Hooking up an eSATA enclosure to my old PATA system

[wanchan]

I've just got four Seagate 500GB 7200.11 w/32MB cache drives. I want to get a new external enclosure to use some of the drives. I probably will have to hook up my new enclosure to a 5-year old system that supports only PATA. I am using the old exclusively to file transfers over the net......

Two enclosures I am eyeing on.
3.5" HDD enclosure w/ eSATA, 1394a, USB2.0
3.5" HDD enclosure w/ eSATA, 1394a, 1394b, USB2.0

My question is really about the enclosure's support for eSATA and 1394b. As my motherboard supports only PATA drives, is it logical to think that both the eSATA and 1394b features are useless to me? My motherboard has only 1394a ports and the new 1394b's connector is different from that for 1394a.....that is why I think 1394b is also useless in my case.

My old motherboard - Gigabyte GA-8IRXP
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Pro...ec.aspx?ProductID=1298

Need some hints here...

 

[Peter]

You could always add an eSATA or FW800 card to the machine. eSATA is faster, FW is more versatile.

 

[wanchan]

Thanks for the hint, Peter.
Don't want to be pain on the butt, but would you mind showing me the samples (e.g. links) of eSATA or FW800 cards for the machine?
I kinda them real fast and don't wanna buy wrong ones.
Again thanks my friend!!!

 

[Peter]

Since you haven't indicated where in the world you are, I can only shrug and recommend you look at a large online retailer's product list and see what's there. You need PCI not PCIE, and then anything that fits your need and suits your wallet. eSATA cards should be SATA-II, ideally AHCI, to support hot plug /properly/.

If you're in the US, then www.newegg.com would be a good start.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...tion=1394b+PCI&x=0&y=0

 

[wanchan]

Thanks for bearing with me. That linky helps!
Me, homed in the States and is working in Hong Kong for the moment. Familiar with newegg.com.

 

[Zepper]

The Rosewill RC-210 is a decent eSATA card for PCI slots. It only works at SATA-150, but you'd need a PCI express card for SATA 300. I think most FW800 cards need a PCI express slot too.

.bh.

 

[Peter]

From a bus bandwidth perspective, 1st generation SATA already exceeds the PCI bus - but as I said before, you NEED to have a SATA-II interface controller to have proper hot plugging capability. It won't be any faster, it'll just be more useful.

In a typical machine with few expansion cards, FW800 will not show any speed improvement on PCIE. With many cards, the inherent advantage of PCIE will start to show - PCIE cards do not share bandwidth, each is on its own dedicated connection.

 

[wanchan]

As recommended above, I got an eSATA SATAII PCI Interface Card with 4 ports (one eSATA external and three SATAII internal). I bought the card while on a business trip in Japan.

I was able to instantly fire up my external eSATA enclosure connected to the card and do speedy data transfers. However it is keeping me wonder how to make use of the three internal SATA ports as well. One major hurdle is how to power up SATA disks and connect them to the card as my motherboard supports only IDE disks. The only possible solution I can think of is use of IDE-SATA power cable. After a bit of research, I've got a feeling that kind of cable is for use of IDE disks on a SATA motherboard not the other way around. I am totally lost about what type of converting cable I need to use and how to use that cable connect SATA disks, the card and maybe motherboard too.

Please enlighten me. Thanks again!

eSATA SATAII PCI Interface Card
http://i241.photobucket.com/al...IIPCIInterfaceCard.jpg

My Gigabyte GA-8IRXP System
http://i241.photobucket.com/al...byteGA-8IRXPSystem.jpg

 

[Old Hippie]

I know it's been a coupla days, but have you run across these beauties yet. Power your SATA drives with that type of adaptor, and use regular SATA data cables to hook them to your card.

 

[Zepper]

I'm sure you can get Molex to SATA power adapters for much less than that - SVC has 1Molex to 1SATA for 49 cents... Newegg is generally higher priced on cables and ridiculous on shipping for small orders. And you could use something like this:
http://www.svc.com/ok301.html - to bring another port to the outside if you wanted.

.bh.

 

[Old Hippie]

I'm sure you can get Molex to SATA power adapters for much less than that - SVC has 1Molex to 1SATA for 49 cents...

I'm sure you're absolutely right Zep. However, nobody was answering his simple question. As far as I'm concerned, I've pointed him in the right direction. If he wants to price shop, as he should, he can do the legwork.

I've never had any off-spring, and I guess spoon feeding is not my forte.

Happy Easter Zep!

 

[wanchan]

Thanks my good friends, you helped clear up my confusion. Just what the doc ordered

 

[Zepper]

I probably should have stopped at ...much less than that. as I don't generally wipe anyone elses butt either. If I hadn't just seen that 49 cent deal, I probably would have. And then, I just can't help throwing ideas out there - my brain is an idea poppin' machine.

.bh.