ESATA question

[braveheart0707]

HI guys~building a new pc, trying to understand the ESATA situation

so i have a portal hard drive with esata connection back when USB 3.0 wasn't out, and also a 3.5 inch card reader unit that has ESATA port.

In my new build, if the motherboard has ESATA port, like the Asus sabertooth Z87, will i get SATA 6G/S when i connect my portal hard drive and card reader unit to the motherbaord, or does ESATA have different standards and my relatively old devices will only be getting SATA 3G/S in my new mobo?

 

[greenhawk]

If the esata / card reader did not have a sata cable in the back of it, it is most likly a usb to esata adaptor in built, which means it will not go any faster than what you have been getting already.

As to the sabertooth, the esata speed depends on what sata port it connects to as not all sata ports are 6Gbps. The esata might have been built and connected to a sata 3Gbps port.

Of course, all this is pointless if your portable harddrive can only do 3Gbps. Connecting to a faster esata port will not make the drive go faster.

in short, esata is just a different connector for a standard sata controller.

 

[Cerb]

In my new build, if the motherboard has ESATA port, like the Asus sabertooth Z87, will i get SATA 6G/S when i connect my portal hard drive and card reader unit to the motherbaord, or does ESATA have different standards and my relatively old devices will only be getting SATA 3G/S in my new mobo?

Your speed will vary by what you're plugging in. But no, there are not different standards. eSATA was a fairly minor tweaking of SATA. You can get 6Gbps on eSATA. That doesn't mean you will, with those devices, of course, but you will get native SATA performance, even if at a slower link speed.

However, there is not yet a HDD that is even close to saturating 3Gbps, so no worries, either way. We only just now have HDDs that run slower on 1.5Gbps SATA.

The card reader, OTOH, will be limited to USB speeds.

 

[braveheart0707]

Ah i see what u guys are saying.

I guess all i am trying to confirm is whether ESATA ports or Cables are different for SATA 6G and SATA 3G.

Technically, if i put a SSD into my ESATA enclosure, then connect it via ESATA cable to my card reader's ESATA port, which lets say has a SATA cable at the back and i connect it to the motherboard's SATA 6G port, then i would be getting SATA 6G speed out of my enclosure~

 

[Cerb]

Cable and connector wise, plain SATA is fragile. eSATA are more rugged. Electrically, eSATA added a required buffer for the signal, and tightened up voltage level requirements, to account for added cable and connector losses.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812119021
Something like that is all that's needed to convert an internal SATA port into an eSATA port, FI. Pretty much all PC SATA ports since 2007, or maybe 2008, are eSATA compatible.

 

[braveheart0707]

Cable and connector wise, plain SATA is fragile. eSATA are more rugged. Electrically, eSATA added a required buffer for the signal, and tightened up voltage level requirements, to account for added cable and connector losses.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812119021
Something like that is all that's needed to convert an internal SATA port into an eSATA port, FI. Pretty much all PC SATA ports since 2007, or maybe 2008, are eSATA compatible.

ah so again, the ESATA cable or the ESATA bracket you mentioned, are the same for either a SATA 6G or SATA 3G connection right? It only depends whether i connect the bracket to the motherboard's SATA 6G or SATA 3G internal port. right?

 

[mfenn]

ah so again, the ESATA cable or the ESATA bracket you mentioned, are the same for either a SATA 6G or SATA 3G connection right? It only depends whether i connect the bracket to the motherboard's SATA 6G or SATA 3G internal port. right?

That's correct.