upgrading: eSATA 600MB/s enclosures coming soon?

[HHarm]

I have a MP'09 with 3 x Intel X25-M for OS and 2 x 1TB HDD's for data and Time Machine.

I'm thinking of replacing the 1TB drives with 2 x 2 TB or 3 TB green drives for Time Machine and an 4TB or 6 TB external eSATA enclosure (in raid5). I'm also planning to get a new SSD for Windows 7 and possibly use it in an external enclosure.


I've already ordered a NewerTech MAXPower eSATA 6G. The following questions have arisen regarding Sata III and 600MB/s:

• Isn't the 300MB/s throughput of the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Qx2 eSATA limiting it's speed? Is it reasonable to expect a faster Sata III version soon? My HDD is almost full but I could wait a while with some temporary arrangement.
• I haven't found an 2.5" SSD enclosure with 600MB/s. Are there any? Is it reasonable to expect one soon? I could of course get Sata III speed SSD now with a slower enclosure and replace the enclosure in the future.
• The NewerTech MAXPower is Windows 7 bootable if the machine has "built-in AHCI support". Does the MP'09 with OSX 10.6 and 10.7 have this? What does enabling it actually mean? Are there any negatives with the external OS SSD usage? (e.g. performance, usability, etc.)

 

[HHarm]

Any comments/advice would be appreciated!

 

[Intell]

Aren't eSATA enclosures just an empty box with a short SATA extension cable ans a way to power the drive? Meaning, if you plug the enclosure into a SATAIII port, you'll get SATAIII speeds if the drive supports it.

 

[HHarm]

That's what I originally though but the enclosures at OWC list the max speed as 300MB/s.

 

[Intell]

That's what I originally though but the enclosures at OWC list the max speed as 300MB/s.

The product display page probably hasn't been updated. I've gotten PATA encloses that say max size 250Gb, but they take 500Gb drives. My guess, SATAII and 250Gb was the fastest, biggest drives at the time the product was made.