In this review we will be taking a look at HighPoint's e.SATA (External Serial ATA) Upgrade Kit v3. The kit consists of two SATA products - the RocketMate 1110 external SATA hard disk enclosure, and the Rocket 1511 e.SATA host adapter. Together they enable you to use an internal SATA drive externally without the cost of buying an already external dive.
Features:
The RocketMate 1110 hard drive enclosure is capable of transfer speeds up to 1.5GB/s, which is roughly three times faster than USB 2.0 and IEE1394. However, the host adapter has a maximum data throughput of 150 MB/s. Data transferred between the hard drive and the computer will not encounter any bottlenecks even at 150MB/s limit, the actual drive that you use is not likely to be able to read and write data at that speed and so the transfer rate will depend mainly on the speed of your hard drive. However, as you will find out later in this review, the e.SATA kit does have an impact on drive performance.
The Rocket 1511 External SATA Host Adapter is capable of supporting both IDE and SATA disks, but with the Upgrade Kit V3 you can only use SATA drives because the RocketMate 1110 enclosure cannot support IDE drives. It is able to support hard drives with capacities higher than 137GB, so you do not have to worry about which drive you use in the kit. The host adapter is also fully compatible with most common operating systems. A full list is below:
• Windows 98
• Windows ME
• Windows NT 3,51/4.0
• Windows 2000
• Windows XP
• Linux (SuSE, Red Hat, Caldera, Turbo)
• FreeBSD
Specs:
Host side interface |
32bit 33/66 MHz PCI |
Number of IDE channels |
1 Channel |
Supported Hard drives |
SATA hard disk drives, IDE hard disk drives (ATA133/100) |
Supported OSs |
Windows 98 / ME / NT4.0 / 2K / XP / 2003
Linux (SuSE, Red Hat, Caldera, Turbo), and FreeBSD |
Maximum Data Throughput |
150MB/s |
BIOS Function |
Drive Configuration and Management |
Plug and Play |
Yes |
Misc. Functions |
Large LBA support capacity exceeding 137GB |
The RocketMate 1110 hard disk enclosure supports both RAID and non-RAID configurations, however you are unable to use the RAID configuration with the Upgrade Kit V3 due to the fact that the host adapter only supports one channel. The disk enclosure also supports Hot-Swap, which enables you to easily remove the drive and insert another without having to power down your system.
Specs:
Outer Case size |
187mm x 127mm x 40mm |
Case Material |
Aluminum |
Inner Case size |
Fits 3.5" factory SATA hard disk drives |
Power Supply |
AC input: 100-240V
AC 50-60Hz
DC output: 12V @ 1.7A |
Interface |
e.SATA (External Serial ATA) to SATA |
Supported hard drives |
SATA Hard disk drives |
The e.SATA kit comes with a floppy disk which contains the drivers for the e.SATA host adapter, you can also run an operating system from a hard drive in the enclosure, however the OS must be installed whilst the drive is in the enclosure, or it won't boot up.
