Recommend an external drive

[vienna1944er]

and just "SATA breakout panels" - the SATA breakout panel just brings the same internal SATA connector
to the outside for connecting a SATA drive directly,

and on the way from onboard SATA-connection to the breakout panel on backside from PC
most the half from the summary 1m (~ 40") obsolete,
only the the rest = 50cm (~ 20") is left over for backside from PC to the external case.

note: the specification: "max length = 1m = 100cm = ~40" is the summary cable length
between the internal-onboard connector and the connector on the external case

eSATA is relative new, so you need a relative new board or card.....
one from more exampel's: http://www.intel.com/products/mother...00XS/index.htm
Peripheral interfaces:
Six Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s ports, including 2 eSATA port with RAID support supplied by a Marvell* controller

[OT]
note to this newest Intel (desktop) board
The ground-breaking Intel® Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform is the first dual socket desktop board from Intel,
the world leader in silicon innovation. With dual CPU capability that provides up to 8 core processing,

Support for 45nm Intel® Core®2 Extreme processors in an LGA771 socket with a 1600 MHz system bus
Support for both 45nm & 65nm Intel® Xeon® processors in an LGA771 socket with a 1600, 1333, or 1066 MHz system bus
Support for FBDIMM DDR2 800MHz, 667 MHz, DIMMs
[OT]

greetings from europe (the "meter" continent) ..... old Hans ;-)

[RonnieMartin]

Hello Jo Jo (Dan) All of my edit stations now have internal raids 1.6 TB for editing and are set up as Raid 5 0 which gives some degree of safety. I have only had one drive go down in the Raids and none of the data was lost.
All I noticed was that suddenly the computer slowed down. I put in a new drive and the raid rebuilt itself over night.

What I do for storage is External ESata Maxtor drives in external enclosures from Fries in Atlanta. The brand name of the enclosure is Venus and it has an internal fan.

While editing I keep everything in one project folder. I do not share any files across the projects. When I am finished with a project I simply copy and paste that file to the external drive and go to bed. In the morning it is all there and if I ever have to go back and work on a project again I copy it back to he Raid with the proper Drive letter and it is all there. Most of my projects are about 2 hours long and with all the files are from 60-80 gigs.

take care

Ronnie

btw did you get my last PM and e-mail?

[rsn108]

Either WD eSATA or Seagate eSATA in an enclosure with a fan built into it.

[Blast1]

the SATA breakout panel just brings the same internal SATA connector to the outside for connecting a SATA drive directly, as if it was inside the case. This means you need to supply external power to the drive.

eSATA doesn't currently supply power so that is moot, you need external pwr for external eSATA enclosures
There are SATA breakout panels and SATA to eSATA breakout panels, the latter will attach to the MoBo SATA connections to provide a eSATA external connection, most external enclosures are eSATA which is a different type connector, the breakout panels provde a connector adapting function, even though the eSATA spec and SATA electrical spec are different, they are not that different where they wouldn't work, you just keep the external cable to 1meter which is plenty long enough for most use, one problem with eSATA cables is stiffness, but there are some cables that are more flexable, the SATA drives whether external or internal have the same basic throughput, fastest sneaker net I've used, also most external eSATA enclosures are 12v and can be run directly from a source like a auto cig lighter

[GrassValley_BH]

eSATA doesn't currently supply power so that is moot, you need external pwr for external eSATA enclosures

True, I was more pointing (albeit poorly) to the fact that most people don't have external power bricks with SATA power connectors.

[STORMDAVE]

I think you'll always be required to have separate power on 3.5" External HD's anyway.

[vienna1944er]

even though the eSATA spec and SATA electrical spec are different,

Standardized in mid-2004,
eSATA defined separate cables, connectors, and revised electrical requirements for external applications:

Minimum transmit potential increased: Range is 500–600 mV instead of 400–600 mV.
Minimum receive potential decreased: Range is 240–600 mV instead of 325–600 mV.

you just keep the external cable to 1meter which is plenty long enough for most use,

opposition .... the "max 1m" specification from (standard)SATA contain's the internal way from MB to the breakout panel on backside from PC.
Imho correct is:keep the external cable to >100 centimeter minus the internal centimeter<

friendly greetings from europe\austria\vienna .... old Hans