On 3/7/2019 8:28 PM, Paul wrote:
Bill in Co wrote:

That is one weird looking connector.Â* It will be interesting to see if
this ever becomes mainstream.Â* I think I'd prefer separate connectors,
but maybe I'm being conservative and old fashioned.Â* I think the eSata
ones were a bit (slightly) flimsy at it is, however.

The original ESATA intention was metal to metal contact
and a 5000 cycle rating. The same rating as USB metal connectors.

The internal SATA connector system, is plastic and
the rating is 50 cycles. Although my tests in the
Test machine (swapping drives all the time), is now
many times over that figure. Those connector ratings
are probably a "guaranteed minimum", but I don't know
what "mis-mated" conditions they apply to test that
out.

The usage of metal barrels or surfaces for capture,
makes a big difference to the spec number.

Â*Â* Paul

Reliability is an issue, but I think the driving force was
EMC compatibility. The ESATA contact arrangement is the
same as SATA, but the shape of the plastic prevents plugging it in.
The ESATA cable has better shielding and is approved for use outside
the case.

The electrical characteristics of the internal SATA cable may differ
from the external ESATA.
ON this Optiplex 780, I can read/write a drive via the ESATA port,
but I have not been able to boot windows from it.

It is possible to snake a SATA cable outside the box and use it with
an external power supply. I'd caution against doing that. It violates
EMC regulations, but more importantly, it is vulnerable to static zap.

I haven't found ESATA to be particularly fast compared to USB3, but
that may be because of old motherboard and hard drives.
ESATA is a pain to disconnect. USB just requires clicking on 'eject'.

A complete packaged external solution that stays connected works OK.