Question re: eSata enclosure and throughput speeds

[fab]

Hey everyone! I haven't been around much lately, largely since I'm starting a new degree program (as of today! ) in networking tech, and been busy. things are hectic!

brief, and perhaps easily answerable question as follows:

I bought this Vantec Nexstar 3 enclosure as specifically instructed by my profs, mostly because they've tested and recommended them, and I won't have to lug a power supply around campus since they have a bunch of them permanently cable tied into the lab computers.

Anyway, we're supposed to connect to the lab computers via eSata. No problem, as the enclosure has an eSata port. My question is, does it matter if I get a SATA drive or a SATA II drive?

from the spec sheet, eSATA gets a max of 3 Gbps throughput. Will the performance difference be negligible if I get a SATA II drive? I'm not sure if it'll make any difference.

Please note that I will be using this drive and enclosure for years to come for assignments and such, so if I have to spend an extra $40 or whatever, I don't really care too much.

Also, some drives I had in mind. Please tell me if any of the drives listed below are unsuitable! I'm not entirely certain as to what the Western Digital Black / Green / Blue product lines denote, aside from maybe raw speed and power specs.

Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black 1TB SATA2 7200RPM 4.2MS 32MB 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM


Western Digital WD10EARS Caviar Green 1TB SATA 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM (this one says it requires special setup with XP, which could be an issue, as we're using XP Pro? so if that's a factor... yeah.)

those are just a few random models I pulled from an NCIX sale e-flyer. I don't know if there'll be a huge difference in 32 MB cache size vs. 64 MB...

I'm planning on buying one this weekend. Any basic info or recommendations are appreciated

<3!

-fab

[Wesley Crusher]

Congrats fab!

Doesn't matter if you get SATA 1 or 2. Doesn't matter if you get an EARS or EADS.
If you get an EARS, or an "advanced format" drive, you will need to align the partitions - similar to what you would do for SSD drives on XP.

Hitachi 2TB drives are rock solid (don't know if they're heart touching), though my brand of choice is WD.

You really should get two enclosures, two different brand drives, then sync them whenever you are home.

[GreenEnvy]

Can you even find Sata1 drives anymore?
That WD 1TB EARS is SATA2, just lazy description on the site.

The green series are nor performance drives. the Blue and black drives are faster.

how much you'll actually notice the difference i can't say, but eSata provides basically the exact same speeds as an internal sata connector.

[WiseGuy]

I have a Black, Blue, Red and White NexStar3. They rock.

[Wesley Crusher]

No Green NexStar 3?

[McPwned]

Rainbow?

Double rainbow?

[fab]

Thanks for the input, guys! I'll prolly be grabbing one on Saturday, so I might run my options by you tomorrow evening once I've taken a look around.

I don't have the faintest idea as to how I ought to go about aligning partitions, but I'll look into it. if I find it tricky, expect to hear from me soon :P

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3