News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

June 22, 2006

hardware

USB & FireWire disappoint; my SATA solution

Posted Jun. 22, ’06, 3:49 PM PT by Scott Silverman
Category | Hardware

200606221543As I eagerly await the delivery of my MacBook Pro (it’s still in Shanghai), I have been forced to huddle over countless pages of benchmarks, reviews, photo galleries, and FedEx tracking pages. One of my biggest realized concerns with respect to my new computer purchase, however, is hard drive space. And it’s not so much hard drive space that concerns me, but hard drive speed.

I use my hard drives a lot: Final Cut Studio, Photoshop CS2, Soundtrack Pro, Aperture. All require fast transfer speeds sometimes difficult to obtain externally (especially with a laptop). And so I began my quest.

(Note: if you are looking for external storage and don’t require fast transfer speeds [ie: a backup drive], it may be safe to stop reading now. Just buy an external hard drive with FireWire and avoid USB 2.0.)

I started doing a little bit of my own testing to compare the speed of a 3.5 inch 7200 RPM hard drive with the speed of a 2.5 inch 5400 RPM drive and I realized one thing: there was no difference. Obviously, this must be wrong. So I hit up the ‘net to do a little research, and discovered these benchmarks. Basically, the problem didn’t lie within the drive but rather in the connection; it was the USB 2.0 which was bottlenecking the drive performance.

A small amount of reading revealed that USB 2.0 is the slowest of all modern connections, so naturally it made sense to try and stay away from USB when using an external drive. FireWire connections nearly double the transfer speed over USB 2.0 in real-world tests, but I still wasn’t satisfied. Then I remembered a post Aaron made a few weeks ago about a SATA ExpressCard for the MBP.

First was a bit of research surrounding SATA connections in general. I found some benchmarks which used the FirmTek ExpressCard to test hard drive transfer speeds and compare them with USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and internal IDE. These benchmarks didn’t lie: SATA was faster than any other connection, and SATA-II connections blew me away. We were talking real-world transfer speeds of up to 146 MB/sec. Wow.

So essentially I’ve solved the storage problem that comes with owning a laptop. The transfer speeds I will obtain with eSATA on my MBP will beat even the speeds I currently get with the internal SATA drives on my PowerMac G5 dual 2.0 GHz. But you’re probably wondering what the cost is, right? (General rule: speed=cost) Well, let’s discuss.

My whole setup will cost about $250 for 300GB of SATA-II storage, and $120 of that was the one-time purchase of the still expensive SATA ExpressCard. I paid $95 for a 300GB SATA-II drive and $40 for an eSATA drive enclosure. That’s amazing. I was blown away by the prices I would pay for nearly 150MB/sec transfer speeds on a laptop. It really makes the whole portable-studio-without-sacrificing-performance thing completely do-able, even for a lowly consumer like myself.

As soon as all my gear and computer comes in, I’ll put this stuff to the test and let you know my results. Until then, let me know what you think of my setup and research. Any other ideas out there for getting fast, cheap, reliable external storage?


9 Comments

Dan said:

Great post.

I was just researching external hard drives today. I didn't realize you could get them so cheap (excluding the card). Anyone seen a SATA ExpressCard for cheaper?

June 22, 2006 7:25 PM
Dan said:

2x port SATA II ExpressCard/34 for $45? Does anyone own this? Is it junk?

June 22, 2006 7:36 PM
Scott Silverman Author Profile Page said:

I did quite an extensive search of the internet and eBay before buying mine from FirmTek. The only other thing I found was this card for $100. I figured I'd rather pay the extra $20 to get something I know will work and has been tested and developed for a Mac. If you're feeling adventurous and want to save $20, then give that one a shot...

June 22, 2006 8:09 PM
Dan said:

I read on another site that Vydeo (that's what brand the $99 card is) built-in Mac support and supplies drivers for both Windows and Mac.

But I'm still trying to find more on the Addonics card. (I commented earlier on it, but it hasn't shown up yet)

June 22, 2006 10:04 PM
Jason Author Profile Page said:

One correction: your Power Mac G5 doesn't have IDE drives. They're SATA. Only the optical drive uses ATA.

June 23, 2006 2:20 PM
Scott Silverman Author Profile Page said:

Ahh yes. I'm so used to working with internal IDE drives from the dark days of PCs and from everytime I build an external hard drive with enclosure, that I just overlooked the fact that the PowerMacs use SATA. Thanks!

June 23, 2006 2:25 PM
Dan Frakes Author Profile Page said:

Scott:

Where did you find the NexStar LX for $40?

June 23, 2006 2:46 PM
Scott Silverman Author Profile Page said:

Dan,

I actually managed to grab it for $35 from a local computer distributor. However, it can be found on eBay or here on Newegg for not too much more.

Hope this helps,
Scott

June 24, 2006 12:57 PM
Martin Nomura said:

Just curious, what happened with the eSata drive set up?
Did it go smoothly?
The card work o.k.?
Is it fast?
Do you think Sata drives will become the standard with computers?

September 20, 2006 7:40 AM

Leave a comment

 



Visit other IDG sites: