eSata Card ForThecus drives

[mbuckhurst]

Hi,

I've purchased a couple of Thecus 2050 drive caddies, they work great with USB but it's time to try eSata (the drives from Scan don't contain a card).

I've tried connecting via a sata->eSata cable, but with no joy, so I really need a sata card ideally without internal connections, just 2 external eSata ports.

Does anyone know of such a card, available in the UK?

cheers

mike

[arthurleung]

You sure about it?

The VIA SATA card I have got 2x Internal and 1x External SATA.
I also have 2 Front mounted eSATA mounted on the front PCI SATA bracket provided with Asus mobo.

I have 2 of the Icybox SATA enclosures which use exectly the same cables you use for internal SATA harddrives.

Unless you're buying highpoint eSATA enclosure, you should only need normal SATA cables.

Even if you buy those cards with external connector, its no different from the internal port.

By sata->eSata cable are you meaning those firewire style cable (highpoint)? AFAIK most of the eSATA devices just need plain SATA cable (you may need longer one like 1m instead of 30cm)

[mbuckhurst]

I have the device in front of me :-)

The eSata socket is a different shape to internal Sata (and the style of eSata, Highpoint use - my Thecus drive replace a pair of highpoints). This is the new standard for eSata, and it may be electrically different to Sata especially in its tolerances.

I had been using an Icybox with the internal Sata port. This was plugged in to a pci port replicator which took a pair of internal sata ports and made them external via a PCI plate.

I've tried using a sata to eSata cable via the pic port replicator but that doesn't work, so thought it best to get a real eSata card.

mike