Hi fgg2009,

You need to keep in mind that with spinning platter drives, the actual data transfer rate is signficantly lower than 1.5 Gb/s, so the theoretical speed is really irrelevant. However, I would check that your Intel RST is up to date.

Hello,

I’m not talking about an average transfer rate, I’m talking about the maximum burst rate that the link can work with.

It looks to me that the eSATA port on XPS 8300 is limited to 1.5Gb/s see attached display of IRST.

My Intel Rapid Storage Technology is 10.8.0.1003.

Why is DELL not specifying what the speed for the eSATA port is ? I think they are cheating.

If I use a PCI Express eSATA card Silicon Image Sil 3132 SATA  it shows Host link speed and device link speed of 3Gb/s and it specifies generation 2.

The onboard XPS 8300 eSATA. (port 4). Shows only 1.5Gb/s.

Something is definitely wrong, it looks to me that the XPS 8300 eSATA port is a SATA 1 instead of 2 .

Hi again,

Looks like the problem is on the Westen Digital MyBook Studio 2, the specs state 3Gb/s, but somehow it is set for 1.5Gb/s.

I found a second Western Digital MyBook Home Edition and when I connect that to the same eSATA port on XPS 8300 it shows 3Gb/s.

Now I will need to get an answer from Western Digital. The drive specs for MyBook Studio II show 3Gb/s, but the drive on the previous display shows only 1.5Gb/s.

So the specs or the setup for that drive is wrong.

The pictures below also show the s/n of the 2 drives. Keep in mind that I purchased the Studio2 only last week, while I had the home edition for almost 2 years on my old PC.

 So much for progress ! The speed on the new drive is half of what the specs say ?

Thanks for the update, but please understand that nothing on an old mechnical drive happens anywhere near 1.5 Gb/s. This is just a theoretical speed for the controller. But the drives run about 100-150 Mb/s.

I recently Got a Screamer from Crucial and put it on a SATA 3 Controller.

Windows Experience INDEX Rated 7.9

Apricorn  Velocity Solo - Ssd Upgrade Kit for Desktop

Crucial m4 CT512M4SSD1 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC 7mm Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Crucial m4 CT512M4SSD1 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC 7mm Internal Solid ...

Here are the charts from HD Tach 3.0.4.0 benchmark for 3 differend drives that I checked, I already returned MyBookStudio to WD, so I could not include that in here. You can clearly see that MyBookHomeEdition burst goes above the 150MB/s mark and that could not happen with MyBookStudio Edition II.

I'll add a chart for MyPassport on USB 3.0 later since it does not allow me to add more than these 2 pictures in here.

1) Seagate ST320006 internal drive on the DELL XPS 8300 (2TB)

2) WD-MyBookHomeEdition (1TB)

What is the difference in data rate between PCIe 1.0 and PCIe 2.0?

Version 1 has a max data rate of 250 MB/s and Version 2 has a max rate of 500MB/s.

Note: Read Write speeds of SSD's are limited by the controller to approximately 400 read / 200 write with Zero latency.

Mechanical drives do not reach those speeds.

He isn't getting 3Gb/s.

He isn't getting 3Gb/s.

Believe we've already established that no one on God's green earth is going to get those speeds with a mechnical drive.

Case closed.

Again, the problem reported here has nothing to do with the speed of the mechanical drive or the average transfer rate, but the transfer rate from and to the drive buffer from the eSATA link.

While the WD-MyBook Home Edition transfers data at 3Gb/s on the eSATA interface, the WD-MyBook Studio Edition II only goes at 1.5Gb/s.

It simply means that the specific drive model does not meet the specifications released by Western Digital for that model, which clearly says 3Gb/s.

So the clock on the eSATA link is running at 3Gb/s on my old drive and only 1.5Gb/s on the new drive that I received a week ago.

The drive has been returned to WD because it has a SATA1 (1.5Gb/s) interface instead of a SATA2 (3Gb/s) as advertised.

All previously attached charts show exactly the problem that I'm referring to.

Again, the problem reported here has nothing to do with the speed of the mechanical drive or the average transfer rate, but the transfer rate from and to the drive buffer from the eSATA link. While the WD-MyBook Home Edition transfers data at 3Gb/s on the eSATA interface, the WD-MyBook Studio Edition II only goes at 1.5Gb/s. It simply means that the specific drive model does not meet the specifications released by Western Digital for that model, which clearly says 3Gb/s. So the clock on the eSATA link is running at 3Gb/s on my old drive and only 1.5Gb/s on the new drive that I received a week ago. The drive has been returned to WD because it has a SATA1 (1.5Gb/s) interface instead of a SATA2 (3Gb/s) as advertised. All previously attached charts show exactly the problem that I'm referring to.