eSATA is usually for external mobile HDDs. You can use internal SATA connector and a SATA-eSATA adaptor to hook up to external stuff.
You can also use PCIe card to have eSATA. Usually that kind of card can support RAID.
The adaptor is just pieces of metal wire, there will have no speed lose. HOWEVER, if the cable is too long, or connector is bad, the speed can be dropped or lost.
For MB SATA, it is not intend to drive cable, hence speed would have more influence by cable length. It would be much better by using PCIe card which should be able to drive long cable ... 50 inches?