FW800 to eSATA - performance jump likely to be worthwhile?

[norliss]

Hi there.

I currently use two external drives with my MBP and have just got back into using FCP for video editing. I've always used both drives with their respective FW800 ports although one of the drives (a WD MyBook Studio II) has an eSATA port that I've never utilised.

I'm wondering whether it's worth my while buying an Expresscard/34 eSATA adaptor to enable me to use the WD drive with eSATA but would like to know if I'm likely to see a decent jump in performance: if the increase is marginal I'd stick with FW800.

TIA.

 

[NickZac]

Do they make express cards for USB3 yet? if so, USB3 is probably a safer financial investment.

 

[walterwhite]

I use an eSATA on my Mac Pro... it has two ports. It's totally worth it and is enormously fast even compared to FW800.

 

[alust2013]

Do they make express cards for USB3 yet? if so, USB3 is probably a safer financial investment.

eSATA is a faster interface than USB3's max theoretical speed (of which you actually get about half)

 

[NickZac]

eSATA is a faster interface than USB3's max theoretical speed (of which you actually get about half)

I'm not saying USB3 due to speed but due to the odds of standardization and future systems having the hardware to run newer products. I would wager money that USB3 becomes the standard. Also, with backwards compatibility, you can use many USB3 devices on USB1/2 computers, which makes data transfer easier as most PCs aren't rockin' teh FW.

 

[Pentad]

FW800 is pokey compared to just about everything else now. I would be happy if Apple would move to something in the next rev of the MBP. USB 2.0 and FW800 just don't cut it anymore compared to eSata (which has be around for years) and USB 3.0.

-P

 

[grahamnp]

The expresscard bandwidth is different depending on which model you have. Some are limited to 1.5Gbps which gets nowhere near the 3Gbps E-SATA limit. Having said that, if your drive's performance is the bottleneck, you may not notice.