Long eSATA Cable?

Question

Level 1

15 points

Long eSATA Cable?

I'd like to use the longest eSATA cables possible, to keep my noisy enclosures as far away from me as possible.
Anybody know the maximum safe length? I know length is a performance issue with eSATA.

I see that CablesToGo has a 6.5 foot one.
- Ted.

Mac Pro 2.66Ghz, MacBook Core 2, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Nov 5, 2007 10:54 PM

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Answer 1

Fortuny

Level 7

21,461 points

Nov 6, 2007 12:42 AM in response to Ted Starr

Hi Ted,

according to this Whitepaper from the SATA-IO http://www.sata-io.org/docs/External%20SATA%20WP%2011-09.pdf the cable length for eSATA is 2 meters (for internal SATA 1 meter).

Regards

Stefan

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Answer 2

Ted Starr Author

Level 1

15 points

Nov 6, 2007 2:26 AM in response to Fortuny

Great Stefan. Thanks.
Just the answer I needed.
- Ted.

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Answer 3

mbean

Level 4

1,250 points

Nov 7, 2007 3:37 PM in response to Ted Starr

Unfortunately, a stock answer of two meters will not always work. The SATA II spec provides for two meters but many cards and enclosures do not support that distance. If you open the SATA enclosure and find they have 8-11" SATA cables running from the back of the hard drive to the internal SATA mounting, you will need to take that distance off of the 2 meter cable specification.

That means users might end up with a maximum usable length of a little over a meter for the SATA cable. The longer the cable, the more possible problems will occur.

I would suggest you consider a quiet eSATA enclosure for noise sensitive environments. The FirmTek enclosures are very quiet and they include a direct backplane mounting that requires no extra internal SATA cables. You can read more about them here:

http://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata2en2.html
http://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata2een4.html

FirmTek is running a promotion of 15% off for user groups. You might email them at support@firmtek.com and see if they have any promotions that you take advantage of.

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Answer 4

Ted Starr Author

Level 1

15 points

Nov 7, 2007 3:45 PM in response to mbean

thanks for the reply mbean
I am using 3 Firmetk 2/EN2 enclosures, but perhaps I should lower the fan speed to make them quieter.
I installed Leopard on a boot volume last night and noticed SATA 2 really comes alive on the Mac Pro with the OS upgrade. Some of my hard drives that I thought were slow seem to be faster now with Leopard.

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Answer 5

mbean

Level 4

1,250 points

Nov 7, 2007 3:53 PM in response to Ted Starr

The 3-switch fan setting on the SeriTek/2EN2 is an awesome feature. Mine are whisper quiet in the low fan mode. The other nice thing about these enclosures is that since they have a direct backplane mounting design users can enjoy a full 2 meter SATA cable length.

As far as Leopard making your hard drives faster that may be a wishful thinking 😉

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Answer 6

Ted Starr Author

Level 1

15 points

Nov 7, 2007 4:01 PM in response to mbean

I really lucked out. I bought 2 of my Firmteks on eBay for $100 each. Was surprised when they popped up for such a good deal, a photographer decided to switch to using a MacBook Pro.
I agree about the great build quality of these enclosures. I think using 2 EN/2's is better than owning one 4 bay enclosure because they'll run cooler, and the footprint of the 2 EN/2 is MUCH smaller than Firmtek's 4 bay model.

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