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For my computer I am thinking to purchase one of these, which needs two SATA connectors, but I am concerned about not having enough SATA connections on my motherboard (I already have two HDDs and an SSD using the current SATA ports).

So I was thinking to purchase one of these PCI-express cards to get an extra SATA port (I need the 20-pin internal USB 3.0 port too for the Syba Drive Bay). But this pci card touts a PeSATA adapter, not a SATA port. From the photo it looks a lot like a regular SATA connector, but I can't find information on PeSATA.

Is PeSATA the same as SATA?

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    I've seen this referred to as eSATAp. Both of my laptops have such a port. It's basically a USB port but with a wider cutout that allows it to accept eSATA connections. See also superuser.com/questions/183543/…
    – bwDraco
    Mar 6, 2016 at 0:38

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It is "power over eSATA", or perhaps "eSATA with power". It's an eSATA port but with additional pins that supply power to the drive - which fixes an issue with eSATA that made USB 3.0 look a lot more attractive. Also known as eSATA-p and several other variations.

It hasn't seen wide adoption. It's been effectively replaced by USB 3.0.

Aside: I do have an older Dell laptop (E6520) that has an eSATA-P port. Dell made a "modular bay adapter" that would let you plug any of the devices that you'd normally put in the laptop's interchangeable drive bay (optical drive or additional hard drive) into this adapter, and then plug the adapter into the eSATA-P port. The laptop's docking station has an eSATA-P port also. AND the eSATA-P ports will accept USB 3.0 devices (that does not appear to be the case with the card you linked). All in all I really like this capability, but eSATA-P appears to be a dead end. Dell dropped the eSATA-P port from the Exx30 and later series.

As the product page you linked says,

PeSATA : This port can be connected as eSATA, PeSATA

Combine with our Power over ESATA cable ( not included in package ) , both 2.5" and 3.5 HDD can be supported without power supply from other sources.

BUT: That last claim ("without power supply...") is only true if your external drive is in an enclosure that also supports eSATAp. If the external drive just has an eSATA port it'll still need its own power source.

Since the mobile rack you want to buy is to be installed in your case, and is expected to be connected to internal SATA connectors, I don't think this card will do the job for you. It will only give you one more SATA port and you'd have to have a cable running from the card's external eSATA(p) port, somehow getting inside your case, and going to the back of the mobile rack.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESATAp

(But... I may buy one of those cards, so I can use drives in those Dell adapters with my desktop!)

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  • I have wanted one of those drive bays for a long time. So I can't plug a SATA cable into that PeSATA port then?
    – bgmCoder
    Mar 6, 2016 at 1:15
  • Maybe I can supply for the SATA cables with this: smile.amazon.com/HDE-Serial-Adapter-SIL3114-Cables/dp/…
    – bgmCoder
    Mar 6, 2016 at 1:22
  • You can plug a SATA cable into the PeSATA port, yes, but with the drive bay on the inside of your case (near the front) and the PeSATA port on the outside at the back, it's not what I'd call a clean setup. Re the HDE card, that's a RAID card. I would use a non-RAID card. Most RAID cards will work in JBOD mode, but you want to connect to an optical drive, and some won't do that. Non-RAID cards have a much greater tendency to "just work". Mar 6, 2016 at 1:35
  • Jamie, could you drop into Root Access to chat a bit? chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/118/root-access
    – bgmCoder
    Mar 6, 2016 at 1:41
  • And that first card: smile.amazon.com/SEDNA-Express-External-Internal-uPD720201/dp/… pci sata port usb 3.0 20 pin has also an internal SATA port
    – bgmCoder
    Mar 6, 2016 at 1:51

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