Question:
PCMCIA to eSATA Card - Worth it?
More specifically...this one.
As most of the time I'm plugged in anyway, I was thinking of getting this. If it outperforms my USB connection I'd seriously consider this for the price...but I wanted to see if someone actually has this and could provide some HD Tune benchmarks as well as their personal thoughts.
Answer:
Re: PCMCIA to eSATA Card - Worth it?
I dont have any experience with one of those, but at its peak, PCMCIA throughput speeds peak at around 130 Mb/s, and eSATA speeds are around 2400 Mb/s.
And USB 2.0 throughput is 480 Mb/s at its peak, so using PCMCIA for any device is restrict the speed at 130Mb/s. So USB 2.0 would be faster than using the adapter.
I'm pretty sure what I said is right, but am I missing something? Is what i said wrong? :p
Answer:
Re: PCMCIA to eSATA Card - Worth it?
I would say though that while USB has a max output of 480 mb/s, it never comes even remotely close to managing this, while I suspect the connection through the PCMCIA is less variable and would have a higher sustained trasnfer rate based on the type of hardware in use.
But also, can't you use a PCMCIA firewire adapter card and attain full firewire transfer rates?
Answer:
Re: PCMCIA to eSATA Card - Worth it?
PCMCIA in most laptops support 32bit cardbus which has a theorectical max of ~1Gbits/s.
USB2 in theory is ok 480Mbits/s (60MBytes/s) but in reality the speeds can't be reached and the best throughput I have seen is around 35MBytes/s.
http://www.pcmcia.org/pccard.htm#rhis
And USB 2.0 throughput is 480 Mb/s at its peak, so using PCMCIA for any device is restrict the speed at 130Mb/s. So USB 2.0 would be faster than using the adapter.
Well, that part is incorrect; USB 2.0 is 480Mbit/s - that's megabits per second, not megabytes. 480Mbit/s is 60MB/s. ;)
@night: Do you really need this device? If you are transferring large amounts of data back and forth between your notebook and the hard drive on a daily basis, then yes, it may be worth the $27. Otherwise, I'd say skip it. It's another device you have to worry about and another $27 you could stash.
It will outperform your USB 2.0 connection for the record. If your notebook has a Firewire port you may consider connecting through that. IEEE 1394 mini-Firewire ports are limited to 400Mbit/s, but its data transfer rates are much more stable than that of USB. Remember that USBN 2.0's 480Mbit/s rate is a peak speed and isn't what you will be getting most of the time. Burst maybe, but not constant. Other devices also need USB bandwidth, and notebooks only have one USB controller as far as I know. Mouse, keyboard, etc. also need bandwidth.
Answer:
Re: PCMCIA to eSATA Card - Worth it?
@night: Do you really need this device? If you are transferring large amounts of data back and forth between your notebook and the hard drive on a daily basis, then yes, it may be worth the $27. Otherwise, I'd say skip it. It's another device you have to worry about and another $27 you could stash.
It will outperform your USB 2.0 connection for the record. If your notebook has a Firewire port you may consider connecting through that. IEEE 1394 mini-Firewire ports are limited to 400Mbit/s, but its data transfer rates are much more stable than that of USB. Remember that USBN 2.0's 480Mbit/s rate is a peak speed and isn't what you will be getting most of the time. Burst maybe, but not constant. Other devices also need USB bandwidth, and notebooks only have one USB controller as far as I know. Mouse, keyboard, etc. also need bandwidth.
I've got that Vantec USB & eSATA hard drive enclosure for backups...most of the time I'm backing up either my 10GB of documents or 50-80GB of programs and Window's installs. That takes time as my backups take quite a lot of time to do (Acronis Differential Backups), and I'm basically wondering how much time I can save by going with a faster connection. No FW is possible...my laptop has the port but the enclosure does not.
The backups basically scan both my local drive and the archive, find the differences, and then transfer/backup the changes.
I just wonder if the time saved with backups is worth the $27...if it breaks I can always go back to USB.
Answer:
Re: PCMCIA to eSATA Card - Worth it?
Alternatively, you could do the backups when you don't need your computer; overnight. You would save time with the PCMCIA card for sure, but why spend money if you don't have to. ;)
Answer:
Re: PCMCIA to eSATA Card - Worth it?
Alternatively, you could do the backups when you don't need your computer; overnight. You would save time with the PCMCIA card for sure, but why spend money if you don't have to. ;)
Very true...hmmm, all nighters for the PC...yum.
For some reason, I'm only getting about 8MB/sec on all my external drives. I used to be able to pull about 15MB/sec so I need to go back and see what's wrong now...:(
Answer:
Re: PCMCIA to eSATA Card - Worth it?
Bottom line - this device with an eSATA enclosure will give the same speeds as an internal drive. It will be considerably faster than USB 2.0.
For $27, you'll never look back.
Answer:
Re: PCMCIA to eSATA Card - Worth it?
Here is a review on a similar card at THG http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/11/...rdbus_adapter/
eSATA should be faster then USB but the PCMCIA cards are pretty crapy. I suspect that there are better and worse chips for this same as USB. Some are fast and some suck. Also it depends on the harddisk chip too and how well it communicates with the PCMCIA side.