e-sata or firewire for express card?

[skinnie]

Hi Guys,
I have at home a Lacie Quadra D2 500Gb (usb2.0,fw400,fw800,e-sata), for the x230 I can only use the usb2.0 and I was thinking about buying an express card to make use of a faster connection.
What do you recommend?
From what I see e-sata is the cheapest and fastest, any recommendations of chipset or brand?

[loyukfai]

eSATA.

Cheers.

[rsutoratosu]

I dont understand why they dont put it in.. im looking for it also..


dont have my x230 on me, but i think this one works.. better read reviews, some card crashes or do not work at all.

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Expr ... card+esata

[skinnie]

I dont understand why they dont put it in.. im looking for it also..


dont have my x230 on me, but i think this one works.. better read reviews, some card crashes or do not work at all.

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Expr ... card+esata

I guess this things are +- the same.
Here is one review: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/51 ... eview.html

AKE Stuff is plain cheap on ebay.
I have an eye on this two:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hidden-Inside ... 2a1ffb44b7

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180911358029? ... 1438.l2649

They have one with esata and usb3.0, it would be nice too but I am afraid they don't work correctly or something.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hidden-USB-3- ... 27c853b253

[precip9]

The ESATA cards work poorly. I have both the Startech, and a Sonnett. There is an odd bottleneck in the read speed, limited to 50MB/sec. The write speed is higher.

I found that, even with my old Thinkpads, a USB 3.0 Expresscard, combined with an ESATA-->USB 3.0 converter, provides better performance. There is a choice: some provide power-over-ESATA, and some do not. It sounds like you don't need that feature. But this is what I use:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SuperSpeed-USB- ... 3cd4c53d84

Or, when the link expires, do an eBay search for "SuperSpeed USB 3.0 to Power eSATA USB Adapter Convertor".

I have three of these; they work very well, with no glitches. For adapters without power-over-Esata, search for "ESATA USB 3.0 converter". They are around $6.

[skinnie]

The ESATA cards work poorly. I have both the Startech, and a Sonnett. There is an odd bottleneck in the read speed, limited to 50MB/sec. The write speed is higher.

I found that, even with my old Thinkpads, a USB 3.0 Expresscard, combined with an ESATA-->USB 3.0 converter, provides better performance. There is a choice: some provide power-over-ESATA, and some do not. It sounds like you don't need that feature. But this is what I use:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SuperSpeed-USB- ... 3cd4c53d84

It works very well, no glitches. Do an eBay search for "ESATA USB 3.0 converter". The ones without power-over-Esata are around $6.

Nice, I didn't knew that.Since my HDD is powered I don't need those expensive ones right?
I wanted a express card because that way I would fill the empty space on my X230 (wich found a little fragile when I hand is pressing there).
Other thing is that I now have a T410s @home for my mother, having a express card I could make it have usb3.0 if I needed to work there.

[precip9]

You don't need a powered one.

[skinnie]

You don't need a powered one.

Thanks =)

[automobus]

The ESATA cards work poorly.

You pay for crap, you get crap.

"Two large pizzas cost more than a" grey-market eBay cheapo special from China "SATA card. The pizza is consumed in one night, maybe some for breakfast. Would you trust a day worth of pizza with your" "data?"
said Stan Hoeppner
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.raid/39589

My loudmouth opinion: two good cheap/economic PCIe SATA HBA chips: Silicon Image SiI3132 and SiI3531. SiI3531, I am under the impression, is a smaller die or lithography process than SiI3132, and is therefore a better choice for ExpressCard, if only one host port is needed.

My loudmouth opinion of the other SATA HBA which can be found in ExpressCard: most of the umpteen different Marvell, the ASMedia; they are crap.

My preference: genuine Lycom or IOI. Good luck finding a vendor.

My "never give them a cent unless I have no other choice" list: startech's crap, newegg's crap.

Off the top of my head: SiImage PCIe SATA is good for 140 Mo/s read and write to single target, and diminished return from both ports at once (about 160 or maybe 170 Mo/s aggregate; if I find my notes, then I will update my post).

some provide power-over-ESATA, and some do not.

Zounds, NO! ExpressCard has a power budget of (like) less than two watt (or something like that). A USB host controller ExpressCard contains a miniature 3.3V -> 5V DC-DC adapter. I do not trust it to export power to a hard disk drive.

edit: I am sorry for using mean words. I rewrote a little bit.
edit: I lied, power budget is greater than two watt. From ExpressCard specification: "The average power across both +3.3V and +3.3VAUX shall not exceed a total of 1000 mA", which equals 3.3 watt.

[precip9]

The ESATA cards work poorly.

You pay for crap, you get crap.
[snip]
My loudmouth opinion: [snip]
My loudmouth opinion: [snip]
My "never give them a cent unless I have no other choice" [snip]
Off the top of my head:[snip]
Only a fool should expect

The Startech and Sonnet ESATA cards are, in my experience, completely reliable. But read is throttled to 50 MB/second. The chips of both are Silicon Image. However, the Sonnet card has port multiplication. The throughputs are essentially identical.

The USB 3.0 adapter cards I use, made by Transcend, are supplied with an auxiliary power cable, connecting to a USB 2.0 port. Without the cable, the card can usually, but not always, start one drive. As far as I am aware, all USB 3.0 Expresscard adapters come with such a cable. It is advisable to use it.

The AS Media ESATA->USB 3.0 adapters have been completely reliable in use here. This is not off the top of my head.

[jcvjcvjcvjcv]

Lenovo should have just put an eSata port on there, like they do on the W520. There are unused ports on the Intel chipset...

Definitely don't bother with Firewire; get an eSata card.

I have had no problems with my $12.38 card from Dealextreme