Mobos with internal e-sata ports?

[ColKurtz]

I just got a new Lian-li case for our home media server. The case has an e-SATA port, but I'm not seeing any motherboards with internal e-SATA ports (at least not on Newegg). I see e-SATA ports on quite a few cases these days... do the case makers assume people will be hooking internal SATA ports up to the external e-SATA interface, or PCI e-SATA controllers, or am I overlooking something?

 

[heyheybooboo]

If I understand your questions pretty much yes to all of the above and much more.

eSATA can be integrated on the mobo with an external port. A case may have an external port that may be cabled to an internal port on the mobo. You may purchase a bracket with eSATA ports that may be cabled to internal ports on the mobo. Ditto for PCIe controller cards which provide external portage.

You may also configure multiple external ports (think USB hub) through a single eSATA connection. With a 4-port PCIe controller you theoretically could connect up to 20 hard drives.

Google something like "eSATA port multiplier"

 

[VirtualLarry]

I think that E-sata ports on cases are intended to be cabled to mobo SATA ports. There's no special "e-sata" header on a mobo, like there is with USB.

 

[ColKurtz]

Thanks for the reply. I'm running XP, and from what I've read the only way to get AHCI, which I want for hot-swap, running under XP is to use Intel's AHCI drivers... which allegedly disables cache on the drives (??). I was going to get an eSATA PCI card, but thought I could spend a few bucks more on a mobo with eSATA on-board. But of the dozens of eSATA mobos on Newegg that I looked at, I didn't see a single one that offered internal eSATA. I guess I just missed some, or else the expectation is to use those brackets... thanks again.

 

[IdaGno]

A couple of Asrock monos w/internal esata reviewed here

Tho these are AMD mobos. Perhaps Asrock also has something similar on the Intel side of things.