I went looking for eSata pcie cards, but i found 3 different types & and unsure of which to use.

http://www.usb-ware.com/siig-esata-...
There is this one which has two esata ports and fits in a pcix1 slot. However there is no visible connector on the board to link it to a sata port. Does this mean all data is handled by the pcix1 slot?

http://www.cooldrives.com/ss42chesr...
And this one which has 4 esata ports, and two internal ports??

http://www.computervideogear.com/sa...
And this one is the one i think i should be buying?

Im confused as to how they operate. I need one to operate a bunch of hdd's that are all connected to this sata hub http://www.cooldrives.com/sahub5muu...

I would suggest you speak with someone at tech support for that device and find out what card shoulld be used. Seems like you wouldn't want to use two or more eSATA ports on the card and then split even further.

If you don't mind my asking, why do you need so many external SATA drives?

I did email, but its been 5 days and no reply yet. Also, I like posting same Qs on different forums to get the most coverage of diverse answers.

Anyway, the setup is basically,

5 interal sata HDD's that are setup externally. Connected to the sata hub with sata-esata cables. Then one esata-esata cable from hub to an add-on card. The two esata ports would be for further expansion, when/if I go to a second sata hub.

Reason for drives is that I burn all my CD's as wavs, i keep all the good animes I watch, burned DVD collection, etc etc And i've hit my limit so far.

I would question wheather you want to buy that hardware if they don't respond before you buy, what kind of support will you get later.

I am not sure about this but I would guess that just as USB ports have limited bandwidth so does any SATA port. When you use a hub you are sharing that bandwidth. That means performance will suffer. I would imagine someone must make hot swap caddies for SATA drives. Seems like that would be a better way to go.

Very expensive... a 5 hdd case with pm built in cost $500. My home made case consists of two Silverstone Bay Convertors, @$50 each, and old psu @ free, nice piece of plexi for base @$40 and currently two sata-usb2 cables from usbgeek.com @$20each.

Total so far is $180. If I can understand how the esata card is setup/works, Ill go buy it and the sata hub, which should cost no more then $200, giving me a total of $380.

Is there a need to access ALL the drive at the same time. Seems like you are using them to store files. A single bay hot swap internal should be enough. Look at the link below to see what I mean.

http://www.startech.com/Product/Ite...

Sometimes yes, whhen transferring data between the array. But that hotswap still needs a housing right?

I think it goes into your case, in a 5.25 drive bay. Ifyou have a full tower you probably have a couple of open 5.25 bays.

ok, thanks