I bought a Seagate Free Agent Pro external HD. I connected it to my desktop by a USB port. I see that if you can connect with eSATA the transfer rate is much faster. How can I find out if my desktop supports eSATA. If it does what type of cable must I buy.

Thanks.

BAD

Dell XPS 410
Intel Core 2 940 Duo Processor E6400
Windows Vista Ultimate
2GB DDR2 SDRAM
Dual 17-inch Ultra sharp Flat Panel
ATI Radeon X1300 ro 256MB
Serial ATA RAID 0 with Dual 250GB HD
Sony DVD-ROM and DVD-RW

Unless you post your motherboard specs, I don't know. eSATA ports are present in the rear panel of some high-quality motherboards.

eSATA is basically an External Serial ATA port that competes directly with USB 2.0 and Firewire 400 in terms of transfer speed. Unlike Firewire and USB, eSATA requires its own power connection. The speed difference is tremendous however.