ESATA case connector

yurekk

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Jan 17, 2010
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I have an external SATA connector (eSATA) on my case (HAF 932), where do i need to plug the cable to on my motherboard (ASUS p6T Deluxe V2). There is no internal eSATA connectors, will regular SATA work? If so, do i need to specify in BIOS to use this specific SATA as eSATA? Thanks for the help!
 

djg9205

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Im not entirely sure about this...I'd be interested to see what the eSATA cable inside your HAF 932 actually looks like. After a little searching around I can't seem to find a motherboard with an internal eSATA jumper, although plenty do have eSATA ports on the back next to all the other I/O.

 

yurekk

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eSATA cable that comes with the case looks exactly like regular SATA cable which comes with motherboard. It also keyed the same and perfectly fits in the internal motherboard SATA connection.
 

djg9205

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Give it a shot then. eSATA and SATA are pretty similar in terms of Architecture. Have a look at the wikipedia entry on eSATA, regarding it's differences from regular SATA:

The external cable connector equates to a shielded version of the connector specified in SATA 1.0a with these basic differences:

* The external connector has no "L" shaped key, and the guide features are vertically offset and reduced in size. This prevents the use of unshielded internal cables in external applications and vice-versa.
* To prevent ESD damage, the design increased insertion depth from 5 mm to 6.6 mm and the contacts are mounted farther back in both the receptacle and plug.
* To provide EMI protection and meet FCC and CE emission requirements, the cable has an extra layer of shielding, and the connectors have metal contact-points.
* The connector shield has springs as retention features built in on both the top and bottom surfaces.
* The external connector and cable have a design-life of over five thousand insertions and removals, while the internal connector is only specified to withstand fifty.


Looks to me as though plugging the eSATA case connector into a SATA port on your motherboard should work. You shouldn't need to specify anything special in BIOS, just make sure that it's set to boot off of an internal SATA hard drive. Try it out and post back.