how to hook esata port on my case?

[mcucs]

my rig:

case: (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119194&cm_re=coolermaster_storm_sniper-_-11-119-194-_-Product) coolermaster storm sniper
motherboard: (http://www.gigabyte.us/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=3456&ProductName=GA-X58A-UD3R) gigabyte ga-x58a-ud3r
power supply: corsair hx series cmpsu 750 watt
processor: intel core i7 930
cpu cooler: coolermaster v8
ram: corsair dominators 6gb ddr3 1600 (pc3 12800)
hard drive: (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533&cm_re=western_digital_caviar_black-_-22-136-533-_-Product) westerndigital caviar black 1tb
gpu: HIS radeon hd 5850 h585f1gd
tv tuner card: hauppauge win-tv-hvr-2250
optic drive: lite on 24xdvd-rw
operating system: windows 7 home premium @64bit
(note: system built 2 months ago with all the great help on this site)


so im looking to purchase a external hard drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822204079&cm_re=esata_external_hard_drive-_-22-204-079-_-Product) to record t.v. from my home and then watch at my cabin. (with a 60 foot tree canapoy satelite tv is inpractable leaving me with only my antenna).

so here is my question???

my case provides an esata port on the front of the case.
my motherboard provides 2 external esata connections on the rear panel but none internally.
so what are my options for hooking up the esata port on the front of the case?


i can see 3 answers, all of witch i dont like

1 simply route the esata cable from my case out of the case to the rear esata connection on the motherboard.
2 purchase an esata expansion card and leave the back panel expansion slot inside of the computer
3 purchase a sata to esata cable..... however with esata being hot-swapable i dont like this option at all

any other options would be greatly appreciated...... thanks in advance...

[The Wise Monkey]

This may be a strange question, but why not just plug the HD into the back of the case?

[mcucs]

for simple convience...

i will be moving it between my house and cabin a lot......


also sorry for posting here.dint see i was in with software untill i posted

[The Wise Monkey]

No worries - I've moved it to the correct place.

What I meant was having a spare eSATA cable plugged into the back of your PC at all times. Then, you could just plug the HD in here as and when you needed it. I was looking on newegg for a male to female eSATA extender cable, but there don't seem to be any, which is kind of strange.

Just thinking about it, and you may want to verify this, but I think that SATA is hot-swappable if you enable the AHCI features in the BIOS, so using a converter cable would still be a feasible idea. I'm not 100% about this, but I'm sure a quick google could give you a proper answer. :)

[mcucs]

thanks for the move wise monkey....

my research has lead me to believe that sata is hot-swapable....specs can be found here. (http://www.intel.com/technology/serialata/ahci.htm)

however,it seems that even though its in the specification its up to the specific manufactures of your hardware to implement it.......for sure the drive and possibly the mobo.

so i think ill take your advice and leave an esata cable attached to my motherboard backpanel and simply route to my desktop for when i need it......