Hello all I run alot of virutal machines on my laptop via 3 externally connected USB 2.0 2.5 HDD all using their own port directly into my laptop. I'm looking to consolidate these and was thinking of using a single SSD via the eSATA port on my laptop docking station. The two main queries I'm investigating is: 1) The performance difference of: One SSD > eSATA docking station > eSATA connector on Laptop Docking station > Laptop versus Three USB 2.0 disks attached directly to my laptop. (No hub being used) 2) Will the connection between my laptop and laptop docking station be a bottleneck for eSATA speed. Does anyone have any ideas that could help?
1) SSD on eSATA will run much, much quicker. USB2 disks are limited to 32MB/s, even the first SSDs were better than tht 2) No. eSATA is SATA with different connector. eSATA dock just transforms that eSATA back to SATA connector, with added power connector.
Thanks Faugausztin, thats great. What do you think about the docking connector however between the laptop and the laptop docking station? Will that transform to eSATA speeds?
I expect your eSATA to have SATA2 speeds, so let's analyze this : One SSD - SATA2 or SATA3 speeds possible > eSATA docking station - limits the speed to SATA2 speeds > eSATA connector on Laptop Docking station - limits the speed to SATA2 speeds > Laptop Unless your docking station is not eSATA, you will get SATA2 speeds, as if the drive was internal.
The dock won't limit speed, it doesn't do anything to the signal, just makes it easier to plug/unplug a drive. Speed wise eSATA (same speeds as normal SATA) will wipe the floor with USB2: USB2 - 35 MB/s SATA2 - 300 MB/s
It must be noted also that: -> USB uses your CPU to process/transfer anything -> USB 2.0 is unidirectional, that means, you can read OR write, not both at the same time. If you do both, the process of reading and writing will drop in considerable about of speed as it manages both tasks. -> SATA/eSATA are optimized for 1 task and 1 task only, data transfer, while USB is designed to support all kind of devices.
