eSATA thumb drives: Fast enough to boot OS for regular use?

[boren]

I'm specifically interested in this drive. Is it likely to be sufficiently fast compared to my 500GB Seagate drive? I'm currently using Windows 7 and Linux Mint 10.

Thanks! 😎

 

[corkyg]

The eSATA combo port on laptops is useful. However, what is the objective? eSATA is certainly no faster than the internal SATA drive. My sense is that the entire boot/load cycle would be faster with the intgernal SATA 500GB. For me, having to carry around an external gizmo to boot my laptop would be inconvenient, and it would also rewquire two additional keystrokes.

BTW, I do occasionally boot my laptop to an external eSATA drive for special purposes such as drive cloning.

But, it might serve your purpose for dual boot - one for Win 7 and 1 for Linux.

 

[boren]

The eSATA combo port on laptops is useful. However, what is the objective?

The objective is to make my HTPC totally silent, without spending more on a "real" SSD drive.

eSATA is certainly no faster than the internal SATA drive.

The internal SATA drive is too noisy for my liking. Other than that, it's fine.

For me, having to carry around an external gizmo to boot my laptop would be inconvenient, and it would also rewquire two additional keystrokes.

I don't intend to carry my HTPC with me.

As for additional key-strokes, why would it be any different than the SATA drive? I plan to connect the thumb drive permanently and set the BIOS to boot it by default.

But, it might serve your purpose for dual boot - one for Win 7 and 1 for Linux.

Yes, that's what I'm hoping for. The only real concern is performance...

Thanks for replying.

 

[alaricljs]

I was browsing either Anandtech or NewEgg and saw an ad for a new flash drive. Quad channel awesomeness, bringing you the fastest 27MB read / 25MB write speeds! Woohoo!

Yeah, the 500GB Seagate can do far better than that any day. There are some corner cases where a hot flash drive will be quicker, but they don't shine at random access any more so than an HDD.

 

[ElFenix]

the problem with using flash drives as SSDs is that the firmware isn't designed for it, and the flash may be much lower quality than what is used in SSDs. that means short life. which means corruption.

 

[boren]

the problem with using flash drives as SSDs is that the firmware isn't designed for it, and the flash may be much lower quality than what is used in SSDs. that means short life. which means corruption.

I see. Do you think that a cheap SSD drive such as this would be a safer bet? It costs pretty much the same as the eSATA thumb drive I linked above, but if it's going to work better then I'd happily give up portability.

 

[corkyg]

I don't understand the comment about the need for "silence." My laptops are silent with their Seagate Momentus XT drives. Silence in a HTPC would be difficult to determine because the material being shown has sound that will totally mask any laptop HDD noise. Stick with the reliability of your internal SATA drive.

 

[alaricljs]

My HTPC uses some random 2.5" drive I had handy. It's soft-mounted in the case and the only fan is the temp-controlled PSU fan. There's a bit of "whoosh" if you are at the blowing end. Other than that it's dead silent. The fact that it's tucked away in a corner behind the tv/stereo/speakers makes it even more impossible to hear the nearly inaudible noise. Now throw in the fact that the furnace, refrigerator, kids, cat, neighbors and traffic all make louder noises...

So seriously, are you using the system as an HTPC on a shelf or tucked in a corner? How close are you sitting. Any reasonable build with a 2.5" hdd will be dead silent at 10 feet.

 

[boren]

I don't understand the comment about the need for "silence." My laptops are silent with their Seagate Momentus XT drives. Silence in a HTPC would be difficult to determine because the material being shown has sound that will totally mask any laptop HDD noise. Stick with the reliability of your internal SATA drive.

I also use my HTPC to view/display photos and to browse the web. In both cases there is no sound, other than the annoying popping noise that my Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 drive generates while seeking.

As for the Momentus XT, I considered them, but I read quite a few comments (e.g. on newegg) from owners who complain about the drive being noisy, so that turned my off.

My HTPC uses some random 2.5" drive I had handy. It's soft-mounted in the case and the only fan is the temp-controlled PSU fan. There's a bit of "whoosh" if you are at the blowing end. Other than that it's dead silent.

My HTPC has no fans at all, so it's totally silent except for that noisy drive.

The fact that it's tucked away in a corner behind the tv/stereo/speakers makes it even more impossible to hear the nearly inaudible noise. Now throw in the fact that the furnace, refrigerator, kids, cat, neighbors and traffic all make louder noises...

I live in a much quieter house, and my drive is noisier, so that should explain our different view of this subject.

So seriously, are you using the system as an HTPC on a shelf or tucked in a corner?

The HPTC is right near the AV receiver and below the TV, where it should be as far as I'm concerned. I don't want to use long cable if I don't absolutely have to.

How close are you sitting. Any reasonable build with a 2.5" hdd will be dead silent at 10 feet.

I'm sitting 9 feet from the TV and the PC, and it's not even close to silent. It was only silent when I used my USB thumb drive to boot it up, but that was of course too slow to be useful. I was hoping that the eSATA thumb drive or the cheap SSD drive I linked above could serve as good solutions, but so far I can't really tell from the comments. Maybe I should just risk the 60 bucks and try...

 

[alaricljs]

Well, you could aim for a deal on either a kingston 64GB or OCZ 64GB... The OCZ Onyx 64GB is $90 right now at the egg.

As for my comment on traffic and other noises. My house is 700ft from the road, all my neighbors and myself have 5+acres. My furnace is nearly silent, the fridge not so much. My cat doesn't meow. There are times when my kids sleep, this is when they're quiet. All that said, I can still hear everything I've mentioned more than I can hear my HTPC. It's behind the armoire that contains the TV since there was room there and it has no physical interface. It is in space open to the entryway stairwell (ranch style) so isn't buried so much as baffled.

The 7200.10s are "noisy" for an HTPC, this is exaggerated if you don't soft mount the drive. If you're not willing to fork the ~100 for a real SSD, then settle for a good 2.5" hdd. The last 2.5" review at spcr has this to say about the Seagate:

Our Momentus 7200.4 sample had excellent acoustics — 14 dBA@1m at idle, and only 15 dBA@1m during seek. The idle whirl was noticeably quieter and less hollow-sounding than its 5400.6 brother. It did have a touch of whine, which was only noticeable in close. Seeks were fairly muted and difficult to detect from one meter. These results would be excellent for any 7200rpm drive, let alone a 2.5" variety.

I just plugged in my new Seagate 320GB drive that's in a hard mount solid enclosure. It's dead silent at 3ft, even seeking. It's a 7200RPM model too: ST9320423AS

 

[tweakboy]

Dont do it, not fast enough, it will reduce performance.

a thumb flash drive is not SSD ,, its slow 25mb at most,, maybe some 30mb but his internal is already 100mbps read ,,,, soo its pointless to do this.

Just have a primary drive as your OS drive,, and do a image backup once a week on a external,, thx

 

[alaricljs]

Hmm, $70 for the 30GB Vertex 1 at the egg. That would more than do it for a non-storage HTPC.

 

[RebateMonger]

So seriously, are you using the system as an HTPC on a shelf or tucked in a corner? How close are you sitting. Any reasonable build with a 2.5" hdd will be dead silent at 10 feet.

I won an Intel-built Mini-ITX desktop with a 2.5" hard disk and an Intel Q9550. I couldn't hear it from ten feet. The only way I knew it was turned on was by the front LEDs.

 

[Emulex]

x25-v boot -> gigabit ethernet -> nas downstairs = heavenly quietness.

$50-69 for 30-40gb
$99 for 64gb (too much)

probably deals for black friday.

Works great the x25-v though.

 

[alaricljs]

Hmmm MicroCenter deals on OCZ Onyx... Long as they manage to update the rebate to the value claimed in their newsletter, it's 32GB for $50 AR, and 64GB for $70 AR.

These would be great in an HTPC if you don't want an HDD.

 

[boren]

Hmmm MicroCenter deals on OCZ Onyx... Long as they manage to update the rebate to the value claimed in their newsletter, it's 32GB for $50 AR, and 64GB for $70 AR.

MicroCenter doesn't ship internationally, so not an option for me I'm afraid. I can get the 40GB Intel X25V locally for the equivalent of $110 (including shipment). Do you think that, for my modest needs, the Intel is worth the extra over the $65 eSATA thumb drive I linked above?

 

[fuzzymath10]

As a fun experiment I installed OSX to a USB key on my netbook. It wasn't that slow and eSATA would be a bit faster (in terms of latency, but maybe not transfers), but it got really hot and I question whether it'd hold up in the long run. I would get a proper 2.5" SSD. Then it doesn't stick out of the case either.

2.5" hard drives are very quiet for sure, but after "upgrading" my sister's laptop from an 80GB SSD to a 500GB hybrid, the only thing she misses (moreso than performance) is the completely silent operation.

 

[Emulex]

what if you drop the 500gb

 

[boren]

what if you drop the 500gb

That's the plan. Drop the 500GB, replace it with a 16GB SSD or eSATA thumb-drive. When playing movies and music I'll continue to use the 1.5TB external drive.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Jeez, just get a 40-64GB internal SSD. I always hate having extra crap hanging off my chassis. What if you decide to give it to your kid someday?

Only reason I haven't substituted an SSD by now is because my boot drive is too damn big, even after serious pruning.

 

[boren]

Dadofamunky, I don't care about dongles sticking out of the case and I don't have any kids, so no issue there. I may eventually get the 40GB drive, but larger drives are for sure too expensive for me to justify.

 

[sxr7171]

Hmm, $70 for the 30GB Vertex 1 at the egg. That would more than do it for a non-storage HTPC.

You have to watch out though. I have a setup where I use WMC to record live TV and a WHS to automatically take the recorded programs. However WHS/WMC is quite leisurely about moving programs to the server. So WMC will report not enough disk space to record show until the programs are actually moved over. You need about 25-30GB buffer space at a minimum if you are using 2 tuners and recording shows simultaneously. I would recommend no less than 64GB for an HTPC for this reason.

 

[jiffylube1024]

I see. Do you think that a cheap SSD drive such as this would be a safer bet? It costs pretty much the same as the eSATA thumb drive I linked above, but if it's going to work better then I'd happily give up portability.

Don't waste your money on something slow that forces you to compromise so much like that when you can get a super fast OCZ Onyx 32GB for $55 ish after rebate:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-510-_-Product

The Onyx is a real SSD that has more than adequate transfer speed (125MB/s read, 75MB/s write). It has speed where it counts - random read speed of 37MB/s (compared to ~1MB/s for a standard hard drive!).