HDD docking station

mufcmark · 3 Jun 2011 at 20:24

I was looking at buying one of these for backups and I've narrowed it down to three choices, two of which aren't stocked by ocuk.

The first is the Sharkoon SATA QuickPort XT USB3.0, it has usb3 connectivity but no esata.

The second is the Sharkoon SATA QuickPort XT. Exact same model as above but has esata and no usb3.

The third is the Icybox IB-111StUS2-Wh. It has esata but no usb3 so is similar to the model above but looks to have a higher build quality.

Which would be the best option? Is it worth getting the usb 3 one or stick with esata?

Moothead2 · 3 Jun 2011 at 20:29

I say if you don't mind waiting a little longer for the data to transfer over go for the cheapest one

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mufcmark · 3 Jun 2011 at 20:31

How much faster would usb3 over esata be using a normal hard drive?

Moothead2 · 3 Jun 2011 at 20:36

I don't know really. I'll be honest I was just assuming but it turns out eSata was faster than USB3 in articles from about a year ago. Not sure if USB overtook eSata or not but I say just go for the eSata.

Rroff · 3 Jun 2011 at 20:40

I got one of the Sharkoon SATA QuickPort Duo -v.2- couple of days ago and so far seems brilliant - not as cheap as the others, but highest transfer rates I've seen yet over USB2.0 (about 46MB/s sustained) and just worked out the box no fuss - eSATA was impressive too using a 1TB Seagate 5900RPM drive didn't drop below 80MB/s (and this was connected to my laptop so the internal drive was probably about maxed out rather than the external one).

EDIT: And I'd stay a long way away from Icybox I've never had anything but trouble with them - my last Icybox caddy/NAS was forever randomly "losing" the disc or corrupting the filesystem