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USB 3.0 to eSATA adapter?

S

silvrbullet

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 19, 2009
115
0
Does anyone use a USB3 to eSATA adapter on their rMBP? Mine is set to arrive on Thursday, but the Apple Thunderbolt to FW800 adapter isn't available yet. My external drives can run off either USB2, FW800, or eSATA -- I'm starting to think that USB3 to eSATA might be the better way to go, since it should be faster?

What do you think?
 
well, as far as i know, the speed is determined by the host port. So thunderbolt to firewire would be the faster connection. USB3 and eSATA are both slower than thunderbolt.

actually... there is a nice breakdown here...
 
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I have two external hard drives that I used to use with FireWire 400. For compatibility with my new rMBP, I bought two StarTech eSATA to USB 3.0 adapters and plug them into a hub.
 
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shelob8888 said:
well, as far as i know, the speed is determined by the host port. So thunderbolt to firewire would be the faster connection. USB3 and eSATA are both slower than thunderbolt.

actually... there is a nice breakdown here...
Click to expand...

So are you saying that since the host port is thunderbolt, that it will be faster than FW800? I was thinking that since the drive was hooked up through FW, the fastest I could hit would be 800mbps?
 
silvrbullet said:
So are you saying that since the host port is thunderbolt, that it will be faster than FW800?
Click to expand...

No, not exactly... In practice, you can only go as fast as the adapter will allow (so thunderbolt to firewire will yield firewire data speeds). But what I was referring to was choosing the thunderbolt port to adapt instead of USB3 because thunderbolt is faster. But that being said, going back to adapter thresholds... USB3 is faster than firewire 800, so even though you are "trading up" (adapting USB3 to eSATA) that should yield a faster transfer than thunderbolt to firewire 800 (in theory).

Make sense?
 
I'm also looking to connect an external HD of mine that has an eSATA port to my MacBook through either Thunderbolt or USB 3.0.

From my understanding, it will be the same speed using either Thunderbolt or USB 3 because the max output of the eSATA on my enclosure is 3Gb/s and both of those interfaces are capable of doing much more than that.

If anyone could recommend a cable or hub that would be appreciated!
 
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