Hardware Seagate 500GB eSATA External HDD

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/12/05/seagate_500gb_esata_external_hdd/1.html

 

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.

 

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???

 

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.

We are attempting to find out...

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

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...

 

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

 

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.)

 

/me wants one or two of those things

 

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.

 

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?

 

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.

 

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