is going to involve enough converter cables and adapter dongles to make even Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg cringe. But I believe that the only way a PATA drive could be connected via a Thermaltake BlacX. Unfortunately, this is still not a solution to the original question. This strikes me as a possibly useful tool so I'm throwing it out now as a FWIW suggestion. At this point the PATA drive should power up and be recognized on the SATA port of the host computer connected to the panel. Connect a PATA drive to the panel using a PATA cable and a 15 pin SATA to 4 pin molex power adapter cable.What makes it (possibly) more useful than your typical converter dongle is the power switch. The controller obviously contains a PATA to SATA adapter chipset. VIZO Master Panel 5.25" front panel, MTP-101 However, I recently came across this front panel product which allows connecting an external PATA drive to a SATA host. Thermaltake also adds 2.5in and 3.5in 'silicon jackets'' but we can't see the long-term benefit if you're changing drives regularly.I still do not know of any way to use a PATA drive with a SATA host other than to use a PATA to SATA converter/adapter of some kind. Here's the enclosure stuffed with an SSD and 3.5in drive. The BlacX Duet 5G features drive hot-swapping, meaning you can chop and change drives while still connected to the host PC - on Mac and Windows - and having two in one enclosure is tidier than running two sets of power and USB cables. Included in the package is an uprated power adapter, now capable of delivering 36W, and a metre-long USB 3.0 cable, which is backward-compatible with USB 2.0 ports for older PCs. Heavier 3.5in mechanical drives fit in snugly and Thermaltake includes two eject buttons on the right-hand side - picking up the unit with a 3.5in drive in situ lifts it clear off the desk, hence the need for an eject button. Supporting all regular SATA-equipped drives - SATA I/II/III, 2.5in and 3.5in - in all capacities, the unit feels well-built despite the over-reliance of plastic. Inside, a SATA-to-USB 3.0 bridge-chip does the necessary conversion duties, though Thermaltake wouldn't divulge the ASIC manufacturer. Underneath the two covers - where you simply push the drive(s) into - are standard SATA power and data connectors, and the cover cutout is designed for 2.5in drives. The subtle lighting is carried over to the superspeed name. The plastic dock now has a revised power/activity button that lights up blue when there's power and access. Prosaically titled the BlacX Duet 5G, the £50 caddy enables USB 3.0-connected access to two drives at the same time.Īside from the obvious inclusion of a second bay there's not much changed here. Now, though, Thermaltake extends the usefulness of that dock by incorporating a model with a second drive-bay. Thermaltake has an array of USB 3.0-armed caddies and perhaps the simplest to use is the open-top BlacX 5G, currently retailing for around £35. Grab a caddy, throw in a mechanical or solid-state disc, and the innate throughput of the drive should be the bottleneck, not the interface. With a theoretical throughput of 5Gbps tempered by a real-world transfer speed of a still-excellent 400MB/s, USB 3.0's intrinsic bandwidth should enable external storage to function much like a SATA-connected drive. Widespread motherboard adoption of USB 3.0 paves the way for a multitude of external docks and caddies touting the super-speedy interface.
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