External HDD enclosure question

My external HDD came with an SATA port that could be installed in a slot in the back of my PC, with a cable that runs inside and connects to the motherboard. It also came with an SATA cable to to connect the drive to the port on the back of the PC.

I imagine I'll see a speed boost with that. Are there any disadvantages? Is it still hot-swappable?

Edit the HDD inside the enclosure is a Seagate Barracuda 400gb SATA drive, if that helps, and my PC is a Dell Dimension PC (from Freepay) from around 2004/2005.

Anyone? ?

Yeah, it's call eSATA and it's a HUGE performance boost over USB or Firewire. It basically runs the same speed as an internal drive.

It is hot-swappable only if your SATA chipset supports it. Newer mobo's with SATA2 chipsets should support it. Older ones with SATA 1.5 support probably won't. If you have an older mobo you can buy SATA2 PCI cards pretty cheap that include an eSATA connector. This will gain you hot-swap as well as a theoretical increase in speed (although in reality SATA 1.5 has yet to be saturated with a single drive).

I might as well hook it up that way, since it's primarily going to be for home use. If I need to unhook it or hook it back up, it won't be that inconvenient to shut down and restart the computer.

Though looks like Newegg has the PCI cards for pretty cheap.. Awfully tempting to have that kind of speed, plus the option of hotswapping.

eSATA is the bomb. My next computer I'm making sure its built-in. Do you have an open PCI-E 1X or 4X slot?

[quotecb105fbfa1="Wolfeman"]eSATA is the bomb. My next computer I'm making sure its built-in. Do you have an open PCI-E 1X or 4X slot?[/quotecb105fbfa1]

I do have an open PCI slot -- not sure if it's 1X or 4X though

Is it PCI or PCI-E?

http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fc/PCIExpress.jpg/800px-PCIExpress.jpg[" alt=""/imged09b27bbd]
[bed09b27bbd]PCI Express slots (from top to bottom x4, x16, x1 and x16), compared to a traditional 32-bit PCI slot (bottom)[/bed09b27bbd]

[quoted2e5e98369="Wolfeman"]Is it PCI or PCI-E?

http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fc/PCIExpress.jpg/800px-PCIExpress.jpg[" alt=""/imgd2e5e98369]
[bd2e5e98369]PCI Express slots (from top to bottom x4, x16, x1 and x16), compared to a traditional 32-bit PCI slot (bottom)[/bd2e5e98369][/quoted2e5e98369]

It's PCI-E, I know that for sure

Look at the pic and look at the slot. 16x is longest, 1x is tiny, 4x is kinda in the middle...

It's a PCI-E x16. Rather than guess, I found an old Newegg order I had for a video card.