Why does esata slow down computer and not firewire?

A

abarsami

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 28, 2003
Messages
162
Using firewire when transferring the same file - my computer is fine. I can launch email, web and the speed is good.

Using esata - external bracket - connected to internal sata port - transferring the same file - even though it much faster - causes computer to slow down when launching email, web.

Is it because it takes up more bandwidth?

Will a pci esata card solve this problem?
 
There shouldn't be a difference. Does this happen with other sata drives? Does that channel show up as being in DMA mode in Device Manager?
 
yes it happens with other sata drive and other enclosure.

I'm using vista i have enable write caching on the disk enabled.

I ordered a pci sata card - let's see if that fixes it. I can use that instead of the bracket that hooked up internally to my sata.

Maybe my computer doesn't like both sata ports taken.

I can't figure it out.
 
abarsami said:
yes it happens with other sata drive and other enclosure.

I'm using vista i have enable write caching on the disk enabled.

I ordered a pci sata card - let's see if that fixes it. I can use that instead of the bracket that hooked up internally to my sata.

Maybe my computer doesn't like both sata ports taken.

I can't figure it out.
Click to expand...

I'm sure PCI esata cards will treat your processor more nicely, but then again you'll be limited by the PCI bus to some degree, so that alone should help. Did you maybe mean PCIe esata?
 
I have a dual core also. It's wierd. I meant pci. I have nforce 3 mb.

I hope that fixes it. Or else I have to try firewire 800. Since firewire 400 runs very good and doesn't slow down comp.
 
I don't think anything is wrong with your setup. It could very well be due to the difference in transfer rate. I'm assuming you're transferring a file from the same disk that your web and mail clients load from? The esata interface would allow the drives to run at the speed of the slowest drive (likely the write speed of the external drive). If the external drive is newer than the internal one, it could even be faster on the writes and thus eat all of the available STR from the internal drive.
 
The external drive is not newer than the internal one. Internal i have seagate 7900.10, external wd 320gig.

So if I get firewire 800 or a pci esata card it would solve the problem?
 
abarsami said:
The external drive is not newer than the internal one. Internal i have seagate 7900.10, external wd 320gig.

So if I get firewire 800 or a pci esata card it would solve the problem?
Click to expand...

No.

I think firewire 800 could allow a high enough transfer rate to reproduce the problem you are seeing with esata. To put it simply, I think your problem is that the internal drive is being taxed by the high transfer rate of the esata interface. Starting any large application will make it seek a lot while trying to maintain the transfer to the external drive, thus slowing down the app start and the data transfer to the external drive. This behavior is normal, and I don't think you should worry about it.

Changing drive controllers won't improve performance here. If you are truly bothered by the slowdown and want new hardware, buy a second hard drive and put your data files on it, and avoid RAID-0. You want another spindle to do IO with, not more transfer rate from RAID-0.
 
You misunderstand i'm not running raid. It's just a backup drive that i transfer files to.
 
abarsami said:
You misunderstand i'm not running raid. It's just a backup drive that i transfer files to.
Click to expand...

I do understand. Whatever gave you the idea that I thought you were running RAID? I didn't want you to get the idea that RAID would solve the problem, since the RAID topic comes up so much around here.
 
oh woops - my bad. I misunderstood. ok - so it's normal. Thx. I still ordered the pci esata card and will try that.
 
I wish i could. I have a shuttle xpc sn95g5 and no new nforce 3 drivers are out.
 
abarsami said:
oh woops - my bad. I misunderstood. ok - so it's normal. Thx. I still ordered the pci esata card and will try that.
Click to expand...

Did the pci esata card work for you?

After reading up on esata is appears that the passive pass-thru may have a voltage or signal incompatibility with esata.

I recently bought an enclosure and used the enclosed bracket for esata and had problems when formatting the new drive and when transferring files to/from external drive. When that same drive was placed internally and attached with sata directly to the motherboard, I had no problems formatting or transferring files.

As a short term measure I'm using the USB 2.0 port of the enclosure until a new esata controller pci card arrives. The USB 2.0 works without difficulty but does not make full use of the speed of the drive and interface available with eSATA.

Thanks for your comments.

Go Buckeyes!!!
 
Buckeye said:
Did the pci esata card work for you?

After reading up on esata is appears that the passive pass-thru may have a voltage or signal incompatibility with esata.

I recently bought an enclosure and used the enclosed bracket for esata and had problems when formatting the new drive and when transferring files to/from external drive. When that same drive was placed internally and attached with sata directly to the motherboard, I had no problems formatting or transferring files.

As a short term measure I'm using the USB 2.0 port of the enclosure until a new esata controller pci card arrives. The USB 2.0 works without difficulty but does not make full use of the speed of the drive and interface available with eSATA.

Thanks for your comments.

Go Buckeyes!!!
Click to expand...

To answer my own question. A PCI-express SATA Controller solved my problem.

Now I can quickly move files between my external and internal drives with ease.

I used the Promise SATA300 TX-4302, it includes two internal and two external cables. The quality of the eSATA cables can make a difference. Look for compliance and the official eSATA logo on products to help separate pretenders from the real deal.

eSATA looks like she's taking off nicely for consumer market penetration, just need to get through a couple bumps like the motherboard issue. Particularly, a SATA capable motherboard does not equal eSATA compatible motherboard; PCI controller likely required for full operational abilities; not just a bracket for connection to SATA internally.
 
What enclosure is it? What motherboard interface is it connected to? Is it the native south bridge, or an additional onboard controller like Jmicron, highpoint, etc.?

I have two Vantec eSATA external drives with 160GB Maxtor's in them and they run at full speed with no cpu usage. They are plugged into the regular onboard Intel ICH8R SATA ports via the SATA -> eSATA adapter came with the Vantec enclosures.
 
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