[cyberdyne]

Hi all,
I bought a Western Digital MyBook 1tb with Firewire, USB2 and eSATA connections.

I've set it up and it's working fine with Firewire and USB2.0 but I'd like to try eSATA. The problem is, my old MoBo doesn't have SATA, so I was considering buying an eSATA PCI Card and cable.

The only problem I see is that the hard drive and cable, both quote a possible 3 Gb/sec transfer rate, but the eSATA PCI card only quotes 150 Mb/s capability, which is a backward step on my current (approx) 400 Mb/s Firewire and USB2.0 speeds.

Are there faster cards available or am I missing something crucial?
IF 150 Mb/s is the fastest I can expect, for any reason, would the above items (PCI card and eSATA cable) work for me?

Thanks for any help
cd

[Advertisements]

Hi all,
I bought a Western Digital MyBook 1tb with Firewire, USB2 and eSATA connections.

I've set it up and it's working fine with Firewire and USB2.0 but I'd like to try eSATA. The problem is, my old MoBo doesn't have SATA, so I was considering buying an eSATA PCI Card and cable.

The only problem I see is that the hard drive and cable, both quote a possible 3 Gb/sec transfer rate, but the eSATA PCI card only quotes 150 Mb/s capability, which is a backward step on my current (approx) 400 Mb/s Firewire and USB2.0 speeds.

Are there faster cards available or am I missing something crucial?
IF 150 Mb/s is the fastest I can expect, for any reason, would the above items (PCI card and eSATA cable) work for me?

Thanks for any help
cd

You fell into the common computer mistake. Confusing Mb and MB. Mb = MegaBIT, MB = MegaBYTE. Eight bits = one byte. The link provided states the speed as 150MB/sec. Though this is not quite possible as the PCI Bus is limited to 133MB/sec for ALL devices on the bus combined.

So to make it an apples to apples comparison.

USB2.0 Max = 480 Mbit/sec which is 60 MB/sec
Firewire400 = 400 Megabit/sec which is 50 MB/sec
This device quotes 150 MB/sec, but we will set it at the maximum PCI bus speed which is 133MB/sec which is 1064 Mbit/sec
As you can see this IS faster, but at these speeds you will be limited by the transfer speeds of the drive, which will be lower.

These are all theoretical maximums, real world examples of course will be slower.

Edited by PedroDaGR8, 11 December 2008 - 09:17 PM.

[PedroDaGR8]

Hi all,
I bought a Western Digital MyBook 1tb with Firewire, USB2 and eSATA connections.

I've set it up and it's working fine with Firewire and USB2.0 but I'd like to try eSATA. The problem is, my old MoBo doesn't have SATA, so I was considering buying an eSATA PCI Card and cable.

The only problem I see is that the hard drive and cable, both quote a possible 3 Gb/sec transfer rate, but the eSATA PCI card only quotes 150 Mb/s capability, which is a backward step on my current (approx) 400 Mb/s Firewire and USB2.0 speeds.

Are there faster cards available or am I missing something crucial?
IF 150 Mb/s is the fastest I can expect, for any reason, would the above items (PCI card and eSATA cable) work for me?

Thanks for any help
cd

You fell into the common computer mistake. Confusing Mb and MB. Mb = MegaBIT, MB = MegaBYTE. Eight bits = one byte. The link provided states the speed as 150MB/sec. Though this is not quite possible as the PCI Bus is limited to 133MB/sec for ALL devices on the bus combined.

So to make it an apples to apples comparison.

USB2.0 Max = 480 Mbit/sec which is 60 MB/sec
Firewire400 = 400 Megabit/sec which is 50 MB/sec
This device quotes 150 MB/sec, but we will set it at the maximum PCI bus speed which is 133MB/sec which is 1064 Mbit/sec
As you can see this IS faster, but at these speeds you will be limited by the transfer speeds of the drive, which will be lower.

These are all theoretical maximums, real world examples of course will be slower.

Edited by PedroDaGR8, 11 December 2008 - 09:17 PM.

[cyberdyne]

You fell into the common computer mistake. Confusing Mb and MB. Mb = MegaBIT, MB = MegaBYTE. Eight bits = one byte. The link provided states the speed as 150MB/sec. Though this is not quite possible as the PCI Bus is limited to 133MB/sec for ALL devices on the bus combined.

So to make it an apples to apples comparison.

USB2.0 Max = 480 Mbit/sec which is 60 MB/sec
Firewire400 = 400 Megabit/sec which is 50 MB/sec
This device quotes 150 MB/sec, but we will set it at the maximum PCI bus speed which is 133MB/sec which is 1064 Mbit/sec
As you can see this IS faster, but at these speeds you will be limited by the transfer speeds of the drive, which will be lower.

These are all theoretical maximums, real world examples of course will be slower.

Thank you Pedro, I do understand and I am currently slapping my palm to my forehead: DOH !!

Have you any experience with eSATA PCI cards? Do you think it would work well ?
Thanks again

Edited by cyberdyne, 12 December 2008 - 02:27 AM.

[PedroDaGR8]

You fell into the common computer mistake. Confusing Mb and MB. Mb = MegaBIT, MB = MegaBYTE. Eight bits = one byte. The link provided states the speed as 150MB/sec. Though this is not quite possible as the PCI Bus is limited to 133MB/sec for ALL devices on the bus combined.

So to make it an apples to apples comparison.

USB2.0 Max = 480 Mbit/sec which is 60 MB/sec
Firewire400 = 400 Megabit/sec which is 50 MB/sec
This device quotes 150 MB/sec, but we will set it at the maximum PCI bus speed which is 133MB/sec which is 1064 Mbit/sec
As you can see this IS faster, but at these speeds you will be limited by the transfer speeds of the drive, which will be lower.

These are all theoretical maximums, real world examples of course will be slower.

Thank you Pedro, I do understand and I am currently slapping my palm to my forehead: DOH !!

Have you any experience with eSATA PCI cards? Do you think it would work well ?
Thanks again

Unfortunately, I do not. I have heard good things about it from the few people that I know that have tried it do like it.