Looking for good,cheap eSATA expresscard

[thadoggfather]

any recommendations? i want one that's fast and reliable. just bought a 1tb usb 2/eSATA external and I heard that eSATA is faster than firewire 800 which my external does not have. So I might be looking for a faster connectivity than just USB 2.

 

[Billydelp4]

I got this one over the holidays

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16839228002

It has worked nice for me thus far. Have two externals added to 1.5TB in a raid 0 and use it for editing.

 

[thadoggfather]

it's worth getting and using over standard USB 2 (that requires no extra money) and firewire 800 (which my external doesn't have anyways), right?

Looks like a worthy ExpressCard recommendation, thanks

 

[nicfargo]

Go with a real brand for $2 more.

PNY on NEWegg

I think I've even seen it cheaper then this on B&H

And yes, it's much much faster then USB 2.0

 

[thadoggfather]

How about FW800? Faster/much faster than that?

Also, PNY seems more reputable as a company, but are there any reviews on that model specifically?

 

[brandon.vong]

Which Expresscard manufacturer would be the "best" to purchase?

 

[coledog]

Most any brand that you've already heard of before. Don't buy a brand that you've never heard of. It's honestly worth any extra money (assuming it isn't a ridiculous amount) for a better brand.

 

[thadoggfather]

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/EXP34SATA2P1/

how does this look? Is OWC reputable?

Comes with the Jmicron 360JMB chipset, which is supposedly fault free and works out of the box with no drivers with Leopard... am I right in thinking that Jmicron chipset is good?

 

[coledog]

Looks good to me. Lots of people on here buy from OWC and as far as I know their brand is fine too.

It has a 1-year warranty which is good, go for it!

 

[thadoggfather]

Jmicron 360 is the most desirable/least troublesome chipset to have with an eSATA expresscard though, right?

 

[coledog]

From what I'm seeing on Google, yes.

 

[kellen]

From what I have read, doesn't it not matter that much between firewire 800 and esata as the write speed of the drive is maxed either way?

For transferring off it does, but isn't writing to the drive not that big of a deal?

Just wondering...

 

[coledog]

Here's some stuff on the differences between FW800 and esata.

Go with eSata as it'll be the fastest at whatever you're doing.

 

[kellen]

Interesting. Thanks for posting that link.

 

[InLikeALion]

Go with a real brand for $2 more.

PNY on NEWegg

I think I've even seen it cheaper then this on B&H

And yes, it's much much faster then USB 2.0

I can't find any specs for this, even on pny.com. Does anyone know if it has the JMicron chipset?

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/EXP34SATA2P1/

how does this look? Is OWC reputable?

Comes with the Jmicron 360JMB chipset, which is supposedly fault free and works out of the box with no drivers with Leopard... am I right in thinking that Jmicron chipset is good?

OWC is very reputable, and yes, I've seen that the JMicron is the chipset to go with. However, the one you linked is only single port. The only double port with Jmicron I've seen has been no-names like the PPA first linked.

Does anyone know/trust PPA? I don't see any warranty info on Newegg or the PPA Int'l product page.