eSATA questions

[wjgollatz]

I never used eSATA before, and searches on the net haven't provided me answers to these questions, usually just copied and pasted summaries of the eSATA technology.

Can eSATA be daisychained like USB?

My motherboard has 4 SATA ports. Can I have 3 internal SATA hard drives and a card that can connect more than one eSATA drive?

Are eSATA cards that connect to the pci slot just as fast as motherboard SATA ports?

Do the cards with an internal SATA port design to enable installation of internal SATA hard drives and enclosures or does the motherboard have to connect to this internal SATA port to enable the card?

Are there any PCI slot eSATA cards? I have only seen PCI - express, and I may need the PCI express slot for another type of card.

Can eSATA connectors be "split?" For instance, my motherboard has 4 SATA ports, can I install 4 internal SATA hard drives and a bay enclosure for an eSATA connector? Especially if one of my SATA ports is blocked by a video card?

Thank you, some of these questions overlap others. Perhaps the FAQ could be updated to include SATA.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

eSATA cannot be daisy chained, however you can get a port multiplying hub.

 

[Binky]

Silicon Image makes a lot of the chips you will find in port multipliers and inexpensive esata/sata cards. Try googling their product numbers (e.g. SiI3726).
http://www.siliconimage.com/pr...ts/family.aspx?id=3#25

Here's a multiplier example that turns 1 x eSata into 5 x Sata
http://www.span.com/catalog/pr...e=gbaseus&currency=USD

Although not normally possible with regular esata/sata, the silicon image chips can be used inside external storage devices to allow daisy chaining for up to 5 drives.