eSATA on the macbook possible?

[morrisman1]

I was thinking, i could do without my superdrive if i could somehow put one or two eSATA ports behind the slot so i could run high speed external harddrives.

This would easily be possible by making the slot slightly larger but then that would make the mod permanent and id probably break something!

Would there be a way to somehow fit an eSata port there, using the sata connection for the superdrive?

[r.j.s]

I think the Superdrive is PATA, not SATA - so you have no connection to use.

[smurfjammer]

You would have problems getting the connectors through the slot unless you made it huge!!!
If you need eSATA get a MacBook Pro with an express card.

[r.j.s]

Ok, which MB?

It appears that the Unibody is SATA, but the 2.2 SR you have listed is not.

[morrisman1]

im referring to the unibody. should have mentioned that

[r.j.s]

im referring to the unibody. should have mentioned that

Then it might be possible.

[ux4all]

Then it might be possible.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=582906&page=7 is what I used for swapping out my superdrive for another SSD. It is sata, (as far as I read) but it is a mini? connector.

Hope this helps.

[morrisman1]

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=582906&page=7 is what I used for swapping out my superdrive for another SSD. It is sata, (as far as I read) but it is a mini? connector.

Hope this helps.

sort of but it still doesnt mean i have the equivalent of an eSATA port. I have over 1TB stored on external harddrives and the speed of USB2 is painful.

Every time i buy a macbook i think to myself, Im going to make this one last me 4 years before i upgrade. I should do that because otherwise Im spending quite a lot on computers. Should be spending it on cars instead

[relativist]

One of the differences I noticed between my old white Macbook 2.4 and my new white Macbook 2.0 nVidia is that the DVD drive is on SATA. Also, there are kits for the unibody MB that allow one to take out the optical drive and put in a second hard drive.

[sporadicMotion]

If you hacked out a USB port to widen it and unsoldered the USB connection in it's place, you might be able to route a cable over. It would be a serious hack job though... you'd have to be damn careful and bye bye warranty.

[lixuelai]

I suggest either getting a MBP or running a Gigabit network.

[morrisman1]

I cant afford another mac at the moment. I am going to make my own small form desktop computer.

~Custom (retro looking) case but i wont go into details there.
~Intel Pentium dual core 1.8ghz
~gigabyte GA-G21M-ES2L motherboard
~1.5TB storage
~x3100 graphics (for now, once again $$$$ lol)

the total cost is going to be about NZ$450 which includes $60 for the case.

The advantages here is i can put a USB 3.0 card in the pci-e slot when they become cheap and common, i can expand the graphics, use cheap DDR2 ram.

Oh, forgot to mention another advantages, people are reporting that this motherboard works perfectly with Hackintosh, and same for the cpu because its just a core 2 duo with a little less L2 cache.