Brando's USB 3.0-to-SATA adapter gives any old HDD those SuperSpeed powers

Oh, Brando -- how we do love thee. Be it random accessories we don't need at all or legitimate peripherals that make our lives all that much easier, you're always there -- steadfastly waiting for us to fall in love over and over again. Mushiness aside, the outfit's new USB 3.0-to-SATA adapter is indeed one of those remarkably useful devices, enabling any old SATA hard drive to be accessed externally at USB 3.0 speeds. Essentially, this is the pocket-friendly version of Sharkoon's latest SATA QuickPort, but rather than forcing you to carry around a dock, this simple dongle travels easy and plugs directly into the port-laden side of your spare HDD. Granted, you'll need a USB 3.0-enabled PC or expansion card in order to take advantage of the additional speed, but for $48, this looks to be an excellent excuse to get that dusty, unused drive of yours back into service.

[DeviantmacG Posted Dec 28th 2009 9:40AM]

Intresting stuff...

[Level 5 Posted Dec 28th 2009 9:45AM]

Hmm.. for $48, this is a good way to download more po-.. uh.. make backups.

[MoonWalkerCTE Posted Dec 28th 2009 10:35AM]

@Level 5

Or get a girlfriend...

[SarnGate Posted Dec 28th 2009 11:04AM]

@MoonWalkerCTE Yeah because people in relationships never look at porn right...

[tomasse Posted Dec 28th 2009 2:44PM]

@SarnGate , don't answer him... you'll just feed the troll!!!

[MoonWalkerCTE Posted Dec 28th 2009 2:50PM]

@SarnGate

Man your pimp just told you off don't feel me!

[MoonWalkerCTE Posted Dec 28th 2009 2:50PM]

@MoonWalkerCTE

feed*

[MoonWalkerCTE Posted Dec 28th 2009 5:18PM]

@tomasse

and this

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 28th 2009 9:50AM]

Would be nice if there would be IDE version of this.

[richb93 Posted Dec 28th 2009 9:56AM]

@(Unverified) SATA to IDE bridge?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 28th 2009 10:44AM]

@richb93 That's one way to do it but it would be nicer to have the ide on the usb adapter.

[fourthletter Posted Dec 28th 2009 10:56AM]

@(Unverified) IDE can't max out USB2

[joefresco Posted Dec 28th 2009 11:13AM]

@fourthletter

USB2 transfer rate somewhere around 20-25 MB/s
IDE transfer rate is up to 66-100 MB/s (if UDMA/66 or UDMA/100 is employed, which the past 8 years of IDE drives have used one of the two)

There are definitely IDE drives out there that can exceed USB2 performance.... A 36GB Raptor, for one. At the same time, it is pointless to bother to create an IDE to USB3 bridge because the market is pretty small, and dying.

[Prokanda2oh Posted Dec 28th 2009 1:29PM]

@(Unverified) funny that you should mention IDE, the metal casing that shown in the picture on the back of the hard drive is an IDE to SATA sleeve that brando also sells (I saw it after clicking the link).

[Prokanda2oh Posted Dec 28th 2009 1:30PM]

@Prokanda2oh
*that's =(

[CowBell Posted Dec 28th 2009 9:56AM]

"Be it random accessories we don't need at all or legitimate peripherals that make our lives all that much easier, you're always there -- steadfastly waiting for us to fall in love over and over again. "

Darren, you've summed up one of the main reasons why we love Engadget so much.

[dzhiurgis Posted Dec 28th 2009 10:01AM]

What's the point of this? Seriously? Aren't the platters slower anyway than the USB 2.0 specs ?

[24hourpartypal Posted Dec 28th 2009 10:20AM]

No. 3.0 is new, it must be faster.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 28th 2009 10:25AM]

@dzhiurgis
No. A good SATA-II drive (Lets say the Hitachi UltraStar A7K1000 or A7K2000 -- both have 7200rpms, around ~8ms seek times, and large amounts of cache) can do well over 100 Megabytes per second.
USB 2.0 is limited to about 40 MB\sec (real world around 30 to 35).

Sata III drives are getting even faster...and let's not forget solid state drives as well, which can push the barrier up to 300, 400, and newer ones 500 megabytes per second.

[EM1 Posted Dec 28th 2009 10:31AM]

@dzhiurgis

Not even close. USB2 has an average transfer speed of 2MB a second. Hard drives read/write at 80-110MB a second.

[joefresco Posted Dec 28th 2009 11:33AM]

@(Unverified) The poster above you is closer to being correct, though his 30-35 MB/s is overly optimistic. Maybe 30 MB/s in the real world for USB2, and probably more like 25 MB/s

[LoganSmith Posted Dec 28th 2009 10:05AM]

SATA old? Am I the only one not using SDDs?

[Art Posted Dec 28th 2009 10:30AM]

@LoganSmith

I think they meant it as in the expression "any old Tom, Dick and Harry".

Besides, the majority of desktop SSDs are SATA at the moment too!

[Hydra Posted Dec 28th 2009 10:22AM]

why didnt they make it a docking station =/ still great though

[Nolano Posted Dec 28th 2009 1:41PM]

@Hydra
There are numerous USB3.0 docking stations out.
http://usb.brando.com/usb-3-0-sata-hdd-docking-station-y-1071-_p01349c057d15.html
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/19/sharkoon-sata-quickport-adds-usb-3-0-support-doesnt-forget-its/

[hq Posted Dec 28th 2009 10:22AM]

Wow, did Nintendo do the design for them?

[jsmrekar Posted Dec 28th 2009 6:17PM]

@hq circa 1983 nintendo

[bebop Posted Dec 28th 2009 10:48AM]

"this looks to be an excellent excuse to get that dusty, unused drive of yours back into service"

Or you could just put the drive back inside the computer case. So much neater. This is good for those "oh my computer died can you please copy the old data the hard drive it for me" scenarios though.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 28th 2009 10:53AM]

I would be happy with a USB-IDE adaptor that has the proper clearances for the power & data connector. Once had to hack-up an adaptor for the 4-in power molex plug since the data connector was completely in the way.

[fourthletter Posted Dec 28th 2009 10:58AM]

Or you could just buy an eSATA card (if your motherboard doesn't already have one) and use it instead, USB3 is a solution looking for a problem.

[joefresco Posted Dec 28th 2009 11:28AM]

@fourthletter

Keep in mind that there are more laptops in the world than desktops. With a laptop, you'll get one eSATA port at best and 3-5 USB ports. Would you still rather have USB2 or USB3? Keep in mind that they are also ditching Firewire -- it's getting harder and harder to find that 4-pin Firewire port on a laptop.

Here's are USB's primary two advantages:
Power over cable. (Yes it still is an advantage -- here's why) Because eSATA was released without the means of handling power, most eSATA devices and systems do not offer power over eSATA. So you have to have backup means of getting power to the device if power over eSATA is not supported on both ends of the connection. USB3 will never have this problem, and it will probably become ubiquitous before eSATA is, though eSATA has quite a headstart.

Here are USB3 devices I want to see:
- Notebook docking station -- finally we'll have the bandwidth to potentially have real USB docking stations with enough video power to be usable. As it is, gigabit ethernet alone far exceeds USB2 bandwidth.
- Camcorders and Digital Cameras (can currently saturate the USB2 bus during transfers)
- webcams (quality limited due to USB2 lack of bandwidth)
- Fast USB3 SSDs (still require power, after all)

[joefresco Posted Dec 28th 2009 11:35AM]

@joefresco I meant to say "ubiquitous before POWERED eSATA is"

[fourthletter Posted Dec 28th 2009 11:04AM]

You don't have to go to Brando to buy a Unitek made adaptor, you can buy them from other retailers or even ebay.

[Surrealchemist Posted Dec 28th 2009 11:17AM]

Clearly that is a sata to usb 3.0 adapter, not the other way around.

[SirNoDroin Posted Dec 28th 2009 11:42AM]

Now if you can just find a computer with a USB3 port....or I suppose I can just use my eSATA port...you know since its the same thing as plugging in the drive directly into my mobo (speed wise...) but its new so it MUST be faster.

[xberxinfinity Posted Dec 28th 2009 12:05PM]

Am I the only one that thinks *$20* when I see the words adapter or converter?

[Ahmed Alzayani Posted Dec 28th 2009 1:34PM]

Will what will happen if Light Peak win the peripheral bus war?

[Zclyh3 Posted Dec 28th 2009 2:00PM]

I'd like to see some tests first before paying good money to buy this device.

[Macskeeball Posted Dec 28th 2009 2:01PM]

About an hour before I saw this article I was actually looking around online for an SATA to USB adapter to buy, but the NewEgg reviews for several of the best selling ones scared me. Apparently they were killing drives if USB was connected before power, or causing smoke to come out of the drive and frying the computer's USB port/card if included power supply was too high a voltage. Yikes! The idea sounded handy, but I think I'll just restore from the Time Machine backup for my next HD transfer.

Note: I'm not referring specifically to the product mentioned in the post, but to SATA-to-USB adapters in general. Do you think my fears are warranted?

[Jeff Kibuule Posted Dec 28th 2009 2:26PM]

Great, now I just need USB 3.0 ports in laptops!

[MNeko Posted Dec 28th 2009 7:22PM]

Is that a DeathStar? You'd better get the data off that drive quick!

[isotrex Posted Dec 28th 2009 7:31PM]

Good to know but not practical for now.
Obviously you'll need USB 3.0 ports which I think is still expensive (CMIIW though). As of now, the USB 2.0 enclosure works fine for me.