A8V -- How many SATA drives?

I have an A8V (*not* the Deluxe version) with two PATA IDE drives on it.
I'm thinking of adding a SATA drive. The manual states (page 1-2) "The
motherboard supports four interfaces compliant to the Serial ATA (SATA)
specification..." However all I see are two SATA connectors: SATA1 and
SATA2. I thought that each of these connects to just a single SATA drive,
meaning that I can install a maximum of two such drives (and that I could
in theory have up to six drives installed, 4 PATA and 2 SATA). Is the
manual wrong, or am I missing something? Thanks.

The manual (on page 1-2) is wrong. Earlier in it, on page ix / storage, it
says 2*SATA
The chipset might support 4 connectors, but on this board there's only 2
And it is only 1 disk/connector....


--
Tumppi
=================================
Most learned on these newsgroups
Helsinki, FINLAND
(translations from/to FI not always accurate
=================================




"Tom Trombone" <thetrombones_remove_this_@verizon.net> kirjoitti
viestissä:Xns97E0D8129754Fthetrombonesverizonn@130 .81.64.196...
>I have an A8V (*not* the Deluxe version) with two PATA IDE drives on it.
> I'm thinking of adding a SATA drive. The manual states (page 1-2) "The
> motherboard supports four interfaces compliant to the Serial ATA (SATA)
> specification..." However all I see are two SATA connectors: SATA1 and
> SATA2. I thought that each of these connects to just a single SATA drive,
> meaning that I can install a maximum of two such drives (and that I could
> in theory have up to six drives installed, 4 PATA and 2 SATA). Is the
> manual wrong, or am I missing something? Thanks.

"Thomas Wendell" <> wrote in
news:448e14da$0$22341$:

> The manual (on page 1-2) is wrong. Earlier in it, on page ix /
> storage, it says 2*SATA
> The chipset might support 4 connectors, but on this board there's only
> 2 And it is only 1 disk/connector....
>
>

Thanks! I shouldn't have any particular trouble running one (or both) SATA
drives in addition to my existing two PATA drives, right? I'm pretty new
to SATA, if you can't tell.

"Thomas Wendell" <> wrote in message
news:448e14da$0$22341$...

> The chipset might support 4 connectors, but on this board there's only 2
> And it is only 1 disk/connector....
>
>
Really? I don't have that particular motherboard (I have an A8N) but each
SATA port on the motherboard handles two drives each with a cable that has
two connectors on the peripheral end. One per drive.

--
-Don
Ever had one of those days where you just felt like:
http://cosmoslair.com/BadDay.html ?
(Eating the elephant outside the box, one paradigm at a time)

On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 12:41:55 -0700, "Don Freeman" <>
wrote:

>Really? I don't have that particular motherboard (I have an A8N) but each
>SATA port on the motherboard handles two drives each with a cable that has
>two connectors on the peripheral end. One per drive.

Are you saying that this works similar to "master" and "slave" IDE
principal?

"SDR" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 12:41:55 -0700, "Don Freeman" <>
> wrote:
>
>>Really? I don't have that particular motherboard (I have an A8N) but each
>>SATA port on the motherboard handles two drives each with a cable that has
>>two connectors on the peripheral end. One per drive.
>
> Are you saying that this works similar to "master" and "slave" IDE
> principal?
>

I don't think so since you don't have to set jumpers to categorize them. At
least that's what the manual said, I only have one drive installed so far,
just built the machine this weekend.

--
-Don
Ever had one of those days where you just felt like:
http://cosmoslair.com/BadDay.html ?
(Eating the elephant outside the box, one paradigm at a time)

"Don Freeman" <> wrote in
news:448f1503$0$96974$:

>
> "Thomas Wendell" <> wrote in message
> news:448e14da$0$22341$...
>
>> The chipset might support 4 connectors, but on this board there's
>> only 2 And it is only 1 disk/connector....
>>
>>
> Really? I don't have that particular motherboard (I have an A8N) but
> each SATA port on the motherboard handles two drives each with a cable
> that has two connectors on the peripheral end. One per drive.
>

Is this true? It would seem to contradict what I've read in various places
(including www.ata-atapi.com/sata.htm which states "SATA supports a single
device per SATA cable..."). The cables that were included with the A8V
only have one connector on each end, and a quick perusal of on-line SATA
cable vendors (such as www.satacables.com) does not show any cables with
two connectors for drives. But the source I cited is a few years old, so
maybe I'm wrong.

In article <448f1ad2$0$96974$>, "Don Freeman"
<> wrote:

> "SDR" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 12:41:55 -0700, "Don Freeman" <>
> > wrote:
> >
> >>Really? I don't have that particular motherboard (I have an A8N) but each
> >>SATA port on the motherboard handles two drives each with a cable that has
> >>two connectors on the peripheral end. One per drive.
> >
> > Are you saying that this works similar to "master" and "slave" IDE
> > principal?
> >
>
> I don't think so since you don't have to set jumpers to categorize them. At
> least that's what the manual said, I only have one drive installed so far,
> just built the machine this weekend.

When you look at a SATA cable, it is thin, and has a single connector
on each end. One end goes to the motherboard, the other end goes to
the drive. The SATA drive doesn't have the notion of master or slave,
and one SATA drive does not depend on the state of another SATA
drive, to do its work. Since there are sometimes emulation methods
at work in the BIOS, sometimes a SATA motherboard port may be termed
master or slave in the BIOS setup screen, but this is a bookkeeping
thing.

A "PATA" or parallel ATA drive, uses a ribbon cable. There is a
connector on one end, that goes to the motherboard. There are two
other connectors on the other end of the cable, one is slave and
the other is master. PATA (IDE) drives have the notion of master
and slave, and a jumper is used on the jumper block area, to
configure as master, master only with no slave, slave, or cable
select (the options vary with brand of hard drive, and the type
of cable used, such as an 80 wire cable with cable select
wiring style).

There is in fact, a way to expand a SATA interface, so that more
drives can be supported. There are products called "port multipliers",
which cost about $100, and allow five drives to be connected to a
single port. These are typically used with RAID-capable SATA
controllers, and I have not read any articles that delve into
the details of where a port multiplexer will work or not work.
Ports which can take a port multiplier use the descriptive terms
"FIS-based Port Multiplier-aware". FIS stands for "Frame
Information Structure".

http://www.siliconimage.com/products...x?id=26&ptid=1

Paul

"Tom Trombone" <thetrombones_remove_this_@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:Xns97E1D3BC825FCthetrombonesverizonn@130.81.6 4.196...
> "Don Freeman" <> wrote in

>>>
>> Really? I don't have that particular motherboard (I have an A8N) but
>> each SATA port on the motherboard handles two drives each with a cable
>> that has two connectors on the peripheral end. One per drive.
>>
>
> Is this true? It would seem to contradict what I've read in various
> places
> (including www.ata-atapi.com/sata.htm which states "SATA supports a single
> device per SATA cable..."). The cables that were included with the A8V
> only have one connector on each end, and a quick perusal of on-line SATA
> cable vendors (such as www.satacables.com) does not show any cables with
> two connectors for drives. But the source I cited is a few years old, so
> maybe I'm wrong.
>

No, you, and everyone else (except me) are correct, I double checked last
night and it was the power cable that had two connectors for the drives NOT
the data cable. My only excuse is that it was late and this is the first PC
I've built since the AT form factor went tits-up and am trying to assimilate
a lot of new specs and info.

Or it could be that I'm just an idiot, sorry for all the confusion and
misdirection my post caused. For a while now I will go into lurk mode and
shut up.

Don Freeman
--
Ever had one of those days where you just felt like:
http://cosmoslair.com/BadDay.html ?
(Eating the elephant outside the box, one paradigm at a time)

Not to worry, SATA3 is comming to save your day. Not only the speed is increased again...
SATA - 1,5GBi/s (192MB/s)
SATAII - 3GBi/s (384MB/s)
SATA3 - 6GBi/s (768MB/s)
...but now it can also can use something called "port multiplier", witch basically should allow you to have more devices on the single SATA3 cable. And it was there since SATAII, but I never just saw it it action... but maybe someone did?