2nd Hard Drive recommendations

[AmigaDave]

It looks like the newer Fractal Design cases, including the one used for my June 1200 X1000, has a USB3 socket instead of an eSATA socket. On my machine I don't think the USB3 socket is connected to anything (haven't checked) but the other two ports are.

To tell the truth, I am not sure what an eSATA port looks like, as I have never used one. So, my X1000 case might also have the same USB3 port that yours has, which is not connected to anything yet.

It does look like an USB port and a regular USB cable connector can fit into the port, but the port has a different colored center section, so maybe mine is the same as yours and I mistakenly assumed I had the same eSATA port that another user mentioned he has on his X1000 case next to the two USB2.0 ports on the top, front of the case?

I originally thought it was a USB3.0 port until I read a post from another X1000 owner who called it an eSATA port, so I just played along with what he wrote. What ever it is, it is not hooked up to anything now, so it does not matter much.

Let me know if you notice a much longer boot time after you obtain all the power cables you need to connect more hard drives to your Nemo2, X1000 motherboard. Like I wrote earlier, after connecting my empty 2nd SATA hard drive to both power and data cables in my X1000, my boot time to the OS4.1.5 Workbench is several minutes now, and probably 2 to 3 times longer than it was before I connected the 2nd hard drive. Now I turn it on and walk away to do something else while I am waiting for Workbench to be usable.

[mbrantley]

If the port has blue insides it is USB3. I'm guessing at some point Fractal Design started supplying the cases this way. An eSATA socket looks different.

[nbache]

It looks like the newer Fractal Design cases, including the one used for my June 1200 X1000, has a USB3 socket instead of an eSATA socket.

I originally thought it was a USB3.0 port until I read a post from another X1000 owner who called it an eSATA port, so I just played along with what he wrote.

That was me, I think. I wasn't aware they changed it to USB.

Here's a picture of the top front of my X1000/Fractal case.

Best regards,

Niels

Fractal-X1000-front.jpg

Taken from above

(136.4 KiB) Downloaded 1962 times

[LyleHaze]

Here is the USB3 version..

case.jpg

USB3 on a X-case

(31.19 KiB) Downloaded 1954 times

I understand you can get a retrofit kit with ALL USB3 connectors now.

[ggw]

So my X1000 has the "blue" connector, hence is a USB3. What good is that to us? We don't have USB3, correct?

I am getting a drive to serve as the "LINUX" drive.

When I open my X1000 front door, there is a removable louver at the top below the DVD. There appears to be a slot behind the knock out plastic, no?

Maybe, with front door access, I can put a removable, hot pluggable (though I don't expect to require that feature), case in there. That way I could, have two drives for it. 1 for my Amiga Backup and the other be my LInux installation.

Is that slot useable?

Someone suggested getting a PATA (old style) because I could accommodate a wider variety of computers to mount it (them) on (if I moved it anywhere else).

Someone else suggested getting whatever is cheapest when I go "the store"; SATA or PATA.

Above in this thread it has been suggested that I buy the "cable"s necessary for SATA because whatever is inside my case won't be long enough. True?

Are ALL of these things true?

Looking forward to replies!

George

[LyleHaze]

Wow, quite a few questions all at once.

Regarding adding a drive, if you don't need the "removable" feature then you might just put your additional drives inside the case.
This is cheaper, it leaves the blank spot in front clear for other possibilities.

You have 4 SATA ports on board, and two are currently in use. (HD and DVD drive), so there should be two open SATA ports on board, PLUS an older "IDE/PATA" connector that will support two older drives. You'll find PLENTY of empty internal bays for mounting drives.

To add drives internally, you'll need a SATA or PATA cable. The power connections and mounting screws are already there.
If you are bringing over an existing drive from a classic Amiga, you might want to uncheck "bootable" BEFORE you pull it from the other machine.

SATA uses one drive per cable, Some people prefer to get cables with retaining clips to prevent them coming loose.
Pata can mount two drives on a single cable. Cable should be the 80 conductor type (not 40).

You can get a swappable drive bay if you'd like, but with all the available space and interfaces inside, I personally think that it's easier to just add them inside.

Have Fun.

[ggw]

*backup* drive.

I don't want to take the side panel off every time I make a backup. In case of a fire or theft a backup left in the machine won't help.

In that case a removable drive is convenient. Now then, with the backup drive removed I have an empty slot. That is why I thought to buy a 2nd drive and use it for the Linux drive.

[LyleHaze]

Sorry about the confusion.

Yes, you can install a removable drive bay into empty bay under the CDROM drive.

One other option is to use FTP to another machine in your network. I have a
USB drive attached to my router for that purpose also.

Have Fun!
Lyle

[salass00]

So my X1000 has the "blue" connector, hence is a USB3. What good is that to us? We don't have USB3, correct?

Sirion with USB 3.0 support was already shown at Pianeta Amiga 2012 (see this thread on amigans.net f.e.). It's just not been released yet (i.e. still being worked on/beta tested).

If the X1000 doesn't have headers on the motherboard to connect the front USB3 ports to you might be able to get a USB3 PCI-E card that you can connect them to instead.

[ggw]

@salass00

Thanks. That was an interesting post. Sirion is not very well known to the world at large.