Adding SATA card to existing MOBO

[Kofy]

Hi all, I am wondering if it is wise to add an additional Sata card to a motherboard that already has 4 sata ports on it. The reason being is I am already using 3 of the 4 ports already, and I wish to get rid of the slower IDE drives, and replace them with SATA II's. Will adding an additional SATA II card cause any problems? I still have one power lead off of my Ultra 600W power supply also.

My System
Asus P5NE-SLI
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600
2GB Kingston Value Ram PC 6400
1 ATI Radeon X1950 GT
C Drive Maxtor 6Y080P0 80 GB IDE (1st to be replaced)
D Drive Maxtor 4W100H6 100 GB IDE (next in line to be replaced)
E Drive Samsung SuperWriteMaster DVD DL burner SH-S203N (REALLY NICE DRIVE)
F Drive (storage) Seagate ST3500641AS Sata 500GB
G Drive (storage Seagate ST3300631AS Sata 300GB
DELL 2007WFP 20" wide screen LCD flat panel
HP Laserjet 6L Printer for docs
Canon Pixma IP-6700D color for photos.

 

[PRPhx]

I wouldn't think it would hurt. You might want to think about adding a 4 port SATA card. You can then use the card to run each device Vs running a RAID. I would think a single card might be (somewhat) easier to manage. And generally they aren't all that expensive.

 

[paparazi]

As long as your boot/OS drive/drives is/are one of the faster SATA II ones (possibly raided in some way) I cannot really see any benefit.
It makes sense to use the IDE's for backup or storage drives that you possibly don't access as frequently but adding an extra card for speed??? I don't think you will see it.
You will however see a slight improvement going to SATAII on the Boot drive from the Maxtor 80gig IDE.
My opinion.


On wings like angels whispers sweet
my heart it feels a broken beat
Touched soul and hurt lay wounded deep
Brown eyes are lost afar and sleep

 

[Kofy]

Thanks Paparazi, the IDE drives are old and I want to get rid of them or use them as spares perhaps Eventually I will set this thing up in a raid config but until I have the $$ to get the drives (1TB's) I cant. I do think I will see a larger than minimal increase in boot speeds and file search/loading by replacing the older IDE drive.

 

[paparazi]

I agree! on the boot/operating system drive, swapping from an older IDE to a later 16meg cache SATAII you will feel the difference.
Just have the IDE's for storage/backup and clean install on a new SATAII. A fresh install is also going to speed things up a bit anyway.
Just make sure you set the boot sequence for SATA otherwise it will keep seeing the OS on the older IDE drive.

Martin

On wings like angels whispers sweet
my heart it feels a broken beat
Touched soul and hurt lay wounded deep
Brown eyes are lost afar and sleep

 

[Kofy]

Thanks guys, I'll let you know how much of a difference it makes once I install it.

 

[tf1]

While you are at it, you should consider getting a SATA card with an eSATA port. Then buy one of the external drive cases that support eSATA (and possibly a dual eSTAT/USB2 - loads on eBAY) and keep your backup storage drive external.

This will keep your backup storage away from your main computer, lowering the supply demand and heat a little too.


Regards: tf1

 

[Kofy]

tfi, The motherboard comes with an e-sata port on the backplane. ASUS calls their e-sata "Sata-On-The-Go" however.. same thing.. different name. Thanks for the input however. I still dont know if I can add a SATA card to the system I have already without having more problems.

 

[samstone]

if all you have is pci slots and no pci-e slots
or pci-x slots no speed icrease that I can tell
if your PSU has enough power like 600 watt
just go to bios after successful boot and make sure the cards drives are not first
and turn off raid if its on
most raid HBA's will see legacy drives

 

[tf1]

Shouldn't pose any problems. There's 26 drive letters available in Windows! As long as the driver has been written correctly, it should work fine.


Regards: tf1