Another thing to remember; theoretical bus speeds don't match real-world results. Both eSATA and Firewire reach about 85% of their maximum spec, which is fine and dandy for working with hard drives, but USB never came close to that. Or at least, it never used to, don't know if it's been improved with the latest iteration.

I remember that was the issue back in the day of USB v. Firewire; they looked close on paper, but in the real world it was no contest. That's why Firewire became a video standard.

But I contract with a video company based in Chicago, and they've been switched over to eSATA for some time now. That should tell you something. Nobody is more serious about moving large amounts of data quickly and cheaply than a video company.