[lug] USB3 vs eSATA III question

Mon Jul 23 08:26:10 MDT 2018

My chip drives, for lack of a better term, all show up as /dev/sda except
for my new(ish) desktop. It shows up as /dev/nvme0n1p. If it matters the
former are NUC-class systems, the latter is a relatively hefty i7 desktop.
My laptops are all 2.5" drives.

It's probably related to cost. The NUCs require the chip drives due to
space and power limitations, not performance, so the extra cost for an NVMe
controller (upfront cost) and compatible chip drive (backend cost) isn't
worth it. In contrast anyone paying a premium for a desktop that can handle
64 GB of memory is going to put a premium on performance and the extra cost
is justifiable.

The latter does seem to have a few other problems though. I've seen it lock
up for minutes at a time with no visible cause when I 1) had a video card
installed or 2) had my SSD attached to SATA0. It's working fine with the
SSD attached to SATA2. It took a while to figure out it was hardware
related. (Sigh - I want to make a warranty claim but I'm sure they're first
question will be if it could be the Linux drivers.) I don't know if I would
describe as problems related to booting from NVMe though.

On Sun, Jul 22, 2018 at 7:50 PM, Lee Woodworth <blug-mail at duboulder.com>
wrote:

> I have generally not had trouble booting usb disks with an initrd. External
> USB2/3 or sata->USB2/3 enclosures using LVM. It helps to have
> root=/dev/mapper/....
> on the kernel command line, and similar in fstab.
>
> Bios support for gpt partition tables can be a factor for boot disks.
> PC Engines APU2 systems detect usb3 external drives, but seabios segfaults
> when it encounters a gpt partition table.
>
> AFAIK, pcie m2 ssds can use either SATA or NVMe protocols (M or B keyed I
> think).
> Do older bios versions know about NVMe? We have a Jan 2017 system where
> the PCI
> controller for NVMe shows up as /dev/nvme0 (but not in /sys/class/block)
> while the connected m2 2280 shows as /dev/nvme0n1 and is an unbootable
> block device.
> /dev/sda is a different m2 2280 using sata and is bootable (motherboard
> connector).
>
>
> On 07/22/2018 05:20 PM, Bear Giles wrote:
>
>> I have a couple NUCs with that type of drive, plus an NVMe on main
>> desktop.
>> No problems on any of them.
>>
>> I just bought several of these:
>> https://www.amazon.com/Lexar-JumpDrive-64GB-Flash-Drive/dp/B00S5V5PEC  I
>> think I forgot to convert units - reading at 150 MBps is about 1.2 Gbps.
>> Not as fast as that stick but it's a lot cheaper.
>>
>> I'll be able to say something about booting from USB soon - one of my
>> projects before I leave for trip next weekend is installing Ubuntu onto an
>> external (USB) drive. I've been traveling with two laptops - a bit of a
>> pain - and decided to try booting from a USB drive instead. My original
>> thought was a USB stick but I might use a portable drive instead.
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 22, 2018 at 4:58 PM, Orion Poplawski <orion at nwra.com> wrote:
>>
>> We have several PCIe sssd laptops running EL7 with no issues.  Great
>>> performance.
>>>
>>>
>>> On 07/22/2018 12:39 PM, Davide Del Vento wrote:
>>>
>>> I don't know anything about your question, but I'm seeing the most
>>>> recent/performant (SSD) drives are using PCIe instead of anything
>>>> else. I've also heard that booting linux from PCIe can be troublesome,
>>>> so I think I'll buy a normal SATA drive (I'm in the market for a small
>>>> one).
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Jul 22, 2018 at 12:27 PM, Bear Giles <bgiles at coyotesong.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> This is mostly from curiousity...
>>>>>
>>>>> USB 3 has a claimed bandwidth of 3 Gbps.
>>>>>
>>>>> eSATA II has a claimed bandwidth of 3 Gbps, and eSATA III has a claimed
>>>>> benefit of 6 Gbps.
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't think any USB stick is going to be pushing 3 Gbps (but I'm not
>>>>> 100%
>>>>> certain), but perhaps an external hard drive, esp. an external SSD. But
>>>>> is
>>>>> that actually realistic?
>>>>>
>>>>> In contrast my experience with eSATA is that it really is akin a
>>>>> traditionally installed disk.
>>>>>
>>>>> Like I said this is mostly from curiosity. I noticed my recent systems
>>>>> haven't had eSATA ports but it's easy to add a half-height card for
>>>>> one.
>>>>> Ditto external drives - they usually only have USB 3 but if you buy an
>>>>> external drive case for your own drive then it's easy to find them with
>>>>> both
>>>>> USB 3 and eSATA. So I have my eSATA gear but it might not be necessary
>>>>> any
>>>>> longer if the quoted USB 3 numbers are accurate.
>>>>>
>>>>> Does anyone else have experience with both USB 3 and eSATA?
>>>>>
>>>>> (Meanwhile I'm wondering what to do with a few old external drives that
>>>>> are
>>>>> USB 2. They're so much slower and smaller than my external USB 3
>>>>> drives.)
>>>>>
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>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>> --
>>> Orion Poplawski
>>> Manager of NWRA Technical Systems          720-772-5637
>>> NWRA, Boulder/CoRA Office             FAX: 303-415-9702
>>> 3380 Mitchell Lane                       orion at nwra.com
>>> Boulder, CO 80301                 https://www.nwra.com/
>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
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