Thread: price on external data raises; make cheap external drive from internal drive

In my country the government just approved to raise the tax on portable media such as usb-sticks, sd-cards, external harddrives. I wanted to share the fact that it won't be aplied on internal hard drives. But if you are not a big fan of internal, you could always use this new usb 3.0 to SATA connector from Unitek. a SATA Power-connector is integrated in the interface. This way a cheaper internal hard disk can simply be converted to an external hard disk. This could also be used when you don't have any free SATA ports on your motherboard or storage controller (NOTE: usb will be a bottleneck on your drive's topping speed)

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Thanks for info, i haven't heard about this usb 3.0 to SATA connector, it might be a very useful thing!!!

thanks this is useful

You can do this now, but it'll probably be usb2.0, so pretty slow

Originally Posted by Morganti

You can do this now, but it'll probably be usb2.0, so pretty slow

no, because it's called a 'usb 3.0 to SATA connector'; So it's USB 3.0;
except of course if you have an older computer morganti..

Freedom, dimka86: If you have nothing to say, but thank you, then there is a button. Or else it could look like spam..

This looks like it would be nice for a temporary thing, but if I was going to keep the drive externally I would buy an external enclosure so the bare drive isn't sitting out on the desk. It just seems like that is a bad idea. Plus you can get an enclosure with eSATA, which a lot more people have than USB3.

I think what Morganti was saying is that there are currently USB2 to SATA connectors available (and probably cheaper).

Originally Posted by nehpets

no, because it's called a 'usb 3.0 to SATA connector'; So it's USB 3.0;
except of course if you have an older computer morganti..

Freedom, dimka86: If you have nothing to say, but thank you, then there is a button. Or else it could look like spam..

nehpets I think you're a bit confused about USB3, only the very new motherboards like the p55 chipset intel motherboards have the NEC USB3 chip so unless you have a very new PC then you will not have USB3.

Esata is what most people will be using.

Originally Posted by Arnage

nehpets I think you're a bit confused about USB3, only the very new motherboards like the p55 chipset intel motherboards have the NEC USB3 chip so unless you have a very new PC then you will not have USB3.

Esata is what most people will be using.

Arnage, my GB P55A indeed has usb 3.0 :)
but it's true what you say about sata. Problem is the few amount of sata ports, and then you have to mess with sata controller-cards acting bottleneck (i know it's not much.. but only the idea :) )
When will they finaly release a 10+ sata ports on motherboards?

This is wonderful for a short term fix, or if your alternatives aren't very appealing. I could see myself doing this until I could afford another external. Hoping I don't fill up this 1.6TB I have though between the two Externals I have... at least for awhile.