E-sata Questions ?

Ice Tea · 23 Aug 2009 at 10:03

I've never used the Esata port on the back of the Motherboard are they as fast as the internal sata ports and can a Esata drive be used as the Boot drive to install windows or linux too if Esata is put in as the first boot device in the Bios ?

miniyazz · 23 Aug 2009 at 12:41

Same speed as SATA I IIRC (1.5Gbps). And yes, but I'm not sure how easy it is - it won't be more difficult than installing onto a USB drive though; try it and see, or google it

Ice Tea · 23 Aug 2009 at 13:07

If we was going to use google all the time then that would make a chat forum pretty pointless plus people are not telepathic who may also be intrested in using Esata for the first time.

Are all Motherboard E-Sata sockets only Sata 1 speeds ?

rexehuk · 23 Aug 2009 at 14:29

Pretty sure most new eSata ports are 3gbps... my p6t does anyway. Although I cant get it to work with my external icybox.

Ice Tea · 23 Aug 2009 at 14:35

Eeeeeeek i was hoping to use a IcyBox and have the hardrive outside a MATX build.

Diggsy · 23 Aug 2009 at 15:04

I'm using the eSata port on my Abit IP35 Pro, connected into an Akasa elite enclosure which currently houses a Samsung 250gb Spinpoint drive.

Windows (XP) recognises and uses it just like a local drive in so far as I can tell.

Oh and as for speeds, not too shabby...

miniyazz · 23 Aug 2009 at 18:56

Ice Tea said:
If we was going to use google all the time then that would make a chat forum pretty pointless plus people are not telepathic who may also be intrested in using Esata for the first time.

Are all Motherboard E-Sata sockets only Sata 1 speeds ?

Unless you're using SSDs, SATA I is perfectly adequate - no HDD exceeds 150MB/s except on burst speed which isn't really that important.

As for using Google, I answered the questions I knew the answer to and only suggested using it for the one I didn't - a perfectly easy thing to google, not that a bit of info about SATA I is hard to come by either, the wikipedia page would tell you all about eSATA. :confused:

Ice Tea · 24 Aug 2009 at 05:26

I see that sharkoon are now doing a horizontal SATA QuickDeck with a E-sata port on the back.

http://www.sharkoon.com/html/produkte/externe_gehaeuse/sata_quickdeck/index_en.html

.

joeyjojo · 24 Aug 2009 at 13:18

Perennial question. eSata simply refers to the type of plug. They are more robust than normal sata headers to allow for lots of plugging/unplugging. Everything to do with the running of the drive (speeds, ncq, hot swapping) depends on the controller the esata port is attached to.
(I think...)