Macbook Pro eSATA Expressport?

I purchased an OWC eSata Express card about 18 months ago. I note that they have two of their OWC branded cards but I cannot discern the difference. I do remember the price was $20 so it probably is the less expensive one.

The data transfer speeds are much faster than Firewire 800. My experience has been up to 50% less time to transfer similar quantities. I cannot comment if the card slows down the transfer speed because I simply don't know and I have now way of measuring.

As far a HDDs are concerned, I have 4 Seagate 750 Gb 7200 rpm drives in my collection. One is in my MBP, the three others are in the enclosures that OWC sells (Mercury Elite-Al Pro). They may expe3nsive for some but I have not seen any better and I do endorse them. The only thing that they lack is a Thunderbolt connection (which I suspect will eventually come).

If capacity is important, do not discount the 1 Tb HDDs. Even though the speed is 5400 rpm, the overall performance will be similar to a 750 Gb 7200 rpm HDD. Data density does matter in HDD performance.

Ciao.

Lucky be those that can still add external stuff to their MBPs, that is not connected via USB, FW or TB. Which also makes the OP's MBP an Early 2011 model (I think). Cause my Late 2011 model, the current crop, only has the aforementioned data ports and an SDXC card slot. No e-SATA for us 😢

My card looks like that but there is one that OWC sells for 19.99 which looks the same. Which is identical to mine, I really don't know. I looked for part numbers but i was unsuccessful in getting a match.

You will find aficionados and detractors for virtually ever brand of HDDs. I am not a partisan Seagate fan. I have a total of 6 Seagates, 3 Toshiba's and 1 Hitachi. They are all spinning, so far.

All of mine are 2.5" drives and I note that you are examining the larger 3.5" format. OWC sells the larger drives, including Western digital and similar enclosures for same

:http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEAQ7S1TB32M/

Not having any experience with either, I cannot give an empirical or authoritative opinion. The same applies to your Glyphtech and G-Technology products. All I can state is that OWC is consumer oriented and they do have a good technical staff on site. My dealings with them have been favorable.

Ciao.

Courcoul, greetings friend; The OP has a 17" MBP, like I do because some people are not reluctant as some to dig a little deeper in their pockets and spend a little additional dinero for a beautiful 17" display and an express 34 slot. Since the inception of the MBP line, all 17" MBPs have had the express card slot (so does my 2006 core duo) and some older 15" models did as well.

That's right, No e-SATA for you!!!! 😢.

Ciao.

If you do not use an eSata connector (card), the fastest speeds available will be Firewire 800.

I hope someone will be able to answer your second question.

Ciao.

I would check downstream to make sure there are no bottlenecks. eSATA would effectively eliminate the middle man, the SATA-to-whatever adapter, but will the controller on the HDD be able to fully exploit the speed of the SATA bus? What brand and model would you need, that is capable of pacing a SATA bus without falling behind?

There was the digital equivalent of a geek p.i.s.s.i.n.g match on another thread, discussing these issues. You'll need some form of RAID setup on the external device to truly maximize throughput.

OGELTHORPE wrote:

Courcoul, greetings friend; The OP has a 17" MBP, like I do because some people are not reluctant as some to dig a little deeper in their pockets and spend a little additional dinero for a beautiful 17" display and an express 34 slot. ...

That's right, No e-SATA for you!!!! 😢.

I am getting MAC ENVY! 😠 Digital equivalent of that some underendowed gents get.....

$300. Four bay. Can now go up to 12 TB if you stick 3TB drives in there. 😎

http://oyendigital.com/hard-drives/store/RC-M4QJ.html

Alternative. If unneeded, consider removing the optical drive and sticking another HDD in there. That could get you up to 2TB online, without anything dangling from the outside.

BTW, someone (Hitachi, Toshiba, ??) said they came up with a new recording technology that would break the 1TB/2.5" barrier. Maybe up to 3-4TB before the year is out. Worth keeping eyes open.

OWC makes an HDD/SSD adapter/support to fit in place of the optical drive. Hence, no mods are needed on the Mac; just stick the original optical drive back in if it needs to go away for service.