eSATAp - power over external SATA - potentially better than USB 3.0

[NAS]

Not sure how I went so long not knowing about this at all but whilst looking for a faster option that USB3.0 I stumbled upon eSATAp.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESATAp

 

The connector is unique

 

 

also by default it uses USB like 5V power which is fine for 2.5" disks but not usually for 3.5". However the spec allows for dual power and you get addon cards like:

 

 

you also get brackets:

 

 

what is really nice is that all of this stuff is really cheap and easily available. Also there a 22pin eSATA cables that are really slick:

 

 

Worth considering if you are looking at external mounting drives as a better? option than USB3.0, removing the interpretation layer and getting direct access to the disk.