• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

eSATA @ SATA 3gbps HDD Dock?

D

Deusfaux

Gawd
Joined
Apr 11, 2006
Messages
756
Does someone know of a dock that can do those speeds (or better) over eSATA?

I haven't tried the Thermaltake BlacX yet... does it? I know it says it does, but so did the Vantec NexStar one - and it does not.


I don't want a dock limiting my storage drives (esp SSDs) because it can't transfer at what it's supposed to.
 
Last edited:
The dock should make no difference really. It's essentially just a cable in PCB format.
 
3gbps is the max transfer speed for the sata II standard, there is no single drive capable of transferring data at this speed at this moment. So no matter what enclosure you get you will still be limited to the max your hdd can do (40-100 MB/s)
Personally I use TT BlacX and I'm happy with them for quick swap and transfer data, for pernament esata hdd i use antec mx-1.
 
Deusfaux said:
Does someone know of a dock that can do those speeds over eSATA?

I haven't tried the Thermaltake BlacX yet... does it? I know it says it does, but so did the Vantec NexStar one - and it does not.
Click to expand...

I have the Thermaltake BlacX and I love it. I switch in and out drives for easy data transfer from one computer to another. It also is nice when a friend wants some of your files, he/she can just bring over a drive and dock it quickly. I have used the USB/and eSATA connections and they both work great. I prefer the eSATA over USB, obviously due to its speed.
 
I should have been more specific. A dock that can operate at the 3gbps SATA standard. vs maxing out at the 1.5gbps standard, like the Vantec one.

And SSDs can transfer faster than 1.5gbps. And regular mechanical HDDs can burst faster than that too.

Thus, I dont want a piece of shit dock like the Vantec choking my eSATA speeds.
 
Deusfaux said:
I should have been more specific. A dock that can operate at the 3gbps SATA standard. vs maxing out at the 1.5gbps standard, like the Vantec one.

And SSDs can transfer faster than 1.5gbps. And regular mechanical HDDs can burst faster than that too.

Thus, I dont want a piece of shit dock like the Vantec choking my eSATA speeds.
Click to expand...

Uhm, epic fail? Only drives in the world that are that fast that I know of are ram drives like the Gigabyte iDrive.

Internally even the OCZ Vertex can only move data close to 300mbps but no where near 3,000 mbps and externally maybe 100mbps - 150mbps from system to drive and visa versa.

In 10 years when they have SATA-IV maybe we'll finally have HD's that can move data from system to disc @ 500mbps if we're lucky :)

Wouldn't 15k rpm U320 SCSI raid-0 be about as fast as you can get still?
 
at least you registered with an accurate name.

recheck your units. bits vs bytes

1.5gbps (gigaBITS) is equal to 150MB/s(megaBYTES). Drives like my 7200.10 can easily burst to like 240MB/s. SSDs have sustained transfers well above 150MB/s / 1.5gbps
 
I have the BlacX and I was curios so I ran some benchmarks with it - the drives connected through it were just as fast and the ones connected internally - both WD Black drives, I can't remember the benchmarks scores now but they were what I expected so I'd say that yes it can do 3gpbs speeds.
 
Actually Deusfaux, 1.5 Gb/s is equal to 187.5MB/s. There are 8 bits in a byte. Regardless, your point still holds.
 
thank you fellows.

Forceman, or anyone else with a BlacX. Can you pop in any recent drive and please run a quick bench of it with hdtach or hdtune

Just sure confirmation that it can even show a benchmark above 150mb/s (likely the burst transfer, unless you got an SSD on hand) would lead me to believe it's not limited to SATA 1.5gbps speeds like the POS vantec
 
hmm doesn't look like blackX can go above ~120 MB/s

HDTune_Benchmark_OCZ-VERTEX_1275.png
 
that was the blacX using eSATA, with a drive that should be getting far higher sustains and bursts, right?

would it, in your opinion, appear to be limiting the drives' potential performance?


If you had the time, could you post a screencap of that same drive installed in regular sata w/o using the dock?
 
yes that was blacX using esata with ocz vertex capable of sustained 200mb/s, so yes the blacX limits the drive's performace but only in case of SSDs, normal current 7.2k/10k rotating drives won't be limited as they are not yet capable of sustaining over 120mb/s

I'm at work and can't benchmark the drive without the dock atm but you can see the same drive benched in this post
 
well, in the case of the mechanical rotating drives, i didn't mean limited in any real-world way, but at least insofar that the bursts were being capped off - that is, further proof the dock caps ANY drive off at the SATA 1.5gbps limit
 
axan said:
normal current 7.2k/10k rotating drives won't be limited as they are not yet capable of sustaining over 120mb/s
Click to expand...


Most newer hard drives are at least that fast at the beginning of the drive, so thats something to consider. Also another thing is future mechanical drives will have even faster speeds at the beginning of the drive. Ive seen 140MB/sec for the new Samsung drives.
 
Anyone know of a dual dock that has decent speeds?

I have a Vantec Nexstar and i cant get over 30MB/s on eSATA
 
Deusfaux said:
still want one
Click to expand...


Me too . Im so tired of being limited by this capping my very short burst speed. Its really annoying to transfer a 197 kb jpg every 5 hours and not have that extra "oomph" from the burst.

I know I know, some of you will say make sure your LAN is all gigabit, get a nice raid card, etc before you worry about that small difference, but dang it I cant sleep at night knowing if I build a whole server from SSD and Velociraptors Id be limited on initial burst speed.

:confused::confused::confused:


Why not be [Hard] and wire it directly to the mobo with a regular Sata cable and power inputs running outside the case? Then your not limited by anything but your Mobo.
 
They cap SSD's sequential speeds too, genius.

Because I want to be able to cleanly and easily swap often, I want a dock.
 
jay2472000 said:
Why not be [Hard] and wire it directly to the mobo with a regular Sata cable and power inputs running outside the case? Then your not limited by anything but your Mobo.
Click to expand...

Actually it's not even that hard. My Gigabyte MB came with a bracket that did exactly this - it has two eSATA ports on it that connect to the SATA ports inside, along with a power connector (and cable) to allow external hookup. Not as elegant as a dock, but completely functional.
 
i'm STILL looking. at this point I almost might as well wait for a USB 3 or SATA 6g dock
 
If you have a docking with combo interface, it will introduce latency to the transfer process, i would go a straight SATA to eSATA docking instead and avoid combo eSATA and USB docking if the speed is what you are after
 
Deusfaux said:
i'm STILL looking. at this point I almost might as well wait for a USB 3 or SATA 6g dock
Click to expand...

For a single drive USB3.0 and SATA6.0 are not going to offer much compare to eSATA (3.0Gb), the major improvement is coming from your set up at the BIOS... SATA port should be set at enhance mode, instead of Legacy or compatible mode

Because Enhance mode will take advantage of SATA 2 mode like 3.0Gb, NCQ and hot swap...
 
Do you KNOW of a dock that's eSATA only? That's what you're suggesting to look for?

And there are SSDs that already push past SATA II limit, so a SATA III or USB 3 dock wouldn't be unreasonable to consider.

I just don't have either of those on my mobo, so the cost would be higher than

JUST FINDING A F'ING SATA II DOCK. Manufacturers and their lies!
 
INTERESTING TURN OF EVENTS!

Just got off the phone with Thermaltake and APPARENTLY

at some point (guy thought Q1 2009) they revised the product and started using a different controller.


He claims it now uses a JMicron JM20336. (whereas the Hardware Canucks review showed it using an Initio controller)

Which, when research IS supposedly capable of SATA II speeds.


Quiet revisions without model # changes are always frustrating.


Only way to confirm all this is have someone who bought one in the last year open it up and look at what controller is inside.

Or test it in HDtach/HDtune/etc and see if you can get a burst or sustain over 150MB/s
 
Maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't eSATA just SATA with different connectors? Or maybe a slight variation in signalling voltages to deal with longer cables, something like that. Either way, how would it be affected by the particular enclosure if all said enclosure contains is a power supply and some connectors? I get the USB or FIrewire or anything that isn't SATA would require some kind of translation logic, but this should be pretty straightforward. Assuming that the connectors and cables involved worked correctly, and the power was stable, there should be no difference between having the drive mounted internally and connected to a SATA port, and having the same drive connected to the same SATA port via eSATA connections. I just don't see what needs to be so special about the enclosure to prevent the drive from running at the full speed of it's interface.

Dustin
 
cuz they all contain bridge chips to use usb as well

and they've been using shitty ass controllers that only did SATA I speeds
 
I bought a Thermaltake BlacX ST0005U today. I confirmed that it utilizes a JMicron JM20336 (sata 3.0Gb/s) controller. It's easy to take out the two screws and check for yourself.

http://www.jmicron.com/JM20336.html

A few days ago I bought the EagleTech Consus ET-CSKESU2-BK. It was on sale for less than the Thermaltake and includes a memory card reader. However, the eSata port was DOA. After checking the insides I found a Sunplus SPIF301 (sata 1.5Gb/s) controller.

http://www.sunplusit.com/english/products/storage/SPIF301.aspx

I am very happy that I exchanged that EagleTech junk for the Thermaltake unit. :D
 
Thank you so much for helping with this.

I have one other person confirm the JMicron controller in the Thermaltake, however in the one test they showed me (HDTach screencap)

a driver that should have had bursts over 150MB/s was showing 143MB/s bursts... the SATA I speed limit.

Could you test a known fast drive (either HDD with higher than 150MB/s bursts, OR almost any SSD with sustained speeds over 150MB/s) in the dock?

Or use software like Intel MSM / RST to read the Generation 1 or 2 speed of the dock connection?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top