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e-SATA card for X61
Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 11:42 pm
by mfbernstein
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
Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 6:41 am
by pmeinl
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.
Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 7:43 am
by pibach
Does the x61 support "express"? I can see only it has the older PCMCIA slot.
Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 8:52 am
by pmeinl
The X61 does not support express cards.
Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2007 11:59 am
by pibach
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.
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 1:58 pm
by pmeinl
Die you find a fast PCMCIA eSATA card in the meantime?
I returned my Dawicontrol card because of its unacceptable performance.
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:24 pm
by pibach
In the above review I posted they use the Vantec eSATA PCMCIA card and report good results.
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:58 pm
by iamdmc
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.
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 9:09 pm
by qviri
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.
Re: e-SATA card for X61
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:10 am
by bill bolton
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.
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:51 am
by iamdmc
Just using Vista SP1 RC. My normal transfer rate is 25-40MB/s, but I get bursts up to 80
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:00 am
by qviri
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.