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News Benchmarks show eSATA still king

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 8 Feb 2010.

  1. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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  2. l3v1ck

    l3v1ck Fueling the world, one oil well at a time.

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    I've never used eSATA. How do you power the external device?
    Do you need a separate power supply like with 3.5" external HDD's or does it get power through a USB cable, or is it something else?
     
  3. Lazarus Dark

    Lazarus Dark Minimodder

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    I've had an esata/usb external drive for a couple years and after the first week I got it, I haven't used the esata since. Despite the speed sacrifice, it is just always easier to plug a single usb cord than to plug in the esata.... then search through the rats nest trying to find an open socket to plug in the power cord, plus the added extra cabling you'd have to carry as opposed to the single usb cord (which you'd have to carry anyway in case there's no free esata port at your friends house or wherever)

    I've been saying since esata first showed up, it needs power integrated. So I still think usb3.0 will dominate the market, but if they could get esata 6gb WITH power standardized and in products, there's still plenty of room for it in the market.
     
  4. pizan

    pizan that's n00b-tastic

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    Did USB finally pass Firewire though?
     
  5. Redbeaver

    Redbeaver The Other Red Meat

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    oh? so USB3.0 has power integrated? didnt kno that.....

    i got an eSATA plug at the front, so i still prefer eSATA. and i just use it for extra storage/file server in the house, so i barely unplug it... my old USB2.0 storage needs a power plug too tho...
     
  6. Dead Ghost

    Dead Ghost What's a Dremel?

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    The power of USB3.0 is still not enough for a single 3.5" drive, as far as i know...You still need a power cable. Please correct me if i'm wrong.
     
  7. shanky887614

    shanky887614 What's a Dremel?

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    usb2.0 sends power through it think of your webcam

    anyway i dont know about you buy usb3.0 is backwards compatable with 2.0 and every body has a usb port in some form or another but not everyone has esata ports becasue usb is more practicle

    ask most people on the street about esata and they wont understand you ask them about usb and they will of at least heard of it
     
  8. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    same reason i stopped using eSATA after the 1st time tried it. with portable drives, speed doesn't matter as much as having 1 wire.

    as the article says, with more mature controller, we should see performance of USB3 improve.

    eSATA is faster is because it cuts off the USB controller, once the controller is optimised, USB3 should be faster than eSATA 3Gbps.
     
  9. Goty

    Goty Minimodder

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    Most 3.5" HDDs will draw more than an amp worth of current and I think USB 3.0 can only supply half an amp at most, so I think you'd still need a power supply.
     
  10. Nikumba

    Nikumba Minimodder

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    USB 2 tends to be faster than Firewire 400 but ONLY when there is only one device on the USB bus.

    Once you have two devices the bandwith is halved, etc, where as Firewire is a parallel technology so every device gets the same 400mbs

    Also I tend to find Firewire puts less laod on teh CPU when doing a lot of copies
     
  11. Anfield

    Anfield Multimodder

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    In theory it could be up to 5v and 0.9 amps (or even 1.8 if its used as just a power cable) , but current implementations are limited to less.

    As for eSata, power over eSata is planned, but when we will actually see products in retail is unknown.
     
  12. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes How many wifi's does it have?

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    That is why you use powered eSATA.. eSATA with power!
    Example of a device that uses that: http://www.trustedreviews.com/storage/review/2009/12/03/Verbatim-eSATA-USB-Combo-SSD-32GB/p1
    The above device, also has USB plug for usage on system that doesn't have a powered eSATA (it's essentially (well that is what) it is a USB with a eSATA plug in the same plug. So you can plug a USB device or eSATA or a eSATA powered plug)

    Not really, it's mainly because USB 2.0 is uni-direction (1 direction at a time), so as soon as you do a read/write, both actions battle themselves for passing through the wire which significantly reduces speed.
     
    Last edited: 8 Feb 2010
  13. shanky887614

    shanky887614 What's a Dremel?

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    thats why people use 2.5inch drives becasue they will run from a single usb 2.0 cable
     
  14. TSR2

    TSR2 What's a Dremel?

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    @Goty: USB3 can supply more power than USB2 (.9 as opposed to .5 amps MAX) however I doubt whether many devices will exploit that power owing to the need for backwards compatability with USB2 and the possibility of the board not being good enough.
     
  15. The Growler

    The Growler What's a Dremel?

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    I've been using eSATA for over a year now to back up my computers to an external hard drive and from what I've seen it's every bit as fast as reading/writing to my internal drives. The external enclosures come with power adapters that just plug into the wall. You also have the option to pick any make and size (capacity) of hard drive that fits your needs.
     
  16. Farfalho

    Farfalho Minimodder

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    Honestly, I don't care much about external storage, I did but not know. Having the Zalman GS1000 is a treat, the hot swap front bays is the only kind of removable storage I need. Going to friends house, just plug in, done and the same here.

    But such as USB3.0 becomes more mature so will SATA3 and possible eSATA2 or eSATA3 just to keep up with the tech and without creating confusion to the average consumer. Maybe then the speed of new eSATA will make up for needing 2 wires instead of one.

    Bottom line, for travel and business person, USB3.0 on 2.5" drives is the perfect solution. For upper mainstream, enthusiasts who like to have external storage, eSATA. A power hub to the eSATA caddies/drives might also prove worthy
     
  17. Tulatin

    Tulatin The Froggy Poster

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    eSATA isn't even so much a standard as it is a connector. Based on that, the current theoretical maximum speed for an eSATA device is 6gbps, which ain't bad.
     
  18. dark_avenger

    dark_avenger Minimodder

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    USB3 seems the way forward.
    Everyone knows USB and everyone has USB.

    ability to plug your drive into any computer in the last 10+ years is where it wins over.
     
  19. The_Beast

    The_Beast I like wood ಠ_ಠ

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    I like my esata, any of my external storage is going to need a power supply anyways so why not get a little speed while I'm plugging stuff in
     
  20. LucusLoC

    LucusLoC What's a Dremel?

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    the other problems with esata is that it sometimes needs a trip to the bios to get it to work right. it is not a pretty much guaranteed thing like usb. if you are only planning on using it as a storage device on 1 computer it is not such a big deal (but in that case why not just get an internal?)

    usb has ease of setup, backwards compatibility, and universal adoption, even if it is slower. it is just an easier standard to use. that does not make it "better" it just make it more prevalent, and also the only choice if you want true portability.

    esata has limited and specific uses, as long as you stick to those it works. as soon as you venture out into the world at large better make sure you have a usb option.


    my prediction: usb 3 will see a slower adoption rate than both usb 1 and 2, since full implementation of the standard would eliminate the backwards compatibility (e.g. the power issue). once it hits critical mass in consumer systems, however, it will fully replace both usb 2 on all new peripherals. it is at roughly this point i would expect to see the driver issues fully resolved and we can expect the highest real world sustained speeds from new devices. also, usb 3 relegates esata to the history bin, just like its predecessors did with firewire.
     
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