[Eug-lug] External SATA

[T. Joseph CARTER]

On Thu, Aug 05, 2004 at 04:03:39PM -0700, Garl Grigsby wrote:
> I am just now starting to dig into Firewire. I have found that the 
> Oxford 911 chipset (ide to firewire bridge) appears to be well 
> supported. Now I simply need to find a external case that uses this 
> chipset and a Firewire card that has solid Linux support.

http://www.pcmicrostore.com/CBC.aspx?q=b:1477;c:36232

These have the advantage of being dirt cheap, but not being too annoying
to work with.  I wouldn't put a 10 krpm drive in the Triumph Diamond combo
USB2 and Firewire enclosure mentioned on that page, given that I can tell
that the enclosure is touchably warm on a 7200 drive in my air-conditioned
room, but it's an enclosure for IDE drives, and I have yet to see 10 krpm
available in IDE.  Note, the enclosure in question is really small, but
only because the (proprietary!) power brick is external.  Still, for $35
and an Oxford 911, what do you want?  (You'll bleed for Oxford 922 and
Firewire 800..)

Now 10 krpm IS available in SATA, and if you have a more roomy enclosure,
that may be fine.  I really don't like the Highpoint e.SATA use of 4 to 6
firewire, but at least I know where to get the cables.  The claim made in
one review was that there was no standard and Highpoint seems to be
establishing the use of the firewire cable.  Bull.  I've seen alternative
enclosures that use this sort of thing from just about everyone else:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?DEPA=0&description=17-155-101&ATT=External+Enclosure&CMP=OTC-C173T

That looks to be a normal unpowered SATA cable to me.  Unless it were
simply an external power supply and passthrough, though, I see no reason
to buy any more devices which support IDE drives.  SATA is getting quite
affordable quickly.  =)