Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

affordable eSATA express card, $15

C

camflan

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 3, 2008
57
5
Just picked up a PNY eSATA expresscard for use with Time Machine/WD myBook.

$15 for the expresscard, another 10 for the eSata 6' cable and on my way. Got home, plugged it in, Leopard recognized it as a mass storage controller, but that was it. Downloaded the drivers for Griffen Technologies eSATA expresscard, and it works great!

Every eSATA expresscard adapter I've seen looks identical and seem to all use the 3132 controller, which is why I figured it was worth a try.

Anyway, it's worth it. I copied a 5gb disk image to the myBook in 1m02s, MUCH faster than USB2.0, and it doesn't load up the CPU like usb does.
 
Where?

camflan said:
Just picked up a PNY eSATA expresscard for use with Time Machine/WD myBook.

$15 for the expresscard, another 10 for the eSata 6' cable and on my way. Got home, plugged it in, Leopard recognized it as a mass storage controller, but that was it. Downloaded the drivers for Griffen Technologies eSATA expresscard, and it works great!

Every eSATA expresscard adapter I've seen looks identical and seem to all use the 3132 controller, which is why I figured it was worth a try.

Anyway, it's worth it. I copied a 5gb disk image to the myBook in 1m02s, MUCH faster than USB2.0, and it doesn't load up the CPU like usb does.
Click to expand...

I am in the market for getting an eSata express card.

Exactly where did you get it for such a great price?

Thanks!
 
Can you post a link of it or did you just buy it in the store?
Edit. I did check out the website and only found cards that had two inputs at 40 bucks each. That is why I'm asking.
 
I saw the same card online for 40ish, went to the store, and it was priced at 15.99.

Not a sale sticker, the actual shelf-non-sale-tag had it as 15.99.

hope your stores have it at the same price!
 
Thanks for the info. According to the website my local BB has it so I'm gonna go check it out. I might buy it even if it is $40 because I've been looking for one and I just picked up two WD My Book Studio's that have eSATA.
 
Thanks, I'll have to check it out I guess. BB isn't too close to my house unfortunately. For now my external drive uses my FW 800 which nothing else needs.
 
Yeah, they are on clearance from BB. Store clerk says that since they weren't a popular item, that they were clearing them out and won't be carrying them any longer. So they were marked down to $15.99 each. Also picked up a Western Digital 1 TB Studio drive for $229 (erroneously marked) instead of the regular $349.
 
Just picked one up at my local BB. $15.99 for the card + $9.99 for the cable. Now to hook it up to my 1TB WD Studio and see how fast the drive really is.
 
supersphinxman said:
Time Machine backup did about 48GB in about an hour using the eSata/WD 1TB setup...
Click to expand...

Using SuperDuper2.5 for a full backup of my MBP (133.2GB) it completed 40 GB in 30 minutes. I expect the full backup to complete in 1.5 hours total. There must be some loss due to using Time Machine. Otherwise eSata is really fast! By the way, I'm using a 1TB WD Studio...which is probably the same disk you have.

Update: 130GB in 1 hour and 43 minutes. Average transfer rate (as reported by SuperDuper: 22 MB/s)
 
zamboni52 said:
Using SuperDuper2.5 for a full backup of my MBP (133.2GB) it completed 40 GB in 30 minutes. I expect the full backup to complete in 1.5 hours total. There must be some loss due to using Time Machine. Otherwise eSata is really fast! By the way, I'm using a 1TB WD Studio...which is probably the same disk you have.

Update: 130GB in 1 hour and 43 minutes. Average transfer rate (as reported by SuperDuper: 22 MB/s)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I'll have to check it out.
 
Went to my local Best Buy and yes, they are $15, unlike what is stated on the website. It was a good price, so I bought one. :)
 
Went to BestBuy and looked at website as well. The only eSATA card I see is for Windows Operating System. Can you clarify what you have obtained.
 
i have WD MY BOOK PRO which does not have esata

i wonder how you connect this esata card to your mac. is it via FW800 or what?

is it possible to connect these WD pros Hard drives using such esata card so i can boot some windows systems from the external drive?
 
i have just seen where it goes, Didnt actually know there is a card slot there.

this answers my previous questions about booting windows from the external WD mybook pros. it wont work.
 
zamboni52 said:
Using SuperDuper2.5 for a full backup of my MBP (133.2GB) it completed 40 GB in 30 minutes. I expect the full backup to complete in 1.5 hours total. There must be some loss due to using Time Machine. Otherwise eSata is really fast! By the way, I'm using a 1TB WD Studio...which is probably the same disk you have.

Update: 130GB in 1 hour and 43 minutes. Average transfer rate (as reported by SuperDuper: 22 MB/s)
Click to expand...

Not a big difference from firewire 400 though, I get 20MB/s avg with 24MB/s sustained peaks for firewire 400 using superduper.
 
I'd say get any eSATA card, just make sure it has the right chipset. I know the Si3132 works. Just make sure you get the drivers first!
 
I drove out to best buy to purchase my 16 dollar esata expresscard. :)

A tip: Go to Best buy's online website and search for PNY Esata. Then check for in store availability..some BBs do not carry it. I wasted a trip to one and had to go to another to get the card. They sell a Dynex esata card for 60 bucks!! What a deal on this PNY!

oh and barefeats.com tested esata with an enclosure on a macbook pro.
http://www.barefeats.com/hard71.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back