Guys what would be better for external 2.5" HDD plugged to laptop - USB 3.0 or eSATAp? I'm guessing eSATA will run on SATA3 speeds, but it would be exactly same as plugged HDD internally? Am I right? Would USB 3.0 be faster than that?
It is not that simple. eSATAp gives you performance of the internal SATA connector it is connected to. Unfortunately for you, in most cases it is SATA2 conector. What is worse, eSATA itself is rare thing on laptops, and eSATAp (eSATA+USB2 power) is next to nowhere to be found. USB3 on other side is compatible with USB2 as a worst case scenario, and while it could limit an SSD drive, it is probably better option due the higher compatibility with pretty much any device which has USB host feature. A quick google search for USB3 connected SSD shows these results : http://www.thessdreview.com/our-rev...d-ssd2go-usb-3-0-external-ssd-review-480gb/3/
cheers. Laptop I may buy has only 2 USB 3.0 and one eSATAp, that is why I wanted to spare some USB and get esata drive. But on the other hand I can always get a wee usb hub plug hdd to usb 3 and mouse to hub, problem solved
Why not an enclosure with both? The latest esatap are usb3 based. There are many in existence. When going usb3 for storage, make sure both chips on the pc and the disk enclosure are uasp capable.
UASP. It has a lot of performance increase. It's definitely worth making sure of if you are going to be using external disks a lot over usb.
