I was trying to decide between a pair of SATA-6GB/s, USB 3.0 mobos and ran into a problem. Why on earth doesn't ASUS have a eSATA on their premium board? I know that USB 3.0 is meant to replace eSATA, but you can hardly call eSATA legacy.,Every case worth its scotch has a port. ASUS P6X58D Premium The only alternative is GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD7 $60 ~35 EUR more for 2 extra USB 2.0, a Huge heat sink and eSATA I know $300 is a bit pricey but I want future proof. Is it worth it? My case has an eSATA connection and I have a 1TB eternal that uses eSATA but it can also use USB 2.0 I plan on doing so modest OCing 920 to 3.2-3.6Ghz
As far as i'm aware, theres absolutely no difference electrically between esata and sata, just plug the case esata port into a sata port on the mobo. my case has a connection for esata, it's nothing but a female esata port on the case connected to a cable with a male sata port on the end... I've also seen esata - sata PCI bracket converters too.
i know my Asus P7P55D Deluxe has got eSATA PCI bracket included. and looking at the accessory picture provided by newegg, it seems this Premium also has it.
The UD7 has a water block on the chipset, so the UD5 is the better choice if your not planning to Water cool. Personally speaking that is, i know a lot of people rave about Asus, but my last 3 Asus boards have all had problems, and 2 i sent back more than once to get repaired, and each time came back with either the same or a new fault, hence my choice for the UD5, which is faultless, and has E-Sata in the style of a back plate. I think the Asus your looking at has E-Sata as well, i would be surprised if Asus shipped a board without E-Sata personally. Sam
But the UD5 does not have USB 3.0 or SATA 6gb/s. As far as I know the only SATA 6.0, LGA 1366 mobos on the market are these two. Are you sure it is a water block? I though it was just some weird heat pipe like thing to the massive heat-sink. If it is a water block does that mean I want to go with the ASUS mobo? I thought that eSATA needed an extra controller of some type on the board. The ASUS website has it as NO eSATA. But your right, it strikes me as very me as very odd. Maybe Cyrilthefish is right about things. I saw the bracket too, but I think it be generic to all ASUS X58 boards
I think i may have worked it out. Your board lists no eSata and has no eSata port on the backplate My board lists eSata and has a eSata port on the backplate Things like this exist, suggesting no additional hardware is needed It may be just as simple as that.
sweet, in that case I think I might go for the ASUS board. I think $50 less it is worth the chance i get a bad board and have to return it. From the reviews I have read it is DOA or it works great. If it is a shipping damage problem not quality control, I don't think i need to worried about it failing on me. Right?
I just bought a F3 1TB and stuck it into an icybox external case and plug it in via eSATA, my eSATA cable from my case is plugged straight into a normal SATA 1.5Gb/s port and works flawlessly, just means I don't get hotswapping so I just need to plug it in and turn it on before I press my power button. Unless you need hotswapping and don't have a dedicated eSATA port then you'll have to stick with USB.
esata ports that is unusual for a motherboard of that calibre. i have a £65 Asrock p43d twins 1394 and that has an esata port. there is a catch though. i have to connect a sata lead from one of the 6 internal ports to a dedicated internal sata port to enable the esata port. i also have internal and external firewire. its a great board for the money and runs stable
