Quote:
Originally Posted by MacGruber
So ... buy or no buy?  |
If you are fine with eSata, there is no reason to get USB 3.0 right now unless you have a lot of USB 3.0 devices or flash drives if speed is your main concern.
If you do buy a new laptop, many come with USB 3.0 and eSata anyway so really, the issue is if you need a new laptop right now.
Right now eSata is still as fast or faster than USB 3.0. The problem with eSata is that it is not as plug and play friendly as USB 3.0 and it does not provide power in the interface so eSata devices need external power while USB does not and is much more convenient.
If your OS is not installed in AHCI mode (instead of IDE), you cannot hot swap SATA devices so you can't plug and play eSata devices like you can with USB without a reboot.
I have USB 3.0 in my laptop but I haven't bought any flash drives or HDD enclosures that support 3.0 yet so it's a bit useless for me.