SSD Or Esata?

[Macman45]

Okay, so my air is on it's way to me, and I also ordered the Superdrive to go with it. I will be using it for recording projects "In the field" so will be carrying:

My Air, my iPad the external optical for the air and my portable mixing / recording desk. I'm thinking that for backup purposes I'd be better off with an external SSD (because of the speed) but here's the rub: My iMac is attached to a USB2 caddy which I use for my TM backups, and for accessing archived data on other HDD's (you just unmount the drive and swap another in)

The caddy will accept all SATA and ESATA drives, but obviously not an SSD.

Would you:

By an fast esata to keep compatibility? or get an SSD for speed of data transfer (cost comes into this as well) All suggestions gratefully received

 

[Macman45]

Bump^

...Anybody?

 

[yusukeaoki]

If you have the money, go with the SSD.
SSD's are worth every penny!

 

[Macman45]

They Are More Expensive

If you have the money, go with the SSD.
SSD's are worth every penny!

Here in the UK....An idea of price:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&...aps&hvadid=12425665796&ref=pd_sl_23oswv3o7j_e

 

[gr8tfly]

eSATA is just the external version of SATA. The drive would be SATA either way. A SATA SSD in the same form factor (say 2.5") should work in the USB2 caddy, but there's no real advantage speed wise - it would be a huge waste.

USB2 isn't fast enough to keep up with the speed of most SATA drives. So, if the HDD is only going to be used in the caddy, it doesn't matter too much which drive you choose.

The only external interface fast enough to take advantage of a SSD would be eSATA or Thunderbolt. If you had FW800, it does pretty well with a fast HDD (especially compared to USB2), and would have a faster average speed with a SSD - but, still nothing like the speed you would have internally, or with eSATA or TB.

 

[Macman45]

I HAve Both TB

eSATA is just the external version of SATA. The drive would be SATA either way. A SATA SSD in the same form factor (say 2.5") should work in the USB2 caddy, but there's no real advantage speed wise - it would be a huge waste.

USB2 isn't fast enough to keep up with the speed of most SATA drives. So, if the HDD is only going to be used in the caddy, it doesn't matter too much which drive you choose.

The only external interface fast enough to take advantage of a SSD would be eSATA or Thunderbolt. If you had FW800, it does pretty well with a fast HDD (especially compared to USB2), and would have a faster average speed with a SSD - but, still nothing like the speed you would have internally, or with eSATA or TB.

I think the SSD is going to be the way to go....any recommendations on make / models?

 

[gr8tfly]

I think the SSD is going to be the way to go....any recommendations on make / models?

Unfortunately, TB is still very new and I haven't seen many external drive's (one or two) and none (that I remember, anyway) use SSDs (though perhaps the drives could be swapped out). No empty enclosures, either.

I believe Belkin has announced an expansion box, which expands to the same ports as the Apple TB display, but no ship date or price. I think it'll be great for MBA owners.

 

[Macman45]

Thats The Rub

Unfortunately, TB is still very new and I haven't seen many external drive's (one or two) and none (that I remember, anyway) use SSDs (though perhaps the drives could be swapped out). No empty enclosures, either.

I believe Belkin has announced an expansion box, which expands to the same ports as the Apple TB display, but no ship date or price. I think it'll be great for MBA owners.

Not much stuff around yet....I'm going to email a friend at and see if she knows how long we are going to have to wait. (I'm not a fan of Belkin) If new stuff isn't to far down the track, I guess I could carry the caddy around for a while (got plenty of SATA HDD's)

Thanks for the info!

 

[Nioxic]

it depends.

if you're gonna be storing a lot of stuff, you should get esata.. more storage is a lot cheaper

if you need speed and not a ton of data, just get the ssd. i'd prefer that. but its also a lot higher cost.. :<

 

[ZipZap]

SSD is not a protocol. Buy a SATA internal SSD. Or an external SSD with eSata as as interface option.

 

[gr8tfly]

Not much stuff around yet....I'm going to email a friend at and see if she knows how long we are going to have to wait. (I'm not a fan of Belkin) If new stuff isn't to far down the track, I guess I could carry the caddy around for a while (got plenty of SATA HDD's)

Thanks for the info!

Here you go! SSD even.

http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/09/20/lacie.little.big.disk.reaches.apple.stores/