eSATA cards for T60?

[BKthink]

Anyone have a recommendation for an eSATA card that works well with the T60? Main purpose is to connect bare hard drives up to 2TB in capacity.

My Apricorn USB/SATA cable does not really cut it anymore, and I'm also hoping that the various drive manufacturer utilities will correctly recognize their drives through eSATA (unlike the USB bridge).

BK

[miro_gt]

I have StarTech eSata 54mm expresscard on my T61 that works awesome. If you dont have expresscard slot then they have PCMCIA cards as well, check their website: http://www.startech.com/

when I researched it I found out that depending on the chipset the card uses, it will work better or worse. Cards based on Sil3132 work awesome, and I can confirm it 100%. Same chipset was used in SIIG cards as well, which are known for their good products. At the same time people that used the thin cards with another chipset complained of problems.

good luck.

[BKthink]

That's exactly the info I was looking for - thanks!

I just compared the detailed thinkpad specs, and both the T60 and T61 seem to share the same capability for ExpressCard 54, so that looks like a good way to go here.

Have you had a chance to look at HD SMART data on drives connected through this card?

BK

[miro_gt]

I just checked it as I got WD 500GB 7200 rpm connected to it right now. It shows smart data.

I got 2.56TB reads and 2.43 writes on this drive, 904 "power on" times and 5530 "on" hours. It shows firmware, serial number, interface, transfer mode, standards, features, and bunch of ID codes as per CrystalDiskInfo.

[BKthink]

Ability to pass SMART info is good sign! Most of my 3.5" drives are WD, so doubly good. Which card model do you have specifically? StarTech has several ExpressCards with the Sil3132 chipset, but one report on Amazon says it didn't work right with a T60. Hoping I can get away with the $18 card.

BK

[miro_gt]

ECESATA254

bought it for 50 bux an year or two ago, lol.

[Peak2Peak]

A little late to the party - I am currently using a cheap eSATA ExpressCard based on the JM Micron JMB362 chipset for over 1.5 years and so far works OK with no probs.

Did not have much have much luck with a previous cheapo Sil3132 chipset based eSATA ExpressCard - Constant system freezes and lock ups when reading and writing to eSATA external HDD's.