Abit AW9D-Max SATA question

I'm new to the SATA world and currently building a system with the
AW9D-Max mobo, two SATA hard drives and one SATA DVD Burner.

* My bootup screen is telling me that the DVD drive is a slave. I
thought master/salve configurations where nil in the SATA world? Maybe
there is a BIOS setting that should be changed?

* On page 3-21 of the manual it states that the on-chip SATA can be
set to IDE mode. I thought the IDE ports were controlled by their own
chip.

* Later on I may want to add another DVD burner which will be PATA
(IDE). What settings should be made in the BIOS for this burner to be
master on IDE1?

Thanks

"gwtx2" <> wrote in message...
> I'm new to the SATA world and currently building a system with the
> AW9D-Max mobo, two SATA hard drives and one SATA DVD
> Burner.
>
> * My bootup screen is telling me that the DVD drive is a slave. I
> thought master/salve configurations where nil in the SATA world?

Yes and no. As you've seen, the cables themselves are point to point, but
the BIOS, when configured to run the SATA controller as an "IDE" device,
still sees devices as master and slave - although this is more to enable
compatibility with legacy operating systems than anything else.

> Maybe there is a BIOS setting that should be changed?

If your configuration is working the way you want it to, there's no point
messing about with it, unless you want to change things simply for the sake
of understanding the different ways you can configure the board.

> * On page 3-21 of the manual it states that the on-chip SATA can be
> set to IDE mode.

Yes, as opposed to RAID or AHCI modes. If you set the SATA chip to run in
IDE mode, the BIOS and OS will effectively see all drives - whether parallel
or SATA - as "IDE" devices. This in some ways makes for simpler operation as
you don't need to load extra RAID or AHCI drivers onto your OS, but as a
consequence you are unable to utilise the controller's advanced features.

> I thought the IDE ports were controlled by their own chip.

Not on the AW9D. The IDE port on ICH7-equipped boards is directly onboard
the southbridge. It's the ICH8 boards like the AB9 series which have a
separate chip, thanks to the southbridge having no onboard support.

> * Later on I may want to add another DVD burner which will be PATA
> (IDE). What settings should be made in the BIOS for this burner to be
> master on IDE1?

You should just need to connect the drive to the black plug on the IDE cable
and the board should, by default, see it as IDE1 master. If it doesn't,
check out the port mapping options in the Integrated Peripherals section of
the BIOS. Don't have an AW9D here to check but if it's anything like the
other Abit boards you can choose which "virtual" IDE ports the SATA
controller is mapped onto.
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

On Feb 3, 9:10 am, "Richard Hopkins" <r...@dsl.nospam.com> wrote:
> "gwtx2" <g...@yahoo.com> wrote in message...
> > I'm new to the SATA world and currently building a system with the
> > AW9D-Max mobo, two SATA hard drives and one SATA DVD
> > Burner.
>
> > * My bootup screen is telling me that the DVD drive is a slave. I
> > thought master/salve configurations where nil in the SATA world?
>
> Yes and no. As you've seen, the cables themselves are point to point, but
> the BIOS, when configured to run the SATA controller as an "IDE" device,
> still sees devices as master and slave - although this is more to enable
> compatibility with legacy operating systems than anything else.
>
> > Maybe there is a BIOS setting that should be changed?
>
> If your configuration is working the way you want it to, there's no point
> messing about with it, unless you want to change things simply for the sake
> of understanding the different ways you can configure the board.
>
> > * On page 3-21 of the manual it states that the on-chip SATA can be
> > set to IDE mode.
>
> Yes, as opposed to RAID or AHCI modes. If you set the SATA chip to run in
> IDE mode, the BIOS and OS will effectively see all drives - whether parallel
> or SATA - as "IDE" devices. This in some ways makes for simpler operation as
> you don't need to load extra RAID or AHCI drivers onto your OS, but as a
> consequence you are unable to utilise the controller's advanced features.
>
> > I thought the IDE ports were controlled by their own chip.
>
> Not on the AW9D. The IDE port on ICH7-equipped boards is directly onboard
> the southbridge. It's the ICH8 boards like the AB9 series which have a
> separate chip, thanks to the southbridge having no onboard support.
>
> > * Later on I may want to add another DVD burner which will be PATA
> > (IDE). What settings should be made in the BIOS for this burner to be
> > master on IDE1?
>
> You should just need to connect the drive to the black plug on the IDE cable
> and the board should, by default, see it as IDE1 master. If it doesn't,
> check out the port mapping options in the Integrated Peripherals section of
> the BIOS. Don't have an AW9D here to check but if it's anything like the
> other Abit boards you can choose which "virtual" IDE ports the SATA
> controller is mapped onto.
> --
>
> Richard Hopkins
> Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
> (replace nospam with pipex in reply address)


Thanks for the great answers which helps a lot. Is there a performance
hit from running in the IDE mode rather than the AHCI mode.

"gwtx2" wrote in message...
> Thanks for the great answers which helps a lot. Is there a performance
> hit from running in the IDE mode rather than the AHCI mode.

Yes and no. Theoretically AHCI *should* bring a performance boost as it
enables command queueing. In practice however, the benefit of this function
depends on the use you put the system to, and in practice many folk seem to
be reporting that performance in AHCI mode is *worse* than legacy or RAID
modes.
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)