SATA Drives on MSI 875P Board

[H. Maffner]

Hi,

I learned that my MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R board has IDE 1 und IDE2 connectors,

and also SER1, SER2 (Serial ATA RAID Connectors controlled by ICH5R),
and IDE 3, SER3, SER4 (Connectors controlled by Promise 20378).

Does this mean I can connect 5+2 harddrives?
Can I make a RAID0 with one single SATA Drive? (And how much does it cost??

Is IDE3 also only for a RAID System or can I connect a single Drive (even as
a RAID0 system)?

Thx,
H Maffner

 

[Art Wakefield]

Hi,

I learned that my MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R board has IDE 1 und IDE2 connectors,

and also SER1, SER2 (Serial ATA RAID Connectors controlled by ICH5R),
and IDE 3, SER3, SER4 (Connectors controlled by Promise 20378).

Does this mean I can connect 5+2 harddrives?
Can I make a RAID0 with one single SATA Drive? (And how much does it cost??

Is IDE3 also only for a RAID System or can I connect a single Drive (even as
a RAID0 system)?

Thx,
H Maffner

I'm not an expert but here goes:

1) If you have two SATA controllers you should be able to connect 4 SATA
drives. If SATA is your boot drive then you may not see the other SATA
BIOS. Technically you could probably hook up 7 drives, but it begs the
question why? Your power consumption would be high. Your heat factor would
be high. Your airflow in your case severely restricted (if you can find a
case that would hold them internally). All this is begging for premature
drive failur. You'd be much better off just getting larger drives (I
recently picked up a Maxtor IDE 120 for $39, a Maxtor SATA 120 for $104.00).

2) I think the definition of RAID0 answers this question. RAID0 gains speed
by striping 2 or more drives. AFAIK you would gain nothing from using 1
drive in RAID0, even if the controller would allow it.

3) You MB BIOS will tell you that. I have a Gigabyte GA-7NNXP and it has a
BIOS option to run IDE channels as Base or RAID. You need to find out if
your board has a similar option.

HTH,
Art

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

I'm not an expert but here goes:

1) If you have two SATA controllers you should be able to connect 4 SATA
drives.

If SATA is your boot drive then you may not see the other SATA BIOS.

And what if? If a drive is attached bios is installed. If not, not. So what?

Technically you could probably hook up 7 drives, but it begs the question why?

Because that is what it is sold for?
Why buy that config if you are not going to use it?

Your power consumption would be high. Your heat factor would
be high.

Your airflow in your case severely restricted (if
you can find a case that would hold them internally).

Why offer this type of MB when there are no cases to use it in?
Of course there are.

 

[Art Wakefield]

See my responses in-line. - Art

"Art Wakefield" <[email protected]> wrote in

message news:8uaZb.1060$nI1.537@okepread05

And what if? If a drive is attached bios is installed. If not, not. So

what?

I didn't say it was good or bad. It was just information. Calm down.

question why?

Because that is what it is sold for?
Why buy that config if you are not going to use it?

My question is why does he feel the need for that configuring that many
drives when a few, larger drives addresses the same issue of storage (and is
most likely cheaper in the long run in terms of power consumption, less
failure due to heat stress, etc...) As to your remark "Because that is what
it is sold for?" Dell sells high end server encasements that will hold
many, many drives. He didn't indicate he needed a server, just asked a
question. I answered it and asked another question. What's wrong with
that? That's what newsgroups are for, isn't it?

Why offer this type of MB when there are no cases to use it in?
Of course there are.

I didn't say there weren't cases that will hold them. They will not be as
commonly available, or reasonably priced, as other options.

What exactly did you think was poor reasoning in buying fewer, but larger
hard drives and avoiding the above issues altogether? He asked for advice,
I gave it. If he doesn't want that particular advice, he can ignore it. I
don't see how this involves you jumping in like this. Is there some reason
you are so emotionally upset at what I wrote?

BTW, HTH, in case you didn't know, means "Hope This Helps", not "You'd
better listen to every word I say". Learn the difference.

 

[H. Maffner]

My question is why does he feel the need for that configuring that many
drives when a few, larger drives addresses the same issue of storage (and is
most likely cheaper in the long run in terms of power consumption, less
failure due to heat stress, etc...) As to your remark "Because that is what
it is sold for?" Dell sells high end server encasements that will hold
many, many drives. He didn't indicate he needed a server, just asked a
question. I answered it and asked another question. What's wrong with
that? That's what newsgroups are for, isn't it?

My intention was not to build in that many disk drives, but my intention was
to learn what could I possibly do.
I think, a booting system on a single SATA disk drive should bring some
extra-performace.

Greets,
H Maffner

 

[Art Wakefield]

N/P. The short answer is yes. If you need any help as you expand I've
found this ng to be a wonderful help on technical questions. I run a
RAID0+1 array myself, so if you need any help I'd be glad to share my
limited experience.

Art

 

[H. Maffner]

Thanks

H Maffner

N/P. The short answer is yes. If you need any help as you expand I've
found this ng to be a wonderful help on technical questions. I run a
RAID0+1 array myself, so if you need any help I'd be glad to share my
limited experience.

Art

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

N/P. The short answer is yes.

Well, the short answer should be 'No' except that the 74GB Raptor is not
available in P-ATA. On same model drives the interface makes no difference.