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Review on πŸ”Œ StarTech USB 3.0 to eSATA Adapter by John May

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Works on my 2015 MacBook Air, even through USB hubs

The StarTech adapter works (seemingly fine) between my 2015 MacBook Air and an external RAID drive. In fact, it even works with two USB3.0 hubs in between (not sure if that's recommended, but it works), despite my concerns that the overall length of the cable is around 3ft, which might be close to the maximum eSATA cable can be (not sure). I ran some performance measurements and the throughput was the same whether I used one or two USB hubs, around 70 Mb/s or 550 Mb/s, well below the theoretical 5 Gb/s for eSATA, so the throughput is closer to that Disk/file system is limited. as eSATA or USB3. Regardless, it's interesting to know that USB3 hubs, one or two (I haven't tried it anymore), have no ill effects. I tried a different brand (Vantec) eSATA to USB3 adapter and my MacBook Air wouldn't even boot. This tells me that the StarTech product is of a higher quality (and therefore worth the higher price).

Pros
  • Slim design
Cons
  • Long delivery time