Is an older esata external enclosure as fast as usb 3.0 (or 3.1?)

[dauellama]

Long time listener, first time caller.  I am an independent film producer, and as such I work on a ton of projects with no money, but fairly large storage needs.  I have noticed some decent older OWC raid enclosures available in the used market.  However they are from the firewire generation, but they do have esata connections on the back.... I was wondering if these older controllers using that esata connector would be comparable in speed (using an adapter cable) to something newer with usb 3?  I can't seem to find any documentation that would help me, so I figured I would ask the community of super knowledgable people here.  Also feel free to tell me if this is a stupid idea for reasons I'm not thinking of! 

[BiotechBen]

It depends on the eSATA device's controller. If it's an old eSATA and only supports SATA I, then no it won't be faster than USB 3 5gbps, but if the controller supports higher SATA3 speeds, then theoretically it would be faster than USB 3.0, but slower than 3.1 or 3.2

[jaslion]

Usb 3.0 (3.1 or 3.2 now whatever it's called it's the 5Gbps one I mean here) is about 625MB/s real world performanc. Esata is at max 300MB/s performance. So basically anything ssd based is already limited by it.

 

For film it might be ok but the question really is here what do you do? Are you using a desktop or a laptop? Is a nas an option?

[dauellama]

57 minutes ago, BiotechBen said:

It depends on the eSATA device's controller. If it's an old eSATA and only supports SATA I, then no it won't be faster than USB 3 5gbps, but if the controller supports higher SATA3 speeds, then theoretically it would be faster than USB 3.0, but slower than 3.1 or 3.2

Yeah that's the big question, they are from the fire wire age, so I guess it will only support SATA? I would be using spinning drives, so really all I am asking of it is to reach their maximum potential in a raid 0 or possibly raid 5

[dauellama]

57 minutes ago, jaslion said:

Usb 3.0 (3.1 or 3.2 now whatever it's called it's the 5Gbps one I mean here) is about 625MB/s real world performanc. Esata is at max 300MB/s performance. So basically anything ssd based is already limited by it.

 

For film it might be ok but the question really is here what do you do? Are you using a desktop or a laptop? Is a nas an option?

Thanks, yeah I would be using mechanical drives, in either raid 0 (2 drive bay) or raid 5 (4+ bay).. I use a little bit of everything. Almost everyone I work with in film uses mac, (I have a macbook) and I also use a pc tower that I prefer at home.  The idea would be to use an esata to usb adapter cable, though and use this for mass storage that is a little faster and more reliable than a cheap single external drive (seagate, WD, etc.) 

[jaslion]

2 minutes ago, dauellama said:

Thanks, yeah I would be using mechanical drives, in either raid 0 (2 drive bay) or raid 5 (4+ bay).. I use a little bit of everything. Almost everyone I work with in film uses mac, (I have a macbook) and I also use a pc tower that I prefer at home.  The idea would be to use an esata to usb adapter cable, though and use this for mass storage that is a little faster and more reliable than a cheap single external drive (seagate, WD, etc.) 

Oh so you want to take that with you? Or is this a at home station?

[dauellama]

Just now, jaslion said:

Oh so you want to take that with you?

Probably not often, but hypothetically once in a while it may need to go to another location (say, a hired editor, or to my director's house)

[dauellama]

For Context this is one of the one I am looking at.. https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MEQX2KIT0GB/ 

 

Can be had used for around $75, vs $300 new with usb 3.1... 

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, dauellama said:

For Context this is one of the one I am looking at.. https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MEQX2KIT0GB/ 

 

Can be had used for around $75, vs $300 new with usb 3.1... 

So from some looking around these things have a max storage capacity of 4tb so maybe it's not the best solution here?

[dauellama]

5 minutes ago, jaslion said:

So from some looking around these things have a max storage capacity of 4tb so maybe it's not the best solution here?

Oh wow, yeah I thought it was 16b, which would have been usable.. Bummer.  Was hoping to get away with paying less for a reputable older brand. Well thanks for your time and expertise!

[jaslion]

29 minutes ago, dauellama said:

Oh wow, yeah I thought it was 16b, which would have been usable.. Bummer.  Was hoping to get away with paying less for a reputable older brand. Well thanks for your time and expertise!

Yeah the chipset is hard to find a specsheet for but the 2 it falls between are limited to either 1tb drives x4 or 2tb drives x4. So it's going to be one of the 2 limits but I am inclined for going with the lower end one since this is a device from around 2005.

[BiotechBen]

So based on a little extra research, the eSATA is almost a guarantee to be significantly faster than the FireWire.