eSATA Enclosures?

[ineluki2]

What's the story with the extremely limited options for purchasing an eSATA enclosure? Does it make a difference even, or will my transfer rates be limited by USB2 throughput anyway?

I need something that my current SATA Seagate 120 GB can possibly plug into, if it survives the night . Unfortunately, my brand of choice, Bytecc, doesn't seem to make something SATA compatible. At least, I couldn't find it on the egg.

Also, what's the deal with complete external drives like the WD WDXB1600JBRNN and One-Touch drives versus an enclosure with internal? Is the markup on the former units simply set to screw the layman?

 

[Zuht]

Also, what's the deal with complete external drives like the WD WDXB1600JBRNN and One-Touch drives versus an enclosure with internal? Is the markup on the former units simply set to screw the layman?

The prepackaged external drives are essentially normal 3.5" drives in enclosures. The same usually goes for external CD burners, etc (slim notebook styles excluded).

 

[Elledan]

What's the story with the extremely limited options for purchasing an eSATA enclosure? Does it make a difference even, or will my transfer rates be limited by USB2 throughput anyway?

External SATA is like external SCSI. It's the same thing as the internal stuff, except for the location of the connected device(s).

 

[Ice Czar]

eSATA is by far the simplest way to get the best throughput possible limited only to the internal performance of the HDD (60>30MB/s or so)

Id recommend the Highpoint eSATA packages (which strangely use PATA drives)
or at least their PCI Controller cards

of course if your actually transfering the HDD elsewhere, its unlikely you will find an sxternal SATA port, and if you connect to a friends internal SATA port, the BIOS configuration to get it into the right slot in the boot order will be interesting, since there is so much variety in the BIOSs

as Elledan pointed out its pretty much like an external SCSI

for comparision what you have to deal with in USB and some realworld results
USB Considerations

Originally posted by lessthanjakejohn
The USB standard is in a state of flux, with vendors often using their
own interpretation of the words "full" and "high". At one point, "full
speed" referred to USB 1.1 operating in a USB 2 port at the 12Mb/s
maximum of USB 1.1. "High speed" referred to the standard maximum speed
of USB 2, 480Mb/s. The USB organization has a statement to the effect
that one should determine what is being stated by a vendor from the
vendor itself if there is any doubt about what is being advertized.
This is important since some vendors were using the term "USB 2
compliant" to mean USB 1.1 would work, while customers were interpreting
it as "USB 2".

The USB standards organization still recognizes that Full Speed and Low
Speed refer to USB (formerly known as USB 1.1) transfer rates, and
High-Speed refers to Hi-Speed USB (formerly known as USB 2) at its
maximum transfer rate.

http://www.usb.org/info/usb_nomenclature

The USB-IF's naming and packaging recommendations for low- or full-speed
USB products, as listed on this web site state that such products can
carry only the basic version of the USB logo, which simply states
"Certified USB." We state clearly that manufacturers should avoid using
terminology such as USB 2.0 Full Speed, Full Speed USB or USB 2.0. These
formal recommendations were published to the USB-IF membership and
posted on this web site in August 2002.
[end quote]

Originally posted by PassMark
As there was some discussion about USB speed (Highspeed/FullSpeed), I thought I would mention that there are a number of other factors that impact USB speed. While USB 1.1 vs USB 2.0 is the most important, as already pointed out, USB 2.0 supports FullSpeed (12 Mb/s) and USB 2.0 may only operate below this speed. So it is imporatnt to know whether your USB 2.0 port and device are capable of HighSpeed.

Other issues that impact USB speed include: the manufacturers host controller implementation, point of connectivity to the host controller (e.g. A connection via the PCI bus will insert a bottleneck to achieving High-speed rates. My testing of PCI connected ports show they typically have a much slower maximum speed of 100 - 130Mb/s compared to typically 250Mb/s to 330Mb/s when directly connected to the motherboard, cabling (you might be surprised how much re-transmission is occurring - slowing things down), the device driver used, implementation of the USB device and the implementation of the application software.

This information is based on reliability testing and benchmarking carried out on the recently released USB 2.0 loopback and benchmark plug from www.passmark.com/product/usb2loopback.htm

additional interesting threads
interesting findings about USB HD
Some latest test results using USB2.0 external HD both by DZM, who is preparing a little FAQ for us based on his testing

also
USB (1.1?) Basic Technical Summary

 

[Zuht]

Yep.

http://www.byteccusa.com/product/enclosure/ME-720S.htm (your favorite brand)

Of course, you need an external connector like so...
http://www.axiontech.com/prdt.php?src=PW&item=62077

 

[ineluki2]

So I'm thinking portability (and thus USB/FW interface) is very important. Yet, all these enclosures specifically say they support IDE drives, and I'm hoping to use the SG native SATA I already own. Do I need to adapt this enclosure/drive somehow?

Oh, and thanks to all, as usual you're too damn helpful.

 

[Ice Czar]

eSATA is an external SATA port system and has nothing to do with USB, Firewire or Ethernet

you can put a SATA drive in a USB enclosure but then its a USB interface and bottlenecked, you can put a PATA in the same or either in a Firewire but again, the actual implementation of the enclosure, and the mobo will enter into it, and that is a tough nut to crack as to what your real performance is going to end up as

http://www.axiontech.com/prdt.php?src=PW&item=62077

thats just a bracket
think you mean that plus this
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/satacard.htm

bundled kits
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/esata.htm

 

[ineluki2]

Sorry about all the confusion. My dilemma is between SATA and USB/Firewire interface. I'm not really seeing the point of eSATA, what does it matter if it's inside or outside the case?

So say I want some kind of USB2/FW enclosure. Obviously, the connections are different between PATA and SATA, so which enclosures support my SATA drive?