USB 3.0 to esata

Tomtom111 · 08 Sep 2012

Yeah, I know that all drives ar the same on the inside, but I don't want to A: Take apart the hard drives enclosure so that it can be used it the dock and B: shell out £40 or whatever. I'd much rather get an adapter of some sort. Just a thought but if I use the USB 3 cable with an esata adapter (which isn't available) it'll still go at USB 3 speeds because the cable is the bottleneck.

So my two options, as I see it, is to either get an expresscard usb 3 adapter (be it cheap or more expensive) OR get a cable with a male USB 3 type B to male eSATA.

jvellos · 08 Sep 2012

EDIT: Ne'er mind, didn't see that the thread had multiple pages.

Tomtom111 · 08 Sep 2012

Don't worry about it.

Tomtom111 · 09 Sep 2012

Thanks everyone for your help. I think I'll get an express card. Not sure whether I'll be a cheap one though. Thanks again.

Tomtom111 · 09 Sep 2012

Before I decide, which one of these cards do you think would be best, based on price and goodness(?)?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Express-Expr...6965683&sr=1-4

Neewer 54mm 2-Port USB 3.0 ExpressCard Express Card Adapter: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Neewer Expresscard Express 34mm To 2 Port USB 3.0 BC628: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GMYLE-Expres...ef=pd_sim_ce_3

bobafetthotmail · 10 Sep 2012

Ok, the first seems legit, but has some differences, namely lacks the chip name on the sticker and lacks the AKU name.

The second is the one that looks exactly like the one I had in my hands. Even the cable and (worthless) driver CD look the same.

The last two are expresscard 34 so they don't have the additional power socked for the USB cable (i.e. may not work with two HDDs connected through USB 3.0) AND need some kind of adapter to stay really safely put in your laptop's expresscard 54 slot (and even then there is lot of space that dust can use to get in your laptop). They also use a different chip, and I don't know if the linked drivers work on it or not (although they should, and maybe for a different product their CD has useful drivers).

All in all, I'd take the second one. Price differences aren't that relevant, and I prefer following my gut feeling. Feel free to choose whatever you like, this is just an educated guess, may still be horribly wrong.