Test Conclusions
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: eSATA,, USB,, Flash | Themes: Business
10. Test Conclusions
As you can see from the charts on page 9, eSATA read and write times are twice that of USB 2.0 drives. This speed improvement alone might be enough encouragement for power users to make the switch to eSATA flash.
The drives proved capable of loading an operating system for emergency use. We were able to install XP, Vista, and Windows 7 on an eSATA drive. We were very impressed with all three drives’ ability to run the operating systems. Windows 7 and Vista gave the disks each a rating of 6.2 in the Windows Experience Index, which is on the high-end of the scale.
Since these drives can be used as both eSATA and USB devices, they are exceedingly flexible. You get the best of both worlds with these combo drives: extra speed for your new laptop, with compatibility via USB for an older laptop or desktop.
The Kanguru drive’s design was aesthetically pleasing and we liked its aluminum case, secure caps, lanyard connection, and range of features. The LED lights, which indicated data transfer speeds, worked well.
However, the device was consistently slower when using eSATA than the other two drives. We wish we could recommend the drive, but it is hard since its read and write speeds lagged behind the competition by 13+ MB/sec and 3+ MB/sec, respectively.
The OCZ drive was very fast but it also had the most complications. The cap fell off easily and it lacked a lanyard. It required the use of a cable to use the USB interface. The OCZ drive also turned off its LED indicators when in use, leaving us in the dark about its functionality. While it came in first or second in every test, we could not get past its shortcomings.
The RiData was, on average, the fastest eSATA drive but its USB 2.0 connectivity was the slowest. While the OCZ was fastest in the random access tests, the RiData drive was very close behind. The device has an aluminum case, secure caps, a lanyard connection, and a USB cable for power when the eSATA port does not supply it. The more traditional shape and connectors are a benefit, but it lacked any sort of LED indicators.
If the Kanguru drive had improved eSATA performance, it would have been the clear winner due to its very complete accessories package. Kanguru’s tech support team maintains the possibility that my particular Kanguru drive was defective (thus explaining the lower eSATA speeds). This article will be updated if a replacement drive arrives and performs markedly better than the first one. As for the OCZ drive, it needs a new shell to keep up with the competition.
It is important to bear in mind, however, that combination eSATA and USB flash drives represent a new product category. These trailblazing early combo drives will surely see more competition from other storage manufacturers in the coming months. If you’re ready to take the eSATA plunge today, we recommend the RiData eSATA SSD.
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wait for usb 3.0
Sata IO(6.0Gb/s) is available this year. USB 3.0(4.8Gb/s) not ready til 2010
USB 3.0 is slated to support up to 4.8Gbps, eSATA supports up to 3.0Gbps now. SATA 6Gb/s is approved so that should also trickle down to eSATA. Since current USB suffers from a loss due to overhead of 25% the new 3.0 USB must be more effecient to compete with SATA 3 GB/s. It should also be noted that eSATA can support RAID and other HDD type features not available in USB devices. This could get interesting.
I doubt 3.0 will be able to compete. It still uses the host CPU for low level protocol processing, and thus, will never reach it's max bandwidth outside of the theoretical.
I doubt even USB 3.0 will be able to out preform even SATA 3 GB/s in real world testing.
Currently USB has a loss of about 25% due to overhead. If that loss continues then it would perform at 3.6 Gb/s. I think if eSATA flash and HDD if they can get powered eSATA ports in more than laptops, could really take off now and not wait until 2010 for USB 3.0.
Thanks for the article but why is it on Toms Guide and not Toms Hardware? Even your own charts use the Toms Hardware logo!
JeanLuc,
So sorry to confuse you! External USB (and, now, eSATA) thumb drives are definitely a Tom's Guide consumer electronics product. Apologies for the logo confusion.
Rachel Rosmarin
Editor of Tom's Guide
Even on USB, those drive put my drives to shame
Now if only they'd start selling them here!
I have a Throttle and for unknown reasons it DOES not run at 90mb/s on an exresscard esata setup. Tried several machines. All I could get is 40mb/s. Maybe esata from the MB would be faster. Need to try it.
Hey bobo0, I could not get the Throttle or other to 90MB/sec even with the internal SATA connector on a motherboard. I could get 75-80 very consistently on my laptops and desktops so do not be discouraged. Try disabling any power management on your laptop as I experienced much slower performance when power management was set to give the most battery life.
Not sure how 6.2 was obtained on Windows Experience rating, since the scale goes from 1.0 to 5.9:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/w [...] 61033.mspx
Not sure how 6.2 was obtained on Windows Experience rating, since the scale goes from 1.0 to 5.9:http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/w [...] 61033.mspx
if you had cared to read you're own link, you would have seen this:
6.2 was in Windows 7 and there is a screen shot of it shown. So obviously it does go higher now. Thanks for pointing that out.
I got a few pings on where to find the RiData unit. It is at
http://www.amazon.com/Ridata-RDESS [...] 469&sr=8-1
You can find the OCZ and Kanguru unit is at www.kanguru.com
Hey everyone, I wanted to let you know that Kanguru Solutions is working hard to resolve their issue and watch for them to rebound with a faster drive soon.
find another place to buy:
http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/pr [...] 25D2CQAAC9
For anyone interested, Kanguru system is releasing a new version of their flash drive. It will use a newer interface to speed up the read and write access of their drive. They are saying that the issue seen here was that they were first to market and had an older PCB that proved to be slower. Watch for this update.
Kanguru Solutions has updated their eSATA e-Flash drive as a direct result of our Tom’s Guide article.
As a direct result of our testing, Kanguru Solutions learned they were using an older version of the eSATA controller on the flash drive. This accounted for their slower performance during our test. They have corrected the issue and their performance is now equal to or greater than the other two drives. Testing using the eSATA interface showed random access went from 0.4 to 0.2 ms, average read went from 66.7 to a new high of 80.8 MB/sec, average write want from 48 to 52.6 MB/sec. This resolves all the issue with the eSATA e-Flash drive making it a top performer with the best package.