How to store data on my 3 HDDs: USB or SATA?

[Stealth3si]

I have three 7200rpm HDDs that are used for data storage and currently connected via SATA II, USB 2.0 and eSATA, respectively. Once in very rare blue moon, I may reorganize them and transfer data from and to each other. Other than that, I'm content with speed I'm getting from them and there's no urgent need to upgrade to SATA II or SATA III for this particular application.

I did consider getting a PCI SATA II card but those have their own set of compatibility/reliability issues.

Now, I'm wondering if USB 2.0 is good enough for my 3 HDD storage needs as is or should I ditch the USB 2.0 connection and upgrade my mobo, which has 2 SATA II ports, to a new mobo with more SATA II/III ports?

[edDV]

Are you asking about file copy disk to disk? Copy speed will be limited to the sustained transfer rate of the slowest drive. USB2 further limits copy rate to around 30 MB/s. Figure ~60 MB/s or faster for SATA/eSATA. Transfer speed also differs for inner vs outer tracks on the drive and slows considerably with file fragmentation.

[ranchhand]

upgrade my mobo

Depending on your unit's age, you may hit a wall on that one; finding a proper socket type replacement will be difficult at best, and probably impossible. These things become antiques fast and suppliers drop them as soon as sales begin to go down. You are probably talking a new computer altogether.
Might be cheaper to get a USB hub instead, although you will lose some speed. They are very cheap.

[redwudz]

One alternative is to add a eSATA PCI card, if you have an open slot. My present MB has 8 SATA connections, still not enough. I use a add-on PCI card for two more external eSATA drives. The cards are fairly inexpensive, and you can likely use them again if you upgrade to a newer PC.

And you may be aware, that just by adding a PCI backplane eSATA adapter, most any motherboard or card SATA connection can be used for eSATA. The big differences with true eSATA is slightly improved cables for noise reduction and a higher driving signal for long cable runs. Not a big factor if you use 3 feet or less eSATA cables.

[jman98]

Ever considered going with USB 3.0? It's about 10 times as fast as USB 2.0. I've got one external drive in a USB 3.0 enclosure and it is sweet how fast it is.

[Stealth3si]

One alternative is to add a eSATA PCI card, if you have an open slot. My present MB has 8 SATA connections, still not enough. I use a add-on PCI card for two more external eSATA drives. The cards are fairly inexpensive, and you can likely use them again if you upgrade to a newer PC.

And you may be aware, that just by adding a PCI backplane eSATA adapter, most any motherboard or card SATA connection can be used for eSATA. The big differences with true eSATA is slightly improved cables for noise reduction and a higher driving signal for long cable runs. Not a big factor if you use 3 feet or less eSATA cables.

Does all my hard drives support eSATA?

[Stealth3si]

Ever considered going with USB 3.0? It's about 10 times as fast as USB 2.0. I've got one external drive in a USB 3.0 enclosure and it is sweet how fast it is.

Do I have to have three components for USB 3.0 connection?

1. Can my mobo USB connection ports support USB 3.0?
2. USB 3.0 cable?
3. hard drive must have USB 3.0 capability.

[redwudz]

For USB 3.0 you would need a motherboard or a PCI card that supports USB 3.0. Also the proper USB 3.0 cables and USB 3.0 hard drive enclosures.

eSATA is basically the same as SATA in your computer. I use a PCI slot eSATA socket adapter from a couple of my spare internal SATA sockets and a eSATA cable to my eSATA drive enclosures on one PC. (First image)

And a eSATA PCI card on another with the sockets built into the card. Something like this, though it's a SATA II card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132021 But it's still faster and more reliable than USB 2.0, IMO.

There are lots of eSATA hard drive enclosures out there with their own power supplies.

If you want to do it the quick way, just use a regular SATA PCI slot socket extension and regular SATA cable directly to a bare hard drive, along with a power supply or an extension power cable from the PC power supply. (Second image)

But the eSATA card or adapter and eSATA cables are a better way to go.

[edDV]

At best, USB 3.0 drives will perform about the same as SATA/eSATA for mechanical drives. The speed limitation is the mechanical drive itself. At the transfer speed limit you will find high rotational speed mechanical drives such as the WD Raptors, RAID configurations and RAM drives.

[Stealth3si]

How much of a noticeable difference would there be between SATA PCI Slot card versus USB 2.0 speed transfers?

I would need a non-Raid card with 300G transfers that supports win 7, 1 TB drives x2 Sata II ports.

Promise F29S32P00000000 SATA300 TX2 Plus RoHS Controller Card

[redwudz]

You would get the same transfers speeds with a external SATA drive as you get with a internal SATA drive most times. Should be around 75MB/s or better. I doubt you will see anywhere near that speed with a USB 2.0 drive. There is a large difference between the 'advertised' maximum transfer speeds of any device and the real world average speeds. USB transfers can also be interrupted fairly often by the OS, so that can also affect USB speeds.

There are cheaper cards than the Promise TX2 cards. I have an older Promise TX4 card and had major driver problems with my W7 64bit PC. It's an old card. For cheap, some of the Rosewill cards are non-raid: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132021 I would stick with the ones that use Silicon Image chipsets as they seem the most dependable.

PS: The card I linked to was a 1.5GB card and you were looking for a 3GB card. But there are also some non-raid ones like: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132020 This one uses a PCI X slot, so better for newer PCs.

If you go with the Promise card, make sure you can get compatible drivers for your PC.

[edDV]

How much of a noticeable difference would there be between SATA PCI Slot card versus USB 2.0 speed transfers?

USB 2.0 tops out around 30 MB/s sustained regardless of drive technology.

SATA/eSATA has enough head room for any single mechanical drive.

[p_l]

First I went with one of these for a buck .62 ,


then I added one of these dual internal SATA PCI cards which also sports an IDE port in case I want to hook up one of my legacy drives.

[Stealth3si]

You would get the same transfers speeds with a external SATA drive as you get with a internal SATA drive most times. Should be around 75MB/s or better. I doubt you will see anywhere near that speed with a USB 2.0 drive. There is a large difference between the 'advertised' maximum transfer speeds of any device and the real world average speeds. USB transfers can also be interrupted fairly often by the OS, so that can also affect USB speeds.

There are cheaper cards than the Promise TX2 cards. I have an older Promise TX4 card and had major driver problems with my W7 64bit PC. It's an old card. For cheap, some of the Rosewill cards are non-raid: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132021 I would stick with the ones that use Silicon Image chipsets as they seem the most dependable.

PS: The card I linked to was a 1.5GB card and you were looking for a 3GB card. But there are also some non-raid ones like: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132020 This one uses a PCI X slot, so better for newer PCs.

If you go with the Promise card, make sure you can get compatible drivers for your PC.

are there any that work on x16 lane PCI-Express slot? I have only one PCI 2.0 x16 slot left.

Further, I finally got a crucial m4 64gb ssd and was wondering if anyone can tell me these numbers mean, i.e, is my ssd performing 'good' given my limited system?

My Specs are:

Acer Aspire x3200 w/ AMD Phenom X3 (TripleCore) 8400 2.1 GHz (Stock speed & HS)
4 GB G·Skill DDR2 800 PC2-6400
Onboard NVidia GeForce 8200/9200
Asus Xonar DX
WD 500GB (30 GB OS partition for 1+ year)
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Build 7600

Now, I'm on a look out for a budget sata3 addon card for my new ssd. I would need one that will allow faster speed than my current SATA2 speed, at a budget price knowing full well i won't be reaching nearly the full sata3 speed, even it I could I doubt I would notice a difference in real world usage. It also must be reliable and have at least one port.

i'm comparing these two:

1. HighPoint Rocket 620-OEM PCI-Express 2.0 x1 Low Profile SATA III (6.0Gb/s) Controller Card $9.99 FS
2. HighPoint Rocket 620 PCI-Express 2.0 x1 SATA III (6.0Gb/s) Controller Card $24.99 + $4.99 S/H

they seem both to the identical but not sure why one is more expensive and higher ratings.

I should also mention that other than the reason stated above, I'm also looking for a good budget SATA addon card, be it SATA II or III, preferably, because my mobo is out of SATA ports. Currently I'm using USB for one of my HDs and I want to either move it onto the card and leave the SSD on hte mobo or move the SSD onto the card and the moev HD onto the mobo.