Reverse eSATA?

[Ararat]

Hi all,

I'm currently choosing a motherboard for my next build, and was wanting a board to support AT LEAST 8 hdd's. With most Intel boards, this leaves the optical drive on the outer, which is kind of ok, because I can use USB for the burner... but it also attracted me to Gigabyte's UD5 boards, which have 10 internal SATA ports (albeit some with port multipliers... I think).

So my question is, for those motherboards which have 'only' 8 internal SATA ports, but also 2 eSATA ports, can I use the eSATA breakout brackets which Gigabyte used to provide with older gen boards, using an eSATA cable to connect it externally with the eSATA port on the I/O panel, then use the internal cable (from the breakout bracket) that normally plugs onto the motherboard to plug in a hdd?

Kinda the way the bracket was intended... only backwards.

Thanks for any responses.

 

[Emulex]

use a raid card and a port expander or fanout cable. i know they sell these on ebay (cerc/p400) not that expensive.

 

[Ararat]

Thanks mate, but that doesn't answer my question.

I WAS aware of that option, but my PCI/PCIe slots are pretty much full at the moment with tv tuners and the like (I already need to find space for an HD capture card as it is). Not to mention that my idea, if it's possible, is free.

Has anyone tried an oddball solution like mine?

If not, would it be possible to try a port expander or fanout cable like Emulex suggested, except straight from the motherboard instead of using a raid card?

 

[TheStu]

I am not sure I follow. If a board is using a bracket, then usually that means that it doesn't have hardwired eSATA ports and so 1-2 of your internal ones are cannibalized for eSATA.

Using the example of the newest Gigabyte motherboards (so the skt 1156 and skt 1366 boards) they have the internal SATA ports, and separately, but running off the same chip there are 1-2 hardwired eSATA ports that are located in the IO area (that is to say, where the USB and whatnot are located). The way that Gigabyte is delivering so many ports is because 6-8 are handled by the chipset, and then there is another chipset to deliver the SATA 6.0Gb/s ports of which (on the new boards) there are 2-4.

 

[Ararat]

I am not sure I follow. If a board is using a bracket, then usually that means that it doesn't have hardwired eSATA ports and so 1-2 of your internal ones are cannibalized for eSATA.

Using the example of the newest Gigabyte motherboards (so the skt 1156 and skt 1366 boards) they have the internal SATA ports, and separately, but running off the same chip there are 1-2 hardwired eSATA ports that are located in the IO area (that is to say, where the USB and whatnot are located). The way that Gigabyte is delivering so many ports is because 6-8 are handled by the chipset, and then there is another chipset to deliver the SATA 6.0Gb/s ports of which (on the new boards) there are 2-4.

No, trust me, you follow correctly. The only bit you missed was that the bracket comes from a previous motherboard (which didn't have eSATA).

The NEW motherboard has hardwired eSATA, and doesn't come with a bracket. I want to use the bracket from my old board to turn my new board's eSATA ports (which are useless to me) into internal SATA ports.

 

[railman]

I don't see why you could not do this, sounds a little cumbersome but should work as long as you don't have any connector conflicts. Have you looked for esata to sata adapters?

 

[Ararat]

I don't see why you could not do this, sounds a little cumbersome but should work as long as you don't have any connector conflicts. Have you looked for esata to sata adapters?

OK, I'll give it a go. I figured the bracket would BE the esata to sata adapter (even though it's designed to be the opposite). I'll prob look for one of those if this doesn't work out... I wanna try it this way first because using a bracket would look (cleaner), and I'd have a cable plugging into 2 points on the back of the computer.