Thinkpads Forum

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?

eSATA.

Cheers.

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

rsutoratosu wrote: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

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.

precip9 wrote: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.

You don't need a powered one.

precip9 wrote:You don't need a powered one.

Thanks =)

precip9 wrote: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).

precip9 wrote: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.

automobus wrote:

precip9 wrote: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.

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