Faster External Storage for Your Laptop – eSATA II
For many laptop users, USB 2.0 or Firewire offer fast enough speeds for external storage. For others, though, 400mbps just isn’t fast enough.
My work with the MBox and ProTools is one example. ProTools recommends recording music to a non system hard drive – tough to do on a laptop unless you’re talking external. Yet tech support specifically states that USB is NOT fast enough.
Welcome eSATA. I love eSATA external hard drive enclosures, the one from Vantec I’ve written about in the past. But how do you connect eSATA to your laptop?
Easy, now anyway. SIIG makes an expresscard adapter that sells for less than $70. The card slides right in to a slim ExpressCard/34 slot and features two eSATA ports stacked on top of each other. The controller housed inside supports a standard second-gen feature set, including 3 Gbps transfer speeds, Native Command Queuing, hot plugging, and support for drives that exceed 137GB.
If you want the latest and the fastest, go eSATA. You can pick up the adapter here –
SIIG eSATA II 2-Port ExpressCard – 2 x 7-pin Serial ATA/300 External SATA – ExpressCard/34
