Noob Question - External drives: USB 3 or eSATA

Longwalker wrote on 7/7/2012, 10:27 AM

I read with interested the latest Noob question about building up a Win64 machine, as I'm getting ready to enter that new world of computing. Toward the end of the thread, discussion turned to using external drive for data and/or archiving with many posters mentioning eSATA drives.

I understand eSATA holds a slightly higher throughput than USB 3.0 but they are much harder to find. Are there compelling reasons to seek out external eSATA drives over the newer and more common USB 3.0?

Thanks

Comments

john_dennis wrote on 7/7/2012, 11:09 AM

"...eSATA holds a slightly higher throughput than USB 3.0 but they are much harder to find."

eSATA drives are not at all hard to find. Just buy one of the hundreds of external enclosures available and put any bare SATA drive into it. Look at these eleven pages of options. eSATA disks operate the same as the internal disks to the OS and applications.

Laurence wrote on 7/7/2012, 12:32 PM

I use USB3 and it's great. In the past I used eSata and I liked that as well. USB3 is a lot cheaper and more readily available. If anything, my USB3 drives are faster, but that's probably because they are more recent. I have been using small bus powered ones and they've been fine.

videoITguy wrote on 7/7/2012, 12:52 PM

This topic comparison has been dealt with a number of times - search threads with terms 'USB3.0" or "sata".....of course tech is changing constantly and newer implementations come along.

I have found that "esata" is a little tricky to deal with - as its implementation varies quite a bit depending on the motherboard and how the external implementation of connectors is made.

I have found USB3.0 to be the very best implementation of USB for external harddrives ever...its plugnplay and blasts USB2 in speed and efficiency completely out to left field. Again the final benefit will vary on your motherboard and what internal interfaces you have installed.

Now comes Thunderbolt - and if it gets rolling as it should very soon, watch out - its a quantum leap ahead.

Jerry K wrote on 7/8/2012, 10:42 AM

I been researching 2-tb external hard drives the past week. After reading all the problems with esata that people are having I will be going with USB 3.0

I have four 1-tb external hard drives that I purchased about 5 years ago. One of them has esata which never work.This esata drive also has USB 2.0 which works fine. The other 3 external drives I have are Fantom Drives and are only USB 2.0 These 3 external Fantom Drives have W/D green drives inside which I believe are only 5400 rpm.

I purchased these drives when I was editing SD. The past two years I switch to avchd and still use these drives with out any problem.

Here's the link to the next drive I'm thinking of getting.
http://www.fantomdrives.com/products/greendrive-u3.htm
Model # GD2000U3
Amazon has this 2-tb usb 3.0 drive for $145.99 free shipping.
B&H also has this drive.

Jerry Katz

Laurence wrote on 7/8/2012, 1:46 PM

Another issue I have with eSata was that unlis you have an eSata controller that specifically supports more than one drive, you can't use eSata with a multi drive enclosure.

earthrisers wrote on 7/8/2012, 6:11 PM

I use both USB3 and eSATA external drives, and am basically happy with both.
***One heads-up: A lot of external drives these days come with a built-in "sleep" function that turns the drive off after a certain period of non-access. I've specifically encountered this with Seagate USB3 drives.
That little function was regularly causing Vegas to freeze up and/or crash, when Vegas tried to access a file in my current project that had suddenly "disappeared" (because the drive had gone to sleep).
I made the mistake of deleting the Utility Software that came with the drive, when I set up the drive. Allegedly that software provides a way for preventing the sleep-function from working. I had to search for another solution, which wound up being turning off the "Let Windows turn this drive off to save power" feature in Windows7 Device Manager.

farss wrote on 7/8/2012, 6:41 PM

Yes, that "sleep" function in pretty much all the USB drives can be a PIA.
Using USB drives to edit from is really inviting trouble PLUS the USB interface uses considerable CPU resources. Even worse, the ACTUAL number of USB ports on the mobo is nothing like the number of USB connections, there maybe 2 or 3 ports and severl hubs. What that means is your keyboar, mouse and drive(s) are competing for bandwidth and CPU resources.

eSATA is way, way better if you want to edit from an extrenal drive, it is exactly the same connection as to an internal drive, just a longer cable. If you don't have any eSATA ports on your mobo just buy the eSATA riser plate and cable it to spare SATA ports.

USB 2/3 is fine for backups though as it is PnP. eSATA is touted as being PnP under Win7 but I'd not trust it myself.

Bob.

videoITguy wrote on 7/8/2012, 7:00 PM

It is a mistake to say Esata is just like "indoor" Sata. No that is not quite correct and it takes careful read of the implementation.
Esata is a development of special external connectors through limited length cable runs with defined electrical sensitivity and current to run outboard placed equipment. The one thing it should share with "indoor" Sata is final throughput and usually that is not the problem.

What is a pain, your motherboard chipset must support Esata either through a fixed implementation or a changing of BIOS settings if they are placed there in the first place.

As Bob is so quickly wanting to make a statement (hhmm) - the fact is you can thread an internal motherboard connector of Sata with a defined length of cable (not long) through the case wall to get a regular sata drive connected. THIS is not "Esata".