eSATA and SATA controller Question

Planning a new build. External RAID looks desirable. I disabled my DVD drive in my current build because I needed more hard drive space.

BadSweetums wrote: Planning a new build. External RAID looks desirable. I disabled my DVD drive in my current build because I needed more hard drive space. AND, multiple eSATA RAID arrays means sata can be taken offline for secure storage and backups can be made quickly and conveniently. So, how can I determine which motherboards have eSATA/SATA ports that support the FIS Port multiplier protocol/standard? FIS-based (frame information structure) switching  I say eSATA and SATA because I also use eSATA adapters to convert onboard SATA ports into eSATA ports. I've been admiring the X99M series mainboards. But, the datasheets and manuals seem noticeably silent about port multiplier compatibility. Please reveal what I cannot find.

I'm not sure which datasheets and manuals you have been checking, but the best one for that for the Intel X99 chipset and its two SATA controllers, would be its datasheet:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/chipsets/x99-chipset-pch-datasheet.html

But I can tell you that searching this document for the term "port multiplier", provides these hits on pages 464 and 537:

The PCH SATA controller does not support Port Multipliers.

The PCH sSATA controller does not support Port Multipliers.

Every Intel PC chipset that I've checked has not supported port multipliers, when I've answered questions about this in the past, sorry to say.

You might have some luck researching the SATA chipsets used in Server mother boards. Here is the link to ASRock's Server/Workstation mother board products:

http://www.asrockrack.com/