You may have read our previous post where we compared USB 3.0 to Apple Thunderbolt, Thunderbolt is twice as fast as USB 3.0 and allows daisy-chaining, therefore we thought we would compare Apple’s tech to eSATA aka external SATA.
As we pointed out previously, Thunderbolt transfers data at a maximum of 10Gbps (in both directions simultaneously), as for eSATA according to TechRadar eSATA delivers a maximum transfer rate of 3Gbps, therefore Thunderbolt is more than three times as fast, obviously you are not always going to transfer at the maximum rate, however it is obvious that Thunderbolt wipes the floor with eSATA.
USB 3.0 is also much faster than eSATA, therefore many people think that the end is nigh for technology which has failed to really impact the market since its launch back in 2004, however if an external version of SATA 3.0 (6Gbps) takes off it means eSATA 3.0 will be faster than USB 3.0.
One thing that may be in eSATA and USB 3.0’s favor if price, many expect Thunderbolt cables and devices to be extremely expensive, if this is the case perhaps people will prefer the more affordable eSATA or USB 3.0 options, let’s face is 3Gbps and 5Gbps transfer rates are a lot faster than USB 2.0 and Firewire’s capabilities.
Do you think eSATA has a future?
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