What's the difference between an external enclosure with esata or sata?  Both cables are shielded.  I thought all external enclosures would use esata since that's what the "e" is for.  And where do you plug a sata cable to on your chassis if it's coming from an enclosure?  Like, on my Cosmos case, I have an esata connector on it, but the sata connectors or on the mobo.

AFAIK there is very little difference between eSATA and SATA300 (same bandwidth and transfer speed of 3000Mbit/300Mbit for both). The only significant difference I am aware of is that eSATA allows for a 2-meter cable, whereas SATA only allows a 1-meter connecting cable.

If I understand what you're asking, the external eSATA drive can be plugged into any SATA connector on your mobo backpanel.

Note: some older mobos will only boot off an external drive if it is plugged into specific SATA connectors (usually #1 and/or #2) so check your docs to see if you need to do that. On a mobo as new as yours, it shouldn't be necessary.

ACtually, what I'm asking is this:  Why does Granite Digital make a portable external SATA enclosure with a SATA cable?  Wouldn't it make more sense to use an eSATA cable?  Then there's the unit that I bought, which is an external enclosure for SATA drives, but with hot-swap trays, and this uses an eSata connector.  I don't see the reasoning behind the two, unless it's just random.

(edit)
Just got a call from Granite Digital (great customer service by the way).  The external enclosure I linked to above is the older model, which was made before esata came out.  Now that esata is out, the enclosure I got is basically the newer model, along with the hot-swap.  So, I'm happy to stay with my enclosure.  Also, even though there's no locking mechanism, i tried sliding the tray in with the drive and once it's in place, it's pretty sturdy, even if you hold it upside down and shake it a little, the drive won't come out.  So forget what I said before.  Besides, I don't plan on treating my drive like that.

I freaked out a little when putting the cpu fan on

been there.

I freaked out a little when putting the cpu fan on because the click sounds when the fan is in place were not as I expected.

Yeah, don't you just love that?

i put it on and off about 6 times.

Ummm... did it come with thermal grease or a thermal patch? Generally, taking your heatsink off is a bad idea if you don't reapply thermal material, but you can usually get away with it if it's thermal patch and the system is hasn't been powered on long enough for the thermal patch to melt.

It is important that you don't get any air bubbles in that layer of 'goo'.

If in any doubt before you switch on get a tube of ArcticSilver and some isopropyl alcohol and clean the processor and heatsink before applying fresh Arctic Silver (follow the instructions on their website).

well, i hooked everything up yesterday night and it works! 

No smoke?

Epic win SB! 

w00t!!!

Thanks.  I'll try to have a summary on my website soon.

superboyac: first of all, you should always press a "non-destructive" key like Ctrl or Alt when getting out of power-saving mode. Enter or Space are bad (and for DOS apps, just about any non-modifier key), since they tend to alter program state if there's a dialog or messagebox, or whatever.

As for whether you need power saving, it depends. TFT/LCD monitors are susceptible of burn-in, unfortunately. Mostly happens if you have pretty static images on the monitors for many hours a day (like the data-entry software we use at post.dk). I guess if you use your box for ~8hr/day and turn off your machine at night it isn't too big a risk, but I still personally prefer having power saving enabled.

Just remember to bring the monitors back by wriggling your mouse or hitting one of the modifier keys on the keyboard, and you should be OK

Why do you hate power saving mode?

One thing is that it saves your screen from burn-in, but it also reduces power consumption noticeably. Besides, preventing burn-in (and you'd want "blank" for that, not a slideshow or anything else!) is just one thing, but I expect that real power-saving mode also increases the lifetime of the back-light bulbs...

Weird, never had that issue with any system I've used/maintained (and that's a lot ).

System standby, on the other hand, is a darn can of worms though >_<

Laptops are one thing, but on a desktop, the only power saving feature I use is to turn off the monitor after 20 minutes. The screensaver is set to blank after 10 minutes.

If I'll be [away/sleeping/goofing-off] for more than an hour, I just do a shutdown.

I'm more inclined to go with "greener" technologies (such as lower-power CPUs etc.) if I'm going to get serious about energy savings. Especially since most of my stuff doesn't sit idle enough for long enough to benefit - and PSM still has problems despite its age. You'd think they'd have it fixed by now.


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And yes, as f0dder noted, you should use one due to the risk of possible screen burn.