e-SATA card for X61

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mfbernstein · #1 Post by **mfbernstein** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 11:42 pm

Considering getting a PCMCIA (cardbus) e-SATA card for my X61. Hoping mainly to speed up backups and booting from external drives (currently using USB, which can be rather sluggish).

Anybody have experience with this sort of setup? I briefly tried the same thing back when I had a Mac laptop, but had major stability and performance issues. Also, the drives weren't bootable.

Thanks,

MFBernstein

pmeinl · #2 Post by **pmeinl** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 6:41 am

I tried a Dawicontrol DC-150 PCMCIA eSATA card (SIL 3512 chipset).
I is very slow: 4MB/Sec writing in contrast to 20MB/Sec via USB on the same X61T to the same disk. On my desktop I can write with 65MB/Sec to the same disk via eSATA.

May be the Vista x64 driver is the problem, there are newer drivers for 32bit.

pibach · #3 Post by **pibach** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 7:43 am

Does the x61 support "express"? I can see only it has the older PCMCIA slot.

pmeinl · #4 Post by **pmeinl** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 8:52 am

The X61 does not support express cards.

pibach · #5 Post by **pibach** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 11:59 am

ok.
Anyway it should speedup performance.

Here is a good review:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3827

PCMCIA maxes out at about 70 MB/s
enough for most HDDs and even Raid.

pmeinl · #6 Post by **pmeinl** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:58 pm

Die you find a fast PCMCIA eSATA card in the meantime?

I returned my Dawicontrol card because of its unacceptable performance.

pibach · #7 Post by **pibach** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:24 pm

In the above review I posted they use the Vantec eSATA PCMCIA card and report good results.

iamdmc · #8 Post by **iamdmc** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:58 pm

I'd say don't waste your money unless you're doing eSATA constantly.

I get anywhere from 25MB/s to 80MB/s using just USB on my Vista SP1 RC machine. When the final SP1 build comes out, it'll probably be even faster.

qviri · #9 Post by **qviri** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 9:09 pm

iamdmc wrote:I get anywhere from 25MB/s to 80MB/s using just USB on my Vista SP1 RC machine.

What method are you using to measure this? The maximum specification speed for USB 2.0 is 480 Mbps, which is 60 MB/s.

#10 Post by **bill bolton** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:10 am

mfbernstein wrote:Anybody have experience with this sort of setup?

I have a ST Lab CB-eSATA-1 Cardbus adapter that supports 2 x eSATA connections...

Chipset: Silicon Image Sil 3512
----------------------------------------------------------
Bus Interface: CardBus Type II, 32-bit 33MHz, 3.3V
----------------------------------------------------------
Features:
* Connect up to 2 SATA devices
* Supports Serial ATA data transfer rate up to 1.5Gbps
* Supports PIO and DMA modes
* Hot swappable
----------------------------------------------------------
OS Supports: Windows 98SE/ ME/2000/XP & Linux/Vista
----------------------------------------------------------
Connectors: 2 x eSATA ports

It works fine for me on several ThinkPad models under XP Pro and Vista, but my use for it is not particularly speed sensitive and I've never felt the need to run a speed test on it.

Cheers,

Bill B.

iamdmc · #11 Post by **iamdmc** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:51 am

Just using Vista SP1 RC. My normal transfer rate is 25-40MB/s, but I get bursts up to 80

qviri · #12 Post by **qviri** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:00 am

iamdmc wrote:My normal transfer rate is 25-40MB/s, but I get bursts up to 80

Physically impossible, sorry. Software is lying to you.

e-SATA card for X61

e-SATA card for X61

Re: e-SATA card for X61

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