What is this computer component?

[ABarge]

Hi Guys,

Not sure if this is even the right spot to post a question about identifying a piece of hardware, however, since I didn't know what it was I couldn't narrow down where this post should go.

Long story short I purchased parts to put together my 3rd home system build. When I opened up the case and started putting it all together I noticed a little device screwed to the side of my case and had no idea what it was. It has a 4 pin power output plus 2 sata outputs. What the heck is it?

Below is a link to a picture I took of it to help identify it.

http://postimage.org/image/q8ehft6kb/

 

[Guest]

Are there any connectors on the outside of the case, like esata perhaps?

 

[alyoshka]

The Case make and Model would have been a big help.
Though it looks like one of those fancy cheap light accessories in cases from china, it could also be a supplementary sata power extension for hot swap bay provided on the case.

 

[AxemanACL]

I would assume it is a cheap way to connect internal (bare) hard drives externally. though you would need a converting power cord, and a sata cable.

 

[unksol]

that looks exactly like a SATA backplane, but I can't tell where it is in your case. you would connect sata and power to it if you wanted to use it and the there would be a spot on the opposite side to slide a drive in that would line up and connect to power and SATA ports on the other side of the board. i have seen these on the top, side, in the actual harddrive mounting area, in the bottom front, behind the bottom 5.25 drive bays etc. the bay is probably behind a panel of some sort and may or may not use a drive tray

 

[ABarge]

Best answer selected by ABarge.

 

[ABarge]

This was inside a Cooler Master HAF 942 case. A call to Cooler Master this morning confirmed it was SATA hot swap plate. Apparently you plug in a 4 pin power from the PSU, a cable from motherboard to this board, and the other connector is for the cord from the front of the panel to hot swap sata drives. Thanks for the help guys!