Connecting eSATA to old PC

[Nismo]

I have an older PC with Vista on it that only has PCI/AGP/SATA1.5 ports on the abit AI7MB. Both SATA are filled up and I'd like to add an external aSATA drive. What the best way to add a drive? Get a PCI SATA card or do they make a PCI eSATA card?

Also, with PCI, would I see the 300mb/s tranfer rates that eSATA can offer?

 

[450]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132007
PCI eSATA card

Don't know how good it is, but newegg reviewers seem to like it.

 

[Nismo]

Wondering about speed through regular PCI buss... Hmmm. Might be faster if I used USB 2.0?

 

[xenotype]

Wondering about speed through regular PCI buss... Hmmm. Might be faster if I used USB 2.0?

Nope. eSATA, even over PCI (1,067 Mb/s), wallops the 480 Mb/sec that USB 2.0 offers. Even assuming that this is running in 1st gen sata (1.5Gb/sec).

Those are bits/sec.

Great page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_device_bandwidths

 

[Nismo]

That really is a nice page. Good info.

 

[criccio]

I love that page xenotype, been using it for awhile. Great resource.