External ESATA Drive How To Choose Fastest - Best Price

[phantomwalker]

My Laptop Spec:
Win 7 Pro , Alienware M15X , Core 7(Q720) - 64Bit , 128 SSD, Esata II\usb combo powered port.

I want to buy an fast esata external drive and I am looking at two types:

A. Seagate 1 or 1.5T Go Flex Ultra Portable, will fit the Esata kit no mains power required -good feature. (STAA1000100\STAA1500100)
B. LaCie d2 Quadra 1 or 2T (310442A or 301500A)

Lacie give good information on specs:
Rotation Speed: 7200 RPM
Burst Transfer Rate: eSATA: up to 105-115MB/s
Drive Size: 3.5"
Cache: 16 Meg or greater

However, finding this information from Seagate has proven elusive. The drive is not the standard thin drive in laptops as the finished thickness is 22mm in lieu of the normal 14.5 mm.

Can I get some guidence as to the better drive, as I saw some reviews that gave the Seagate a poor transfer rate, power consumption and noise.
Suggestions of other drives to use would also be appreciated.



This all because I bought a SSD drive with too litte storage. I need to run multiple Virtual machines (40Gig each).

Any help appreciated.

Eric

 

[BadBigBen]

now if it was me: I would opt for a eSATA DockingStation with AC adapter.

Reasons:

USB has a 500mA rating, which does not power some drives out there.
eSATA is just an extension of a SATA port to the outside world and carries no power leads...
and with a dockingstation, you can easily replace drives (even hotswapping) should the need arise...

e.g.
Rosewill RX-DUS100 2.5" & 3.5" SATA to USB2.0 & eSATA Hard Drive Docking Station

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182197&cm_re=eSata-_-17-182-197-_-Product

and pair that with a Samsung or WesternDigital Black drive...

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...re=sata_hard_drive_1tb-_-22-152-185-_-Product

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...re=sata_hard_drive_1tb-_-22-136-284-_-Product

Total cost: $85 to $115

if portability is to be considered, then opt for the Lacy over the Seagate (bad experiences with Seagates in the past half year)...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[phantomwalker]

Ben,
Thank for the really great information you have me thinking in a whole new direction.
I am now thinking to get a dual esata dock with Raid Capability but can only find USB 3.0 with raid.

I'm in Australia and cannot see the Rosewell on local online suppliers, therefore, I need some more help to pick the good unit I can source from local suppliers. If raid is not possible, with esata, I will get a single drive unit.


Vantec Dual Hard Drive Docking Station - USB + eSATA

http://dma.net.au/index.php?action=displayProduct&pid=7017

or
Zalman ZM-MH200 HUB

http://zalman.com./ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=409

Kind Regards,

Eric

 

[rclarke250]

I own the Thermaltake,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...cm_re=hard_drive_dock-_-17-153-112-_-Product.

It does a very good job. The one thing you need to look at is if your Esata port on the laptop supports sata fan out, if it doesn't, you will only see one hdd in esata mode on this type of dock, but it will see both drives in USB.

 

[phantomwalker]

All,

I have contacted DELL to get the specs of my esata combo port but they cannot help, go figure they make it.

Therefore have can I check the specs i.e.:
power out 5/12V
current (max?)
Sata fan out support
multi-esata device support (I see some people report there dock only recognises one sata device.

How do I know what device is fitted and the spec's to then know what device is suitable?

Kind Regards,

Eric

 

[Bryan - Gendev]

FWIW I'm in Adelaide and using the Jaycar DigiTech dual sata dock with built in cloning...

Cloning doesn't work on all drives but has worked for me.

GenDev

 

[phantomwalker]

Thanks Guys,

Decided to go simple with Seagate STA1000301 with standard USB 2.0 kit ($98) + esata kit($13) Harris Technology.
I really like the seagate 1.5 TB with usb 3.0 kit standard but too expensive.

Test results:
Copy large 4 gig file from PC to esata drive between (75-80 M mps) copy same file to USB 2.0 1 TB external seagate drive (start at approx 40 and quickly slow to 25-30 M bps).

Should do the job and no power adapter needed.

Kind Regards,

Eric Walker