Esata and External Enclosures

[Kent10]

Hi:

I have esata ports on the back of my computer with my Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 motherboard. I read this. “eSATA is a little different. You have to restart the computer for it to recognize your drive unless your motherboard supports SATA hot swapping.” I found it on this page Rosewill RX81-MP External USB/eSATA 3.5 Review » Page 2 - Installation & Configuration - Overclockers Club

Does this mean I need to be in AHCI mode on the motherboard to use esata without restarting my computer. That would be a drag. Esata will work if I restart the computer though, is that right. I read that some people have problems.

I am also thinking of getting an external enclosure for a 3.5 internal drive instead of just an external drive. Is this a good way to go?

I am looking at this external enclosure. It gets good reviews. Is it good or do you have another recommendation. I don’t know anything about external enclosures.

Newegg.com - ICY DOCK MB559US-1SMB Aluminum body w/ partial plastic 3.5" Mirror Black USB 2.0 & eSATA External Enclosure - External Enclosures

Thanks very much, Kent

[garetjax]

Hiya Kent!

Originally Posted by Kent10

I am also thinking of getting an external enclosure for a 3.5 internal drive instead of just an external drive. Is this a good way to go?

It depends on what your needs are and what your budget is like. Generally speaking, you can save a few bucks by pairing a separate hard drive with an external enclosure, than buying the whole device as one unit. I highly recommend that you read THIS thread as it may help you decide what you want to do, and will probably answer many of your questions.

In my opinion, I will always buy a separate hard drive and pick a good, quality external enclosure to put it in. Most of the time, the only thing that separates this route from going with a pre-built unit is the crap software that they include with it. And in nearly all cases, the software is crap, not worth installing or using on your computer.

Originally Posted by Kent10

I am looking at this external enclosure. It gets good reviews. Is it good or do you have another recommendation. I don’t know anything about external enclosures.

The first rule of the Hardware Club is to ignore the reviews you read at vendor sites like Newegg. They hold no water (usually), and the people that post their "reviews" are generally mis-informed (read: dumbasses). As for the external hard drive enclosure you linked, personally, I think you can do a lot better. I don't like plastic enclosures, as I feel they're cheap and not very well made. I encourage you to take a look at some aluminum enclosures as they are very tough and can handle a bump or two.

However, Icy Dock (made by Tagan or RaidMax depending on where you live) make excellent products, and their external enclosures are very nice.

[polobunny]

eSATA will work on your computer is it stays connected whether or not it's in AHCI mode.
When in AHCI, it enables you to connect it and disconnect it at anytime, much like USB. This is more handy, but also AHCI usually enables faster speeds.

You probably didn't install Windows in AHCI mode with the SATA drivers, hence why you think it would be a drag. However, SATA drivers can be installed even after you installed window, with nifty little tricks. After you can enable write caching and whatnot too. If you need more help on that just hit me up.

Personally, I prefer to buy an enclosure and select my own drive. This enables you to choose the best drive for you and if something goes wrong, you don't void your warranty pulling out the drive out of the enclosure.

About the eSATA ports on the Gigabyte board: Those are likely not powered by the ICH9R chipset but rather the Jmicron controller, which turned out to be a worthless piece of !??#$% on mine. It made my drives click. Luckily, my external enclosure comes with a PCI bracket + connector so I can plug it internally, on the Intel ICH9 and get the best speeds. Just something to think about.

[Kent10]

Thanks garetjax. Saving a few bucks is great but I like speed and will pay a small premium for it. I know what you mean about Newegg reviews. I have read many and thought, huh? I did read a real review as well and it was favorable. Thanks again, Kent

[garetjax]

Originally Posted by Kent10

Thanks garetjax. Saving a few bucks is great but I like speed and will pay a small premium for it.

In that case, you will want to buy a separate hard drive and external enclosure to put it in. eSATA is based off of SATAII speeds (3.0Gbps), so you will want an eSATA capable external enclosure that supports SATAII hard drives. As for the hard drive, pick one that has massive storage capability (or as your budget allows) as well as having a good amount of cache, anywhere north of 16MB or more is good. Personally, THIS one looks to be quite a performance champ. =)

[Kent10]

Thanks Polobunny. Very interesting. Yes I am in IDE mode. I did once try AHCI without reinstalling windows. I found the info online and it worked but I didn't save it and went back with an image because I was unsure exactly what it would do to my system and I didn't see any obvious increases in speed which is why I tried it in the first place. If you have time and want to share how you do it, I would be interested.

When I was in AHCI mode I was looking for a place to turn NCQ on and off to test that but couldn't find it. Do you know where that is located?

I probably wouldn't keep the external drive connected all the time so I guess I would have to restart unless I go to AHCI.

Which enclosure did you get? My esata is a bracket too that came with the motherboard.

Thanks!

[Kent10]

garetjax:

Thanks for the recommendation. I may even for for 1TB because I have a lot of RAW camera files I store.

[garetjax]

Originally Posted by Kent10

Thanks for the recommendation. I may even for for 1TB because I have a lot of RAW camera files I store.

Mmm! 1TB storage is going to be good for performance! I like THIS one. Just be sure that the external enclosure you decide on supports 1TB hard drives. There are some enclosures out there that don't.

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by Kent10

Thanks Polobunny. Very interesting. Yes I am in IDE mode. I did once try AHCI without reinstalling windows. I found the info online and it worked but I didn't save it and went back with an image because I was unsure exactly what it would do to my system and I didn't see any obvious increases in speed which is why I tried it in the first place. If you have time and want to share how you do it, I would be interested.

When I was in AHCI mode I was looking for a place to turn NCQ on and off to test that but couldn't find it. Do you know where that is located?

I probably wouldn't keep the external drive connected all the time so I guess I would have to restart unless I go to AHCI.

Which enclosure did you get? My esata is a bracket too that came with the motherboard.

Thanks!

I got the Vantec NST-360SU-BK. A super nice looking enclosure (if you can clean the fingerprints off). My sole complaint is that it gets relatively hot since there's no fan. I didn't want the noise of an added fan though because my computer is in my bedroom and I leave it running at night for Folding@Home purposes.


As for enabling NCQ you have to turn on write caching and advanced performance for your disks.


This is found via the Device Manager, by right clicking your hard drive, choosing properties then policies tab.

[Kent10]

No wonder I couldn't find NCQ. I was looking for something that said "NCQ." I have "write caching" enabled now in IDE mode but I don't see the "Enable Advanced Performance". Will this appear with AHCI mode and is this the NCQ.