eSATA for non-eSATA mobo ?

[bonanza]

The mobo doesn't have an eSATA port on it. Is there a way to provide such feature without adding any additional card ? (like connecting the SATA port on the mobo to a rear bracket --> just an extension cable, perhaps ?)

Thank you.

 

[lopri]

You can do that but you lose hot-plug function. (it's a bit more complicated with AHCI et al., but that's an issue for an article)

Basically you can use extensions to use on-board SATA as eSATA or just external SATA but they always have to be connected while your machine is on, especially any of the system files are present in those drives. You can't just plug/unplug as you do with USB drives.

 

[mruffin75]

Yes I believe that is possible. I think Addonics makes the cables you need. Although if purchase one of the Seagate eSATA drives, it comes with a Promise eSATA controller (PCI).

 

[bonanza]

Thank you all for replying.

Yes I believe that is possible. I think Addonics makes the cables you need. Although if purchase one of the Seagate eSATA drives, it comes with a Promise eSATA controller (PCI).

Will there be a bottleneck with PCI ? I think PCI is not sufficient for the 3Gb/s SATA.

 

[Peter]

PCI isn't sufficient for the /theoretical/ bandwidth of SATA, generation 1 or 2. However, the /actual/ throughput you'll get from today's drives still is less than the roughly 100 MB/s a "plain" PCI slot can handle.

Still, this one PCI bus will be pretty saturated by the SATA controller activity, so if you got a sound or TV tuner card on the same bus, don't expect things to be smooth.

Chipset integrated SATA controllers may or may not support hot plugging - that (optional) feature was part of the SATA specification before the eSATA idea appeared.

 

[bonanza]

Chipset integrated SATA controllers may or may not support hot plugging - that (optional) feature was part of the SATA specification before the eSATA idea appeared.

Do you mean if the chipset integrated SATA controller supports hot plugging I can use extension cable to a rear bracket and treat it like eSATA ?

 

[Heidfirst]

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1942.html

I'm sure that you can find a local stockist or equivalent product.

 

[mruffin75]

Originally posted by: bonanza
Thank you all for replying.

Yes I believe that is possible. I think Addonics makes the cables you need. Although if purchase one of the Seagate eSATA drives, it comes with a Promise eSATA controller (PCI).

Will there be a bottleneck with PCI ? I think PCI is not sufficient for the 3Gb/s SATA.

Well that's what I thought, but we originally put a PCI-X eSATA card into a server we were running, and it didn't work out that well...

The included PCI cards worked fine.. gave us pretty much SATA speeds..

 

[alaricljs]

You can get a number of different PCI-bracket type SATA extensions here. I've bought some cables from them in the past. Good quality, cheap shipping, low prices.