USB 2.0, FireWire, Or eSATA: Which Interface Should You Use?

Benchmark Results: Access Time And Throughput

Access time is not particularly relevant for external storage products unless you intend to run applications on them. All of these products and interfaces deliver quick access times, though.

These numbers do not indicate peak throughput, but rather the average, which is more indicative of performance for everyday use. Clearly, eSATA rules, followed by FireWire 800. But even when using USB 2.0 there is a performance difference between these two drives.

Write throughput limits USB and FireWire 400 to roughly 30 MB/s, while eSATA especially rocks on.