The ASUS A55VM series SATA interface is designed for use within the system chassis only. The emergence of eSATA allows users to connect SATA hard drives outside the computer instead of being limited to the inside of the computer in the past. Although users can also use USB or IEEE1394 to connect hard drives and calculate functions outside the computer, eSATA has great advantages:
1. Transfer speed advantage:
In the current market, the data transmission speed of USB2.0 can reach 480Mb/s (60MB/S), and the data transmission speed of IEEE1394 can reach 400~800Mb/s (50MB/S~100MB/S). However, eSATA can provide a maximum data transfer speed of 3000Mbps (384MB/S), which is much higher than USB2.0 and IEEE1394, and it still maintains a convenient hot-swappable function. Users can connect or remove it at any time without shutting down the computer. SATA installation is very convenient. Although the eSATA interface can theoretically reach transfer rates of 1.5 Gb/s and 3Gb/s, in practical applications, due to the constraints of the hard drive's internal transfer rate and the motherboard, the actual data transfer will be lower than the theoretical value, but still higher than IEEE 1394 , USB2.0 transfer rate.
2. The eSATA cable supports multiple hot swaps
Although the SATA specification that supports hot swapping and stronger specifications has been launched for a long time, if A naked SATA hard drive is directly used externally. It lacks a convenient power connection device and lacks effective protection itself. The fragile PCB is completely exposed to the outside, and since the SATA cable can only be plugged and unplugged dozens of times, the eSATA cable can only be plugged in and out dozens of times. Unplugged 2,000 times, which also creates good conditions for eSATA to seize power.
Therefore,With fast transmission speed and convenient mobility, eSATA will replace USB2.0 and IEEE 1394 as the development trend of external expansion interfaces in the near future. However, eSATA is not just about moving a SATA port to the back of the PC case. The SATA cables and connectors used within the chassis are not suitable for direct external connection.
3. Conducive to the performance of RAID
Another benefit of the eSATA interface is that it is conducive to the performance of RAID. In the Port Multiplier (Port Multiplier) , PM for short), even if its interface bandwidth is only 1.5Gbps, it is enough for two hard drives to fully utilize (such as RAID 0), and if it is 3.0Gbps, it can drive 4 hard drives without becoming a bottleneck.