The computer is an Xi3 X7A/Piston. I made a longer video about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9ZCjMtthqYI could be 10000% wrong about this but I T...
You can add these ports to a PC. With help from the motherboard and power supply, they’ll support both USB and eSATA, including mechanical drives that need 12V power.
eSATA seemed like it had potential but I can’t say I ever actually used it. I remember those ports, though. Might have a motherboard kicking around in storage with one.
There was a brief period of time where eSATA was starting to show up and there were never enough USB 3 ports. eSATA would have been kind of handy but I’ve never used it either.
Not actually a terrible idea, even if it frequently was limited to powering 2.5" drives due to a lack of 12V. Some had extra contacts for that, but most that I saw didn’t.
This reminds me of the e-SATA port that was also a USB port.
eSATAp. (The p is for power!)
You can add these ports to a PC. With help from the motherboard and power supply, they’ll support both USB and eSATA, including mechanical drives that need 12V power.
https://www.newegg.ca/en-labs-model-11-001-405/p/17Z-00AT-00001
With the right cable, you can plug bare drives into them, which is convenient for backups, imaging, etc.
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=8492
eSATA seemed like it had potential but I can’t say I ever actually used it. I remember those ports, though. Might have a motherboard kicking around in storage with one.
There was a brief period of time where eSATA was starting to show up and there were never enough USB 3 ports. eSATA would have been kind of handy but I’ve never used it either.
I actually just bought a PCIe eSATA card to use with a 4 bay HDD enclosure. The ports kinda suck though
eSATAp! What a wild combination.
Not actually a terrible idea, even if it frequently was limited to powering 2.5" drives due to a lack of 12V. Some had extra contacts for that, but most that I saw didn’t.