Roll Your Own SATA Page 4

 You should be feeling pretty good by now. You are on the home stretch and it sure looks like the job was a bunch easier than you ever expected. After taking a break to enjoy the view of this high tech marvel you have just about finished, it’s time to get back to work. Let’s hook up the cables and brackets to the backplane of the enclosure. You’ll have to remove all the Centronics knockouts. Remove one screw from the first cable connector plate and slip it into place. Continue until all cables are attached.

  Those spectacular Shielded External Cables and Internal Chassis Mount SATA cables are the most secure connection we have found to date. The extra shielding is necessary to prevent electromagnetic interference. Use them with the knowledge you have the best.

 I like to use a Magic marker and label the cables bottom to top 1 through 4 on the backplane so if I ever have to troubleshoot it I’ll know which cable goes to which drive.

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 Reinstall the outside case cover and you are finished. This enclosure is now ready to hook the cables to your SATA host card(s) and let ’er rip.  As SATA host cards mature and we start to see those external port and Hardware RAID versions ship for the Mac, these enclosures will fit the bill. The MacGurus Burly enclosures are not fancy, but you can stand on them and they won’t break. The power supplies are beefy and the all steel construction makes them that rare throwback to when your computers were built to last. Not like the plastic stuff today that gets scratched pulling it out of its shipping carton and has parts breaking off just from trying to get them open.  Snap the front covers in, button up the lid and you’re done!

Enjoy the power, after all, you built it!