External SATA III USB hard drive runs slowly, how to test speed?

[Basil]

I have a couple of different SATA III hard drives, 3.5 inch form factor. i have them in an Icy Box USB 3 case. i believe they run very slowly, far slower than if connected to the normal SATA cables to the MB. I don't know if I am expecting too much, are there any tests I can do to see if there is a real issue please? OS is Win 7 64 bit pro, and the USB drivers are up to date.

caveat: I damaged a USB3 header for the front USB3 ports lead, on the MB and snapped a pin. So rather than buy a new MB I added a USB3 PCIe card and ran the front two ports to the card. I would *MUCH* rather use the front ports, and I have to admit I have not tried the Icy Box hard drive on a rear USB3 port yet. But I would like to determine if I have been a tight wad and should have just replaced the MB.... Thanks for reading, and for any replies!

Further, my MB does not have an eSATA port, would adding a card supporting eSATA give a speed benefit above a correctly functioning USB3 port?

 

[Berton]

Data transfers to USB drives do seem to be slower than transfers to internal drives and I also have slowness with the front USB 2.0 ports. I use this product in my computer:
4-port USB 2.0 High Speed Front-Bay Hub - Black | C2G
Power comes from the PC's power supply and the data cable plugs into a port on the rear.
Haven't gotten a similar product for USB 3.0 ports yet but this page shows several:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=usb+3.0+internal+hub&ia=products
With Notebooks now including eSATA ports on some models I'm starting to think about that for my one Desktop that could use such a drive.