Thunderbolt or USB3 to eSATA?

[chiefsilverback]

Now I have moved into the current decade with a 2012 mini I'm wondering the best option for maximising the performance of my eSATA enable external drives.

I had planned on the LaCie Thunderbolt eSATA hub, but Newer Tech make a USB 3 to eSATA interface that's $25 compared to $200 for the Lacie.

I've read of some issues with the LaCie force ejecting drives when your mac goes to sleep and it's capped at 2 drives whereas I assume with USB 3 hubs I could keep adding drives with the Newer Tech adapter.

Anybody got experience of either?

EDIT - they are HDD based externals not SSD so benchmarked performance over eSATA per OWC website is ~250Mb/second.

[FireWire2]

I have this USB3.0 to eSATA support Port Multiplier

Allow me to see my eSATA with or without Port Multiplier. I have single and five bay eSATA boxes

Lots of MAC user use this with their eSATA boxes

[chiefsilverback]

Originally Posted by FireWire2

I have this USB3.0 to eSATA support Port Multiplier

Allow me to see my eSATA with or without Port Multiplier. I have single and five bay eSATA boxes

Lots of MAC user use this with their eSATA boxes

That looks to be a similar device to the NewerTech product. Not sure what the 'port multiplier' bit is as it appears to have 1 in and 1 out?

Anybody know how they perform vs the Lacie hub?

[Giuly]

Port multiplying refers to attaching multiple hard drives, usually in a multi-bay enclosure, to a single eSATA port.

[FireWire2]

Originally Posted by chiefsilverback

That looks to be a similar device to the NewerTech product. Not sure what the 'port multiplier' bit is as it appears to have 1 in and 1 out?

Anybody know how they perform vs the Lacie hub?

LaCie Thunderbolt eSATA hub is a 3Gb/s eSATA and DOES NOT support Port Multiplier.
This means ONE to ONE connection

I'm waiting for this:
http://www.datoptic.com/thunderbolt-...echnology.html

Lots more flexible