[OpenIndiana-discuss] Support for USB3?

[Nikola M]

On 11/ 5/15 07:07 PM, Rich Teer wrote:
>
> Just so that I'm absolutely clear, would I be correct in thinking that
> eSATA is preferred over USB-3, assuming SAS isn't an option?  The low-end,
> consumer-spec drive enclosure I'm using has an eSATA port and a USB-3
> port.  The eSATA port requires the use of an HBA that supports port
> multipliers (which the LSI HBA I'm using doesn't), and my Ultra 20 M2
> "server" only has USB-2 ports.  So I'm looking at buying either a
> USB-3 PCIe card, or an eSATA that supports port multiplers PCIe card.
> The cost difference isn't that great (~$30 vs $60), but I'd like to
> buy the one that's best (i.e., most reliable and more performant).
>
> Illumos support would be ideal, but I'll also consider anything that
> is supported by Linux or FreeBSD.  I'm currently thinking about getting
> one of the StarTech eSATA or USB-3 cards.

Avoid port multipliers on SATA at all cost, simply that is not supported 
by any illumso distro and can make big problems on any other platform. 
It is simply not wise to use any port multipliers and paying more for 
that option is not very sane.
Maybe if you really want to use eSATA port with eSATA enclosure.

External SATA (SATA port just put externally for connecting disks) is 
not same as eSATA and is cheaper.
You always get full speed on SATA versus described USB downsides.
One craddle , connected via external SATA (not eSATA) and putting bare 
SATA disk in it for transfer is cheapest and fastest option for small 
office, small server user.