Sata drives

[Lex]

What's this about, just the power supply connections, or is it about how you connect to the mother board as well?

I just put a new power supply in, and it has a place for sata connections it seems. But do motherboards have to have special consideration for this, or is this just about power?

It looks like I am going to have to reload windows, if that's the case, I am going to upgrade the hard drive as well, there's no reason not to as it may be messed up anyway, we'll see. I'm planning a major upgrade to 400-500 gig.

But I need to know about this Sata deal.

Thanks,
Doug

[Kevin P]

SATA uses a different type of connector to both the motherboard/host adapter and for power. So to add SATA drives to your existing system, you'd have to get a SATA interface card, or a mobo with SATA built-in. Newer PSUs have SATA power connectors as you discovered, but if you need SATA power you can get it from a regular molex connector with a cheap adapter.

SATA = Serial ATA. The regular IDE/ATAPI drives with the familiar ribbon cables are Parallel ATA. SATA is newer and offers higher speeds with newer hardware. Also the cables are more compact, meaning better airflow in your case and quicker hook-up.

Here's a pic of my original Phantom Stalker innards, the SATA cables are the red cables in the lower left:



And here's a pic of a SATA drive connected to a PC that lacked SATA interface. The blue cables are SATA cables. You can see the power adapter cable as well, it's the multi-colored cable going to the drive.

[aud19]

What he said

[aud19]

Saaaaay....

Seen as how you'd need a new mobo (or adapter card :roll: )...I say we put together a whole new system for ya!!! Huh?!?! :P :B

[Lex]

Thank you Jason for the detailed explanation.

Kevin, thanks for repeating what Jason said. LOL. I asked in 2 places, here and at my photog place I visit, and I have to say, Jason's answer was best...

[aud19]

:lol: :

[Chris D]

"Trevor Trouncer". Heh... good memories.

[Lex]

say, I am not going to run into any weird things like Windows 2000 not being compatible with SATA drives, am I? I purchased 2 seagate drives tonight that are Serial ATA, at least I think that's right isn't it? I also got a card adapter. The Seagates were on sale at 180 bucks, and I got 12% off that. That's pretty tough to beat for 400 freakin gigabytes. What's that 164 or something a drive? Wow.

[Kevin P]

As long as the card comes with W2K drivers you should be golden. And yes, SATA == Serial ATA.

I hope that was $180 ($164) total for both drives, not each drive... 200 GB SATA drives (Seagates) run around $80 a pop on Newegg.com.

[Lex]

well, uh, no 165 a drive for 400 gig man, you can't buy 400 gig in any drive for 80 bucks! I don't think so at all Kevin, but I'll look before I open.

Maybe you are thinking of a smaller size drive?

I don't know what the card comes with, it's in that god forsaken plastic packaging.

[Azeke]

Yes, that's a good price for a 400G SATA Drive. I was contemplating a SATA upgrade, but I would have to a controller card, not really worth it. I'll just wait and buy a new machine, with the New Intel Itanium 2 Processor, for 64 bit computing, or not .

I agree with Kevin (like he needs me too ) you should be fine. However, I would download the latest Win2k driver, if available, usually the ones that come in the box are not the latest drivers.

Jason you're just a plethora of knowledge .

Peace and blessings,

Azeke

[Kevin P]

Ahh.. I know you said 400 gigs, but I thought that was total (200 GB x 2). I didn't realize you bought 2 400 gig drives. You done good. What are you going to do with all that space?

[aud19]

Yes, that's a good price for a 400G SATA Drive. I was contemplating a SATA upgrade, but I would have to a controller card, not really worth it. I'll just wait and buy a new machine, with the New Intel Itanium 2 Processor, for 64 bit computing, or not .

Jason you're just a plethora of knowledge .

Peace and blessings,

Azeke

You want AMD Azeke :T Not that Intel stuff :gah:

As for your last point there, I totally agree 8) :B

Doug, I agree check on line to get the most current drivers for the adapter card before you install

What the heck you doing with all that space....? Music server connected to the HT!??!? :P

[Vinny]

Newegg has the new Cuda 10 320gb @ $94. Good price for getting those in as they were 104 for weeks and now they have sales over weekend(for that extra $10, but still :W )

Intel has new core coming up and price adjustment on the incoming 24th too :B
Hopefully it'll have impact on the laptop too as I'm getting one :B

[PewterTA]

Just remember all you *new* SATA users, do NOT connect the SATA power supply and the normal 4 pin power supply if the drive has both connections... You'll kill your drive, though most new drives don't have both connectors on them anymore.

I've got a few of these drives (4) and they are amazingly quick and hold tons of stuff (5 year warranty is nice also)!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144424

[aud19]

I'd stick to Seagate and Samsung myself. There a pinch slower generally but they're quite and very reliable.

[Kevin P]

I'd stick to Seagate and Samsung myself. There a pinch slower generally but they're quite and very reliable.

:agree: I've used Samsungs in both my Phantom Stalker boxes and they're very quiet. I put a Seagate in my new Linux box too, and it's also very quiet plus it has a 5 year warranty.

[Lex]

Photos man, at 10.2 and 12.2 megapixels and shooting JPG and RAW combined, these things eat a ton of space.

Well, I had a rethinking. I rethought whether this SATA thing would work out well for my old dual CPU motherboard.

I decided to load up my Operating system on my 2nd 120 gig drive, then do a fdisc, full scan of the "bad drive" or at least try to access my stuff on it first. Then I bought a second 250 gig IDE drive as my data drive, and a 500 gig Ebook drive for backup.

So, I'll have 370 space online, then 500 backup for that and notebooks. We'll see how this all shakes out as I try to get winders' reloaded.

First problem was, it seems my Yammy CD/writer has crapped out, the lights on, but nobody seems to be at home.

Got a Sony CD/DVD writer to install, then I'll try to get W2K loaded on the old drive maybe, or I may pop in the new 250, we'll see...

[David Meek]

Kevin, I LIKE that Newegg site. There's a Seagate Barracuda 750GB (yes 750) SATA for $399 on the first page. 8O

[Lex]

I had so many troubles with my install today that I am real glad that I didn't try the SATA combination, as much trouble as I had with IDE today, I can only imagine what would have occured if I'd try to blend SATA with IDE. I mean, it was ugly. Not sure if it was because I was sick anyway, or if it was because of lack of doing this for a long time, I dunno. But I had trouble from the get go getting my drives recognized, and so on.

I finally did get a 250 gig Western Digital installed, and reloaded from a June 6 complete backup using Norton Ghost. Thank goodness I had that file. I'll address whether anything is salvagable on the drive, but since my best photos were kept on my 2 gig compact flash to reload to the drive, I am not sure I'd loose sleep over a month of email and other general stuff.

Actually, I have both drives configured to boot now by changing the drive configuration, (happened by accident really)

So, I have a 250, a 120, and a 120 and 500 external.

I also installed a new Sony DVD writer, since I Was having trouble with my old CD writer.