Startech USB3.0 to SATA Adapter Cable and PCIe Card Review

1. Startech USB3.0 – SATA Adapter & PCIe Card2. Testing Methodology, Performance and Summary3. View All Pages

Test System:

Processor: Intel Core-i7 920 (D0)
Motherboard: Asus P6T
System Drive: Corsair F40 SSD
Graphics Card: HIS Radeon 5550 Silence
Power Supply: Corsair HX850W

Test Hard Drive : Seagate 500GB 7200rpm.

Atto Disk Benchmark is a simple but popular synthetic benchmark for testing the maximum theoretical speed of storage devices.

This benchmark shows us just how much more performance is unlocked when using USB3.0 over USB2.0.

HD Tach is a low level hardware benchmark for random access read/write storage devices such as hard drives, removable drives (ZIP/JAZZ), flash devices, and RAID arrays. HD Tach uses custom device drivers and other low level Windows interfaces to bypass many layers of software and to get as close to the physical performance of the device as possible.

HDTach shows even greater gains in performance via USB3.0 as it gives the hard drive more than enough bandwidth to achieve its maximum speeds.

Real World Tests

Today for testing we first copied a 3.61GB MKV file to the Seagate 500GB hard drive.  We also created a 9.22 GB folder of mixed sized files, this is to reproduce a real world scenario – many users have folders of word documents, picture files and even database documents

In both cases there are significant improvements in performance with USB3.0 which justifies the extra cost over their USB2.0 alternatives.

Summary

Our testing has shown exactly what we expected in terms of performance from this adapter.  But we couldn’t see ourselves ever using it on a day-to-day basis due to the inconveniently short USB3.0 cable included and the requirement of a power adapter.  Instead, we would opt for one of Startech’s USB3.0 hard drive docking stations which is a much more elegant solution.

Those who are still interested in a USB3.0 to SATA adapter cable can purchase it for around £50 at Startech.com. If it was £20 less expensive then our recommendation would be higher.  If your motherboard isn't natively compatible then we also have to consider the additional cost of the PCIe adapter (£30 at Startech.com) which brings the total to £80.

Edit: 20th December – we have been informed that eBuyer sell the adapter for £33.53 and the PCIe adapter for £22.41, which makes the whole package much more affordable.

KitGuru Says: A useful product but we can’t see why anyone would buy this over Startech’s similarly priced USB3.0 docking station.

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