David123 If you get an eSATA card you may want to make sure you get one that has a port multiplier. This allows the eSATA card to recognize drive enclosures/docking stations that may have more than one storage drive connected on the same cable. Without it, you can’t access disks within the same enclosure at the same time.
Not all eSATA cards or chipsets support port multipliers. Even if the enclosure supports it, your host controller (the eSATA card or motherboard port) must explicitly support SATA Port Multiplier (PM) functionality. Without it, only the first drive in the chain will be visible to your system.
If you’re shopping for a card, look for ones that mention “Port Multiplier support” or list chipsets like Silicon Image SIL3132 or JMicron JMB575, which are known to support it.
A card that supports PM very well is the one mentioned by @Octavean. 👍🏻
Although the internal SATA ports aren’t necessary, they may come in handy.
