eSATA VS USB 3.0

(External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment)

2 new external ports are arriving on the markets. What are they and what do they do?

eSATA: Most of today’s internal computer components move data around on cords called SATA (or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment). This cord transfers data from about 1.5 Gbit/sec to 6.0 Gbit/sec. the previous cord used was called a Parallel ATA (or IDE) and it only transferred data at 133 Mbit/sec. This new SATA was introduced in 2006 and is the primary cord used for hard drives and CD/DVD drives.

        With eSATA, this quick data transfer became available for use with external devices, like external hard drives. At 6 Gbit/second, nothing currently comes close. Transferring movies to a hard drive will take seconds, not minutes. This eSATA method is still rare, but picking up ground. The cords can be expensive.

USB 3.0: We have all come to love (or hate) the versatility of USB since 1996. Today you can practically find anything that will run using a USB; from a pencil sharpener to even a USB powered grill.

There is almost nothing the USB can’t connect to or charge. Yet, with the development of faster and faster computers, USB has fallen behind, until now. In 1996, USB came out with version 1.1. it’s speed was a slow 1.5 Mbit/sec. in 2001, USB 2.0 came out with a transfer rate of 480 Mbit/sec. For 9 years the USB 2.0 ran dominant, but eventually became slow. In 2010, we’ll see the introduction of USB 3.0 with a comparable transfer rate to the eSATA (5 Gbit/sec) and will probably be backwards compatible, meaning the plug is very similar.