Reviewed: Kanex Thunderbolt to eSATA + USB 3.0 Adapter . A cheap Thunderbolt USB 3.0 alternative.

The most referring request to my website is a Google search query for a cheap Thunderbolt to USB 3.0 adapter. This comes up in the statistics everyday. I've also read countless forum requests for such a device. Before today, the only option was a Thunderbolt docking station. Thunderbolt docking stations are not portable and they start at $199.

Today, I have the next best thing: The Kanex Thunderbolt to eSATA + USB 3.0 combo adapter. No, it isn't that simple single Thunderbolt to USB adapter that everyone wants but having the eSATA add-on comes in handy. You can also get a similar device that supports USB 3.0 + Gigabit from Kanex as well.

As you can see, this model has both the blue Superspeed port and eSATA. The construction feels solid. The Thunderbolt end cable is permanently affix;making this officially a dongle. Having the cable permanently built in means you save $40 off the price of cable. However, I do feel the cable should have more girth and thickness.

This is fairly priced at $79. I was hoping for something around $40 but this is the closest thing you will get to a cheap Thunderbolt - USB 3.0 bridge. Is it expensive? I don't think so considering a USB eSATA would cost you $30. I think this matches fairly with those card-bus PCMCIA expresscard USB  3.0 adapters. $79 is also cheaper than the next option up which is $199. Furthermore, you don't have to buy a $40 Thunderbolt cable to use this.

The unit is driverless for  OSX 10.8.4 and above. Windows users can download a driver for Windows 7 and newer. I didn't have a chance to test it with my Windows Thunderbolt PC so I can't comment on Windows functionality.

Here it is in action with a USB 3.0 drive and a eSATA RAID5 attached.

A few important notes:

First it does support full 5.0 Gbps USB 3.0 throughput.
eSATA port also supplies port multiplication. SATA is up to 6G speeds.

Below are screenshots from the system profiler.

And from a 2011 27" iMac with no superspeed USB 3.0 ports.

 Now, with a simple upgraded accessory, other 2011 Thunderbolt Mac owners can have superspeed USB peripherals connected at 5Gbps.

The only negative is that it does not have a Thunderbolt daisy chain port. This will be the last item on your Thunderbolt bus. This isn't a problem for an iMac since it has two ports but I can see where an Air owner would be concerned.

This device is ideally designed for Macs with Thunderbolt produce in 2011 like the 27" iMac that I have. My two other Macbooks have USB 3.0 built in. For newer macs, this is a tougher sell product.

Testing:

I tested this on my 15" Macbook Retina Pro. Since my Macbook has built in USB 3.0, I wanted to see how it compares. I've tried various USB 3.0 sticks and 2.5 inch drives and none of them had any connectivity or bus powering issues. It will definitely power most USB 2.5" external drives. So you don't have to worry about that. It won't, however, power multiple drives due to the power draw.

For my testing, the main things I am looking for are:
USB 3.0 speeds and compatibility.

eSATA speeds.

USB 3.0 Speeds.

Just for point of reference and comparison, I used a Samsung 830 SSD and OYEN USB 3.0 enclosure. I've used this in the past so it is a good reference for my old readers. I tested this with the on-board Macbook's USB and through the Thunderbolt Adapter. Here are the results.

With the KANEX adapter.

Macbook On-board USB 3.0

2011 27" iMac w/ Thunderbolt and the Kanex. Note, the iMac does not have onboard USB 3.0

The results are very close. The Samsung/Oyen is an older drive but the Macbook Pro already has an optimally fast USB 3.0 internal bus so this fares very well. I didn't have any faster drives on hand to see if it could push higher speeds (UASP).

eSATA Notes.

So how does this fair to the Seagate Thunderbolt "hack" solution featured here? Well, it is more elegant. But there are also USB to eSATA dongles out there in the market place.

Last year I tested an USB 3.0 eSATA NewerTech dongle. I tried to compare it to the KANEX but the NewerTech USB 3.0 dongle didn't mount my SANDIGITAL RAID. That particular dongle (and many other USB 3.0 to eSATA) tends to have problems with larger disk arrays.

The KANEX adapter had zero problems. The RAID box was a SansDigital TOWERRAID TR4UTBPN that was reviewed here.

The RAID is a RAID5 4 drive array and here are the results. Considering the eSATA threshold, it did very well giving me in excess of 160 MB/sec writes.

For comparison, last year's review of that box in RAID5 connected to Window's machine directly to an internal eSATA port. There is a bit of a discrepancy compared to the Windows test because the RAID is formatted NTFS which will run slower on a Mac platform.  Furthermore, I had about 3TB filled out of the 9TB.

I would say the results are very close and very good.

The Seagate Thunderbolt "hacked" solution faired a little better and you can read it here: http://fortysomethinggeek.blogspot.com/2013/11/cheap-thunderbolt-esata-solution.html
However, now, the Seagate is no longer the cheapest solution. This is.


There is a small gripe about the eSATA. However, it isn't the fault of KANEX. I was hoping it had eSATA-P support. Not all eSATA adapters have this so it isn't something to knock a point away. eSATA-P is a dual USB combo port that powers portable eSATA devices. like this below.

With the Kanex adapter, I couldn't power a stand-alone SSD as you see above.

Up close, this is how an eSATA-P port looks like. It is a dual socket that allows you to connect USB or eSATA. It also powers whatever SATA device you connect to it. I think the reason KANEX didn't go for anything like this because 1) I've never seen an eSATA-P with USB 3.0 speeds and 2) Having two USB ports may be too big of a power draw. Thus, the dongle is limited to something like gigabit ethernet or eSATA in addition to the single Superspeed USB port. The other eSATA-P adapters I've seen and used (ExpressCard) had to use an extra USB port to get power.

Update:

The Kanex Adapter does provide booting off eSATA. I've successfully tried it and it works without incident. However, you cannot boot off a USB 3.0 drive. As you can see in the following picture, I was able to boot 10.9.4 off a eSATA SSD enclosure. However, if you plan to do this, you have to be aware of the drive getting ejected if the computer goes to sleep. Thus, adjust your power management settings accordingly if you plan to boot off an external SATA drive.

Note. Booting is YMMV. According to different sources, booting is not officially supported and some have difficulty. YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).

Things to Note.

Again, these are not major faults but some things to address and consider.

You can only connect so many devices. It is only rated to power a certain amount of power as specified by USB specs and how much Thunderbolt can provide. I had mixed results between my Macbook and iMac. Do not to expect to power multiple 2.5" drives off a portable USB 3.0 hub. It can't be done. Now, if you have a powered hub, then it isn't an issue.

Next, the Thunderbolt cable should have been a little bit longer to accomodate the iMac. As you can see in the picture below, the adapter doesn't fully rest to the base of the table.

I also have an issue where an Edimax USB 3.0 802.11 AC adapter will not run on my iMac as it hangs.

However, the USB wifi card runs fine on my two Macbooks. It could be a driver issue so I will look into that. I've tried a USB sound DAC and all other USB 2.0 devices worked without issues.

Conclusion.

So far I like it. Do I have real need for this device when I already have the handy and great Caldigit Thunderbolt dock? Yep, I suppose so. Instead of buying another dock at $200 for work, I can use this where I have a lot of eSATA devices. I'd plug this in at the end of my Thunderbolt chain and plug my powered USB 3.0 hub which has gigabit ethernet built in. I'd still have a single cable connected to my Macbook in most instances.

This also comes in handy for my 27" iMac which doesn't have USB 3.0 but two un-used Thunderbolt ports. I reckon, I'd us the iMac more now.

I can see people opting for the USB 3.0 Plus Gigabit alternative also sold by Kanex. Obviously  I can see the combo USB/Ethernet can be handy for Macbook Air owners I know.

Updated Conclusion:

I thought about this a bit more after I wrote my initial review. Come to think of it, the eSATA is really the key selling point for me. Since I already have USB 3.0 on my newer macs, I don't need the Thunderbolt to USB converter functionality as much as eSATA. The only other Thunderbolt - eSATA is the LaCie which goes for $199 (without Thunderbolt cable).  I also happen to have a few eSATA enclosures that can be put to good use. I can also buy a dual SATA 6 eSATA dual bay enclosure for $80. Then if you add the price of this adapter, you can have a Striped Thunderbolt RAID set-up for under $200. Actually, if Kanex comes out with a Thunderbolt to eSATA + Gigabit adapter for $80, I would immediately pick that up too. However, based on the voice and opinions I read online, I think the this Thunderbolt to USB 3.0 was smart move. I bet this will be a very popular device soon.


Price: $79.99 direct.
Link: http://www.kanexlive.com/thunderbolt-esata

Cheap portable HDMI monitor for your laptop. The original Atrix LapDock

What you see above is a 11.6" Lapdock being used as a secondary, portable extended display for my 15" Macbook Pro Retina.

A few months back, I reviewed a cool gadget, a 15" MHL HDMI portable monitor from GeChic which can be read here. Yes, it was a cool gadget but a bit bulky and pretty pricey for something that may not be used on regular occasions. I then turned my attention to the Motorola LapDocks because they have been great in the gadget scene. First, I got myself a newer LapDock 100 and that didn't turn out so well. The newer docks have been made more difficult to use as a dummy monitor. Well, after a few weeks, I ended up with the original Motorola Atrix Lap Dock. And I have to say, I am very pleased. These are still selling for $60-80 which, in my book, is a STEAL of a bargain!

To use this as a portable HDMI monitor, all you need are some cables, couplers and adapters. The device has two ports: Micro-USB male and Micro HDMI-D male for video. To use as video, you need to get a female Micro HDMI-D coupler. Then you connect to anything that can use HDMI which includes displayport, mini-displayport, and Thunderbolt.

Short Review: Kanex DualRole portable Gigabit plus 3 port USB 3.0 hub

Here is an interesting little gadget for the road-warrior.

Kanex DualRole Gigabit Ethernet + 3-port USB 3.0 hub. Designed with Macbook users in mind, it is a small portable USB 3.0 hub with a VIA USB 3.0 controller and a fairly popular ASIX AX88179 USB 3.0 to Gigabit chipset. These are currently shipping for $50 on Amazon.

I've dealt with this type of hardware before in other hubs and USB 3.0 gigabit adapters. So the performance is pretty much standard fare if you ever used a VIA USB 3.0/ASIX gigabit adapter. What makes this device unique is the packaging and portability.

I previously toted a Thunderbolt Gigabit or another ASIX USB gigabit adapter along with several SSD drives in my backpack. I've been trying to slim my carry-on weight down so I've been investing in 64GB USB sticks to substitute for 2.5" SSD shuttle drives. Other four port USB 3.0 hubs I have tend to be bulky so this pretty much solves my problem. I figure this is something to have in the bag in the event I need it.

The hub has 3 ports instead on the usual four but I would often end up using the fourth port for Gigabit anyways.  Since I already have four other ASIX gigabit dongles, this one was a plug-n-plug for me. If this is your first USB 3.0 Gigabit adapter, you will need to install thew pre-requisite ASIX 88179  drivers.

Overall, I really like it. I wish it had an aluminum finish instead of the mid-2000s iMac/White iBook white finish.  The ports are fairly evenly space and you will be able to add some thick USB devices. Still, I wish the ports were a little further spread apart like some of the cheap 4 port Anker USB 3.0 hubs. For example, in the picture below, I could not add two Patriot XT sticks side by side. With different arrangements, I can still all use three ports.

There is no extra USB cable to plug in which is nice. The short cable folds in when not in use. I've read some complaints about the length of the short cable. If you are using this mobile as pictured above, it shouldn't be a problem. However, if you use this in a docked desk environments, I can see where people can complain. Below is a picture of how it dangles when connected to a Macbook on a desk stand like the mStand.

Next, it does not come with an aux power adapter. It does have a hole for an AC power adapter if you plan to power something that requires a little more juice like some 2.5" 7200 rpm drives. This is fine with me since I would only be using this as a mobile gadget.

Conclusion:

I think this is a fair price item. Most USB 3.0 four port hubs cost as little as $30 and a USB 3.0 gigabit adapter will run you $20-$30 on how aggressively you discount shop. The lack of a fourth port is made up with the Gigabit adapter. It uses the standard VIA and ASIX controller IC which works well with other products. I personally love the small footprint and short cable for portability reasons. However, I can see where people would prefer a longer cable in a docked desk environment.

The current competitors are SIIG and Startech. They cost a bit more ($60-$90) and are not as portable as the Kanex. They also use bulky longer USB cable which makes them more suited for a permanent docked desk environment. The SIIG and Startech USB3.0 combo Gigabit hub below. Another alternative are the DisplayLink PC USB 3.0 docking stations. They run $150 and up and provide USB 3.0 video which I don't need.

Macbook Pro 15 Retina Initial Review. That screen is amazing.

I finally got myself an ultimate Macbook Pro 15". 2.7 GHZ Core i7-3740QM Quad CPU, 16GB 1600 mhz RAM, and a 768 GB SSD. This is one shy away from the top spec (2.8 vs 2.7) of the current shipping Macbook. Sure, I know Haswell is just around the corner but my corporate budget spending doesn't coincide with product announcements.

This thing is a beast. Of course the hardware specs are impressive but the thing that blows my mind is that screen. This review is coming from a developer's point-of-view where screen resolution is of the utmost importance. If you want a laptop for coding and development, continue and read this review.

The screen has a native resolution of 2880x1800. That is more than my 27" iMac, 30" Apple Cinema Display/Dell U3011. Of course, that is insanely high on a 15" laptop. 

Hence, this end-user review will mostly cover the screen and that amazing resolution.

(Macbook Pro 15" Retina running native 2880x1800 resolution)

Just for comparison, compare this to my 14" Thinkpad T420 with a resolution of 1600x900.In the opening image above, you can see a VM guest playing a youtube video. That VM is set to 1600x1200 which is equivalent of how much my Thinkpad would display if it was inside the Macbook.

Now, here is a more compelling comparison side-by-side and how it looks like:

The Thinkpad runs Linux but the comparison is still valid. The Macbook has 3 full size terminal windows, a browser with the full Craigslist's homepage at 100% zoom, a file browser, and the NY Time's website full page at 100% zoom. The Thinkpad shows the NY Time's website at 100% zoom and a terminal console at 100% zoom. Simply, there is no substitute for real-estate. The NY Time's website on the Macbook Pro shows double the content and news articles. I feel like I have an extra screen with my Macbook.

Here is Photoshop CS6 editing a 1080p (1920x1080) image at 100% zoom. A full web browser open to give you the depth of scale.

Simply, if you need real-estate, the Macbook Pro 15" Retina is in a league of all its own.

I wouldn't be running that resolution everyday so Apple devised HiDPI into the operating system which is pretty ingenius. You can run at 1680x1050, 1920x1200 HiDPI which are all 16:10 ratio. Perfect for programmers and developers. There are 3rd party utilities that unlock more resolutions. I am currently using resolution tab and it allows me to run 2048x1280,2560x1600,and native 2880x1800. 

I am starting to realize anything over 1080p is crazy on a laptop form-factor for day-to-day use. If you are running it at native resolution with 100% zoom, I can see where it can get straining.

I'm sure I can live with 1920x1200/1920x1080 all day but it is a treat just to drop it down to 1440x900 HiDPI (Best for Retina) and see the razor crisp text. Speaking of razor crispness, as of today, most of my major apps have been Retina modified- Office, Photoshop/Lightroom, Textwrangler, Sublime 2, Sequel Pro, and even LibreOffice looks good.


Quick Benchmarks

Speed Demon! There is no doubt this is a fast machine. Some quick benchmarks for those who are interested.

Geekbench and Black Magic speed test of the 768GB SSD.

I was previously toting two laptops everyday side-by-side. A Thinkpad running Linux and a late 2012 Macbook Pro 13" running OSX. I was using the Thinkpad because I needed the resolution and because of the upgrade-ability (ultrabay, eSATA, expresscard, docking station,etc). I shuttle a lot of large Virtual Machines so I need the fastest I/O connection I could have.  I have simply replaced the two. The Macbook Pro 15 and has two thunderbolt jacks and all my drives, RAID are Thunderbolt. For eSATA, a USB 3.0-eSATA dongle on the Macbooks have been faster than the built in eSATA of the Thinkpad. 768GB of SSD is enough to for me to run a couple of large (100GB VMs). And with iTunes Match, I no longer have to worry about my 1TB music files using up precious space on my portable computer. With everything installed (Full CS 6 Suite, Office 11, dev apps), I still have a healthy 650 GB free on my SSD.

Workflow.

16:10 Aspect Ratio. Default.

You can run your browser, IDE text editor, SQL database clients, a few debuggers/console, and even a large res Virtual Machine on one screen. The display is geared for work with the 16:10 aspect ratio.


Text. I don't think there is even a way to demonstrate the remarkable clarity of the screen through a photo or screenshot. It is that sharp. Open up the new version of Page or updated Excel and pull up a spreadsheet is probably the best way to demonstrate the clarity. Even browsing the Finder is sharp.

 I do most of my text editing in TextWrangler or Sublime. In Sublime, you can almost read the preview code pane. Again, I don't think it can be demonstrated with screenshots.

The CPU is an Ivy Bridge Core i7 3740QM Quad CPU with all the Virtualization features VT-x,VT-d.  Four cores and 8 threads. So, this makes it a great Virtual Machine provisioning machine. Coupled with a fast SSD and Thunderbolt, you can do all your pre-deploy cooking. Everything is bootable on this machine. USB3, Thunderbolt, and even the sdcard. Yep, you can even boot of a micro-sd card if you wanted to run an alternate OS. Booting off a Thunderbolt RAID (read my other posts), I have machine that can boot Windows in 7 seconds with I/O of 400-500 MB/sec.

I run a lot of VM (VirtualMachines) and this thing is impressive and problematic. The problem is the screen resolution is too high! Running VMs in HiDPI mode, gives you this:

This for the most part is fine for me because I need the real-estate. However, there is no toggle switch to HiDPI on and off as you can do with OSX. I can see where this can be a problem for others. Everything is so small!! I wonder how people manage with 13" 1080p Asus ultrabooks. This can either be a blessing or curse depending on your outlook.

My Mac resolution is set here to 1680x1050 HiDPI which is fairly good for people even with bad eyesight. Text and mac apps are their normal size. Windows 7 is running 100% zoom at 1280x1024 which would often take up the full screen on other laptops. The blue box you see is a 640x480 Linux console found in most headless VMs like Turnkey Linux.

Now here is the same Linux VM running at 100% zoom on my 1600x900 Thinkpad for comparison. There is such a dramatic difference in experience. The blue box you see (the VM) takes up 1/15 of my screen on the MBP vs 1/8 on the Thinkpad.

If you are working in console only VMs, it is best to turn off the HiDPI and zoom in. Zooming in will make things look blurry. Here is the Turnkey VM zoomed in, It is a little blurry but acceptable.

Running Desktop Virtual Machines (in non-HiDPI) mode looks pretty jarring. I had to run them in native mode and change the DPI to 200% in Windows and Linux. Even then, it isn't optimal. When the DPI settings are set to anything above 100%, text will appear the for the most part fine but you will have itty-bitty UI elements like buttons and icons which looks funny. Hence, Windows and other operating systems have a long ways to go to catch up with the higher DPI monitors.
Below is Windows 7 and Ubuntu Pear OS running at 150% dpi.

For example, running Photoshop in Windows with 150% DPI, the buttons and toolbar is ridiculously small while the text is legible.

Without HiDPI and running at 100%, you can see how blurry text is. My VM's resolution is set yo 1440x900.

A larger view to see the details.

Have in mind, this is not the fault of OSX or the Macbook. This is due to the fact that other operating systems do not yet have a good grasp on dealing with HiDPI monitors.

Your choice is to run native resolution and double the DPI if you want to run an OS with a desktop environment. This is the best thing to do but UI elements such as icons will look out of place. In Ubuntu, many apps do not conform with any DPI scaling. Java based apps tend to ignore it completely so you have apps with scaled and text and some without.

If you are running console only OS (e.g headless servers), this wont even be an issue.

Battery Life

This thing runs. It runs and runs. I would attribute this to the dynamic GPU switching. I am using a 3rd party app, gfxCardStatus, to monitor my GPU. The laptop will switch integrated Intel's Ivy Bridge IGP HD4000 when it needs to and when you power up an GPU intensive app, the discrete card kicks in.

I'm getting 5-6 hours with my normal workflow - programming in Sublime and making database queries. Impressive. Once plugged in, it pretty much runs on discrete Nvidia. I'm certain the Haswell refresh will do more on this front. However, as a person who docks most of the time, I'm happy with my current purchase instead of waiting another 3 months.

I/O Ports.

The slimming of the chassis was a big concern for me and many others. There were some compromises made. The lack of optical disk wasn't an issue for me. Firewire. Well, I've moved on to USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt so the remaining older FW enclosures I have can't even do justice to the faster SSDs now shipping. That omission won't be an issue as we forge on to faster external storage options that I've been covering on my blog for the past year.

I have to say that the missing ethernet port is a bummer. However, I can understand the justification and I am more than happy with the alternative. Two Thunderbolt ports! This more than makes up for it.
I also love the fact that the USB ports are on separate sides. Before,I would have chunky USB sticks and they would interfere and block one another.

Two Thunderbolt ports is also supplemented with a HDMI port on the opposite side. So, in theory, you can connect 3 external monitors (which I have seen posted elsewhere on the Internet).  Two of those monitors can be 2560x1600 which is impressive in its own right.

When I am mobile, I can use one Thunderbolt port for a portable SSD, a second for ethernet, and the HDMI can connect to a presentation monitor. So, I am pretty much covered and the lack of on-board ethernet concerns are no longer an issue for me. That was the biggest pre-purchase concern I had. Once docked in a desktop environment, my desktop RAID/external Thunderbolt drives have daisy chaining ports so I only need to use one TBOLT port while stationary.

In short, I wouldn't worry about the port I/O on this. As for extra USB ports, Mac users tend to use bluetooth for their low level HID input devices like mouse and external keyboards. Overall, I am more than satisfied with the set-up on the Retina Macbook Pro. My only real gripe is the sd reader doesn't flush full size sd cards.

Conclusion.

So far, I am loving this new rig. Once you use that screen for an extended period of time, nothing even comes close. I am dead serious. I no longer want to use my 27" iMac or various Macs/PCs running 27 & 30" Dells at 2560x1440/2560x1600. I've been running large multiple monitors for years now and I thought I would be prepared for this experience. I even thought owning and using an iPad 3 Retina since launch would acclimate me to this laptop.

I was dead wrong. It is completely different. Unlike an iPad, I use my Macbook Pro for work where I am typing lengthy amount of code. I am looking at spreadsheets/database views with thousands of records and 60-80 columns across.   I've always been trained to think if you are not running native resolution (downscale), the text would be blurry and the experience would be not optimized. Again, I was wrong with my pre-conceived notions. HiDPI is amazing if the OS and apps are optimized for it. Opening up PDF reports, Excel documents and even bland Word files is a new experience.

Now, not everything is perfect. There are a handful of older apps that have not been optimized and they look like crap.

Hence, I am now at a dilemma. I even bought myself a new 27" Dell U2713HM for the house and I've been using it with my iMac and other Macbook. Prior, I would make the larger monitor my main display and convert my other Macbook into a palette monitor for secondary use.

I can't even plug an external monitor to this Macbook 15" retina and extend the display. I simply can't. It is simply annoying to see text so sharp and them get jarred by another display right next to it.

This is why this laptop is so special. It is one thing to play with it a store or mess around with a friend's or colleague's machine for a few minutes. Once you use it for more than 3 days (36 hours), your preference will totally change. That is how amazing this screen is.

Cons:
Pricey. Yep, it is pricey. It came to nearly $3400 with California sales tax.

For some eyecandy, here is the Macbook Retina 15" running Earth 3D which turns your desktop into a live wallpaper of a 3D earth. The discrete GPU will kick in and it is a treat to show off the screen.