eSATA Port Multiplier in HP N54L...

Is it possible that there is some difference between the N54L and N40L? I don't have my JBOD enclosure yet to test.

Ah.. Didn't realise it was the same board. Probably not then.

Glad you got it working I'll make sure I duplicate the settings in my BIOS.

@edwardwong out of interest, what board is your C2550 sat on? It wouldn't be an ASRock would it? Like the C2550D4I?

Edit:
@ftriscari none of the ports on the N54L are USB3, as you mentioned- you need to add a card. I would probably choose the stability of eSATA over USB3 any day and being that there is a port, most users would probably not need to purchase. YMMV, But as I mentioned a few posts back, a couple of the JMicron chipsets had issues. This was mainly related to the USB3 (but I did hear it was also eSATA) - this is probably a moot point now as it looks like it's been fixed. I guess then, it boils down to preference. At the end of the day, whatever you choose, you'll still be limited by the PCI bus which I don't think will allow full USB3 speeds anyway.

Edit2: and don't forget.. You could also purchase a naff USB3 chipset

I thought it might have been. I'm having serious thoughts on the C2750D4I in a Silverstone DS380 >:-D it would make a nice upgrade. I wasn't going to change right now but... I'm a big of a tech and gadget magpie. I see shiny things and I usually end up buying them.

Yeah I got mine pretty cheap. I paid about £130 for it but HP had some insane cash back offer so it was less than half that, I don't remember the exact price but it was cheap.

Doesn't look like I can get that Asus board easily, but to be honest -

// Get on soap box

I HATE strongly dislike Asus. They are the most unprofessional company to deal with and you'll burn money buying their crap. Their warranty procedure and idiot outsourced repair centres are useless and they misdiagnosed issues and incorrectly referred to parts by the wrong names e.g they called a stick of RAM a memory card! (I actually reported this to Asus HQ and they tried to correct me stating that it was indeed a memory card!!). I don't know anyone in the industry that calls RAM, Memory cards. Their tech support have no idea what they are talking about and are never able to fix problems. Every single Asus product I have owned has developed a fault (with the exception of the Nexus 7 2nd gen) - their build quality is poor and their firmware is BUGGY. I had a G73JH that developed a fault, bought a G73SW and it was riddled with bugs including a bios brick bug which they never fixed (and still refuse to) whereby the EZ-FLASH utility will brick the board if you flash from NTFS- this is utterly diabolical and totally unacceptable. I know people who have had to fork out hundreds for new mobos because of this! The G73SW also has terrible DSDT code and a hideously implemented backlit keyboard and a crappy subwoofer implementation that never worked even with their own drivers. I had a router which failed after a year (N66U), then another (RT-AC68U) poor performance sent back to Amazon then finally their RT-AC87U recently and again: poor performance and no help or resolution from their tech support - Amazon comments reflect their awful service - I sent it back.

At the end of the day these are just my opinions and personal experiences and others may have had the exact opposite but I would HIGHLY recommend that anyone considering an Asus product make sure they test it thoroughly and keep a damn good eye on it - PRAY you don't have to deal with their tech support or repair centres! They lure you in with great pricing and impressive spec on paper and that is where the good things end. I may revisit in the future, but I'll keep my receipt handy and put everything I get through its paces within 28 days with a scrutinising eye

// Get off soap box

I guess that shows that it really is a case of YMMV.

The N66U I had was good until it died. The others weren't great. I had poor ping times and dropped connections from the 68 and 87 even with dd-wrt on them. The 87s dd-wrt was beta, but even stock was awful. Recently I've taken to just eliminating the consumer routers altogether. The modem connects to a box running pfsense then to a switch with a wifi AP. This way also suits me better from a modular upgradability point of view.

I've never had just an Asus board, but like I mentioned, the laptops were problematic. Maybe the custom firmware HP/Compaq blew in was cleaner.

Just for a chuckle:

Sadly, apart from the 'memory card' being defective, they also don't seem to be able to make up their mind what the original size was. Also, the sub still didn't work when it got back - the repair centre replaced a 'working' unit because they couldn't get the drivers working either, so assumed it was broken. Also, the memory was authorised - it was changed by their only official UK reseller at point of sale. I forwarded this email to Asus when I complained and they referred to the RAM as a memory card themselves. I was shocked. :-/

[sorry that this has all been hideously off topic, but when it comes to negative hardware experiences, I feel duty bound to inform others]

My Nexus 7 has been nothing but great. But I feel that this may be down to Google breathing down their neck to make sure the QC was in order. Stock Android has rarely caused me issues. I may try one of their boards.. But I will never buy one of their routers or laptops again.