MaximumPC 2001 11

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QUICKSTART^

THE BEGINNING OF THE MAGAZINE, WHERE ARTICLES ARE SMALL

USB 3.0 vs. eSATA

ROUND 1

FEATURES Sure, both USB 3.0 and eSATA

can be used to connect external storage devices

to your PC. But the beauty of USB is that it’s

universal: A USB 3.0 port can also accommodate a

printer, input device, fan, MP3 player, smartphone,

camcorder, novelty mug-warmer, or light-up

globe—and it’s backward-compatible with USB

2.0 and USB 1.1. With eSATA, you’re limited to

hard drives and (some) fl ash drives. However,

eSATA passes along native SATA commands—

from a device standpoint, there shouldn’t be any

difference between an eSATA drive and a native

SATA drive. USB 3.0 hard drives have to use a

SATA-to-USB controller. But that still can’t negate

USB’s multifunctionality. WINNER: USB 3.

1616 |MAMAMAXIMXIMXIMXIMUUUUMMPPPCC|JAN 2011 |www.maximumpc.com

eSATA cable

ROUND 2

AVAILABILITY Most non-budget motherboards

released in the last few years have at least one eSATA

port, and plenty of computer chassis have front-

panel eSATA connectors that plug right into one of

your mobo’s SATA ports. It’s only in the past four or

fi ve months that USB 3.0 has appeared on laptops

and computer chassis, and for desktops there’s no

internal motherboard header yet. That means that

the USB pass-through cables have to go right out the

back of the case and plug into the USB 3.0 headers on

the back of your motherboard.

On the other hand, USB 3.0 drives and enclosures

are already quite common, while eSATA drives are

not. WINNER: TIE

T

here are only so many ways to connect external storage devices

to your computer. The three main contenders are USB, FireWire,

and eSATA. Even though USB 2.0 was crippled by 33MB/s transfer

speeds, it’s easily the most popular interface. That trend seems

bound to continue as USB 3.0 adoption ramps up, off ering much im-

proved bandwidth. FireWire, for its part, is practically dead (even

Apple computers don’t ship with FireWire ports anymore). Most

enthusiast motherboards feature eSATA, but when’s the last time

you saw an eSATA hard drive enclosure? Given USB 3.0’s theoreti-

cal throughput of 5Gb/s, is it time to throw out eSATA for good, or is

there still some life left in the spec? We pit USB 3.0 against the aging

3Gb/s eSATA spec to fi nd out. –NATHAN EDWARDS