ESATA PCI controllers

eSATA

— presence of at least one eSATA connector on the rear panel of the controller.

eSATA is a specialized interface for connecting external storage devices, mainly hard drives. Some time ago, it was quite popular, as it provided good speed (up to 2.4 Gbps — 5 times higher than USB 2.0) and at the same time left free USB ports that might be needed for other peripherals. However, nowadays, eSATA connectors and devices for them are gradually falling into disuse, being replaced by more modern interfaces — both various variations of USB (including USB-C), and other standards, such as Thunderbolt.