts: 912	you can get pretty much everything in PCI-E form these days with the 1 main exception looking to be sound cards.

5th Dec 2006, 17:31	#11
Saivert Multimodder Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Norway Posts: 204	don't have to buy it Well, as with everything you don't really have to buy it. If Seagate pushes the price of eSATA adapters down by bundling them with eSATA harddrives that is a good thing. On the other hand this is really nothing new. You could have bought empty enclosures with SATA pass-through for a long time now altough not officially eSATA but then again there is not that much difference between SATA and eSATA except for the electrical (max cable length of 2 meters) and physical requirements (heavy duty connectors) equipment must meet in order to get eSATA approval. More and more motherboards come with eSATA ports anyway so I don't really see any problems. ASUS Crosshair and Striker Extreme has it. And I can understand the move from PCI to PCI-e x1, but why do they place the PCI-e x1 slot between the two PCI-e x16 slots ? That is so annoying. How are you supposed to fit a card inbetween there. It looks like you have to make a compromise with any motherboard because of the weird layouts. Either Dual-Graphics (SLI/Crossfire) or Single-Graphics and a PCI-e x1 RAID controller f.ex.

5th Dec 2006, 19:38	#12
shomann Supermodder Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Evansville, IN Posts: 294	Cool article and nice discussion. I just want to add that there are a few ExpressCard/34 SATA II adapters out in the wild right now. I know of 2 (but haven't had experience with either): The Sonnet Tempo Express/34 SATA Adapter SABRENT SATA-EXC2 ExpressCard This is good news for anyone hoping to have fast storage in the field like video and audio pros... __________________ Current Gaming Rig: ABIT AN8-32X \| Opteron 165 (@ 2.7 GHz) \| eVGA 7900 GTO Lappy: Apple 15" MBP Santa Rosa \| 2.4 GHz \| 4GB RAM \| 500GB \| 256MB 8600 GT-M NAS: Jetway JNC62K \| AMD 4850e 2.5 GHz AM2 \| 2GB RAM \| 2.7 TB RAID-5 Last edited by shomann; 5th Dec 2006 at 19:49. Reason: Changed the URL for the Sabrent card

5th Dec 2006, 22:10	#13
speedfreek Ultramodder Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: SE Wisconsin (us) Posts: 1,439	Theres enclosures that will do both esata and usb2, but sata blows away the usb so much it isnt funny. __________________ New Rig, Quad Core and 8800 baby! Now with 6gb of RAM and a nice even 2tb now my server\|Athlon 64 3700(2.64ghz)\|7800gs\|2gb XMS 2-3-3-6\|2tb+ total HD space... In raid\|I have a problem. New Laptop: HP EliteBook, its fast!

5th Dec 2006, 22:24	#14
Aankhen Supermodder Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: India Posts: 406	I have a slightly older version of this drive: 300 GB, smaller cache (I think), and USB + FireWire ports rather than eSATA. It worked alright till I accidentally dropped it about three weeks after I bought it, and half of the stuff I'd brought to Canada from India was lost. (The other half was mirrored on my other 300 GB external.) __________________ It sure took me a long time to realize I hadn't changed my forum settings since returning from Canadia-land.

5th Dec 2006, 22:30	#15
Jipa Licenced idiot. Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Tampere, Finland Posts: 3,068	/me wants one or two of those things __________________ Abit IP35 - E6750 - 8800GT 1024 MB - 2 GB 800 MHz - enough HDDs - 750 W Silverstone - CM Storm Sniper Asus P5Q-VM - Q9450 - 4 GB - 400 W Silverstone - Fortress FT01 AllTheMods - MetkuMods - LedCalc

6th Dec 2006, 05:10	#16
pillow Supermodder Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: illinois Posts: 573	yet another way to steal our money. i think that a new thread should be started on why are manufactures rasing the prices of their boards, why is extra crap inculded (thats not free, such as wireless, who uses wireless for their main rig especially for gaming??), and why less pci slots? but thats getting off topic. and esata for now i belive is another way to steal average joe's money and every one else who must have the latest techonology. edit:unless u are transfering large files and have very little time, whats the point in having one? this is the same with quad core and quad gpu. it will be useful but right it is not useful for most. __________________ just got me a macbook, but it can play cod4!

7th Dec 2006, 11:02	#17
IccleD Modder Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 52	This thread appears to have gone a little off topic, heres an attempt to get it back on the Subject Matter. Was I right in reading the this 500Gb External SATA Drive is CHEAPER then the same Internal Drive? Any chance you great people took some screws out, in the intrest of the pubic of course, and saw whats inside? I mean, could I really save money by buying this, and stripping it out? Maybe instead replacing the insides with an older EIDE Drive with SATA Converter / Controller attached?

7th Dec 2006, 13:28	#18
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	The internal drive is around £40 cheaper than the external drive. There aren't any obvious screws to undo without removing stickers, etc - it's got to go on to other publications, so we can't go taking it apart unfortunately. __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

29th Jan 2008, 13:16	#19
fathazza Freed on Probation Join Date: May 2002 Location: Gloucestershire Posts: 3,110	holy thread revival for a quick heads up that this is now £70 inc vat on ebuyer. im pretty tempted by it at that price. __________________ I may be fat but at least I am not Ginger "The President is no longer a cross-eyed Texan warmonger, unelected, inarticulate, who epitomises the arrogance of American foreign policy" - Boris Johnson