Question on SATA

WINDOWS XP Pro SP3 is my software.

Are there issues with SATA controllers similar to IDE controllers with
respect to performance.

For example, I have always been told that one should separate higher
speed devices from lower speed devices on IDE channels. Don't put a
fast hard disk on the same IDE channel as a DVD/CD burner. So I have
always put 2 hard disks on one IDE channel, with the fastest as the
Master, and put my CD/DVD burners on a different IDE.

I currently have an ASUS M2N-E, which has 6 SATA ports. I have a WD
Raptor drive on 1 port, and have 2 Raid arrays on 4 other ports,
leaving 1 open. I want to add a DVD burner to my system - I already
have a single burner on one of the IDE channels, and that is an option,
but I'm seeing great deals on SATA DVD burners, so was wondering what
impact a DVD burner on the remaining SATA port would have on the
system.

Thanks for any and all replies.
John Carter

On 13 Sep 2009 19:28:41 GMT, John Carter <> wrote:

> WINDOWS XP Pro SP3 is my software.
>
> Are there issues with SATA controllers similar to IDE controllers with
> respect to performance.
>
> For example, I have always been told that one should separate higher
> speed devices from lower speed devices on IDE channels. Don't put a
> fast hard disk on the same IDE channel as a DVD/CD burner. So I have
> always put 2 hard disks on one IDE channel, with the fastest as the
> Master, and put my CD/DVD burners on a different IDE.
>
> I currently have an ASUS M2N-E, which has 6 SATA ports. I have a WD
> Raptor drive on 1 port, and have 2 Raid arrays on 4 other ports,
> leaving 1 open. I want to add a DVD burner to my system - I already
> have a single burner on one of the IDE channels, and that is an option,
> but I'm seeing great deals on SATA DVD burners, so was wondering what
> impact a DVD burner on the remaining SATA port would have on the
> system.
>
> Thanks for any and all replies.
> John Carter

No problem. You can't put more than one device on one SATA port.

Re: "I have always been told that one should separate higher speed
devices from lower speed devices on IDE channels."

That is not true, even for IDE. It was true at one time .... circa 1996
or so. Has not been true for more than a decade. That said, if two
drives are on the same IDE channel, copying data between them (from one
to the other) will not be as fast as if those two devices were on
different channels. But it has nothing to do with the speed of the
devices, rather a given channel can only be accessing one device at any
given time.

Sata channels, however, are totally independent.


John Carter wrote:
> WINDOWS XP Pro SP3 is my software.
>
> Are there issues with SATA controllers similar to IDE controllers with
> respect to performance.
>
> For example, I have always been told that one should separate higher
> speed devices from lower speed devices on IDE channels. Don't put a
> fast hard disk on the same IDE channel as a DVD/CD burner. So I have
> always put 2 hard disks on one IDE channel, with the fastest as the
> Master, and put my CD/DVD burners on a different IDE.
>
> I currently have an ASUS M2N-E, which has 6 SATA ports. I have a WD
> Raptor drive on 1 port, and have 2 Raid arrays on 4 other ports,
> leaving 1 open. I want to add a DVD burner to my system - I already
> have a single burner on one of the IDE channels, and that is an option,
> but I'm seeing great deals on SATA DVD burners, so was wondering what
> impact a DVD burner on the remaining SATA port would have on the
> system.
>
> Thanks for any and all replies.
> John Carter

That's not completely true. It exist's so called port multipliers for SATA.
For example Jmicron 322 is used as a port multiplier for the Jmicron 363
controller. In this case all ports connected to the 322 chip share the same
SATA path on the 363; Marvell and silicon image do the same. This is widely
used on many modern moderboards.

best regards

SL
"Barry Watzman" <> a écrit dans le message de
news:h8k2uj$sp0$...
> Re: "I have always been told that one should separate higher speed devices
> from lower speed devices on IDE channels."
>
> That is not true, even for IDE. It was true at one time .... circa 1996
> or so. Has not been true for more than a decade. That said, if two
> drives are on the same IDE channel, copying data between them (from one to
> the other) will not be as fast as if those two devices were on different
> channels. But it has nothing to do with the speed of the devices, rather
> a given channel can only be accessing one device at any given time.
>
> Sata channels, however, are totally independent.
>
>
> John Carter wrote:
>> WINDOWS XP Pro SP3 is my software.
>>
>> Are there issues with SATA controllers similar to IDE controllers with
>> respect to performance.
>>
>> For example, I have always been told that one should separate higher
>> speed devices from lower speed devices on IDE channels. Don't put a fast
>> hard disk on the same IDE channel as a DVD/CD burner. So I have always
>> put 2 hard disks on one IDE channel, with the fastest as the Master, and
>> put my CD/DVD burners on a different IDE.
>>
>> I currently have an ASUS M2N-E, which has 6 SATA ports. I have a WD
>> Raptor drive on 1 port, and have 2 Raid arrays on 4 other ports, leaving
>> 1 open. I want to add a DVD burner to my system - I already have a
>> single burner on one of the IDE channels, and that is an option, but I'm
>> seeing great deals on SATA DVD burners, so was wondering what impact a
>> DVD burner on the remaining SATA port would have on the system.
>>
>> Thanks for any and all replies.
>> John Carter

Sid LABDI wrote:
> That's not completely true. It exist's so called port multipliers for SATA.
> For example Jmicron 322 is used as a port multiplier for the Jmicron 363
> controller. In this case all ports connected to the 322 chip share the same
> SATA path on the 363; Marvell and silicon image do the same. This is widely
> used on many modern moderboards.
>
> best regards
>
> SL

There is an example of a port multiplier product here.

http://www.sataport.com/

Paul

> "Barry Watzman" <> a écrit dans le message de
> news:h8k2uj$sp0$...
>> Re: "I have always been told that one should separate higher speed
>> devices from lower speed devices on IDE channels."
>>
>> That is not true, even for IDE. It was true at one time .... circa
>> 1996 or so. Has not been true for more than a decade. That said, if
>> two drives are on the same IDE channel, copying data between them
>> (from one to the other) will not be as fast as if those two devices
>> were on different channels. But it has nothing to do with the speed
>> of the devices, rather a given channel can only be accessing one
>> device at any given time.
>>
>> Sata channels, however, are totally independent.
>>
>>
>> John Carter wrote:
>>> WINDOWS XP Pro SP3 is my software.
>>>
>>> Are there issues with SATA controllers similar to IDE controllers
>>> with respect to performance.
>>>
>>> For example, I have always been told that one should separate higher
>>> speed devices from lower speed devices on IDE channels. Don't put a
>>> fast hard disk on the same IDE channel as a DVD/CD burner. So I have
>>> always put 2 hard disks on one IDE channel, with the fastest as the
>>> Master, and put my CD/DVD burners on a different IDE.
>>>
>>> I currently have an ASUS M2N-E, which has 6 SATA ports. I have a WD
>>> Raptor drive on 1 port, and have 2 Raid arrays on 4 other ports,
>>> leaving 1 open. I want to add a DVD burner to my system - I already
>>> have a single burner on one of the IDE channels, and that is an
>>> option, but I'm seeing great deals on SATA DVD burners, so was
>>> wondering what impact a DVD burner on the remaining SATA port would
>>> have on the system.
>>>
>>> Thanks for any and all replies.
>>> John Carter
>

I took the discussion to be about ports directly on a motherboard.

I think that pretty much everyone else took it that way also.


Paul wrote:
> Sid LABDI wrote:
>> That's not completely true. It exist's so called port multipliers for
>> SATA.
>> For example Jmicron 322 is used as a port multiplier for the Jmicron 363
>> controller. In this case all ports connected to the 322 chip share the
>> same
>> SATA path on the 363; Marvell and silicon image do the same. This is
>> widely
>> used on many modern moderboards.
>>
>> best regards
>>
>> SL
>
> There is an example of a port multiplier product here.
>
> http://www.sataport.com/
>
> Paul
>
>> "Barry Watzman" <> a écrit dans le message de
>> news:h8k2uj$sp0$...
>>> Re: "I have always been told that one should separate higher speed
>>> devices from lower speed devices on IDE channels."
>>>
>>> That is not true, even for IDE. It was true at one time .... circa
>>> 1996 or so. Has not been true for more than a decade. That said, if
>>> two drives are on the same IDE channel, copying data between them
>>> (from one to the other) will not be as fast as if those two devices
>>> were on different channels. But it has nothing to do with the speed
>>> of the devices, rather a given channel can only be accessing one
>>> device at any given time.
>>>
>>> Sata channels, however, are totally independent.
>>>
>>>
>>> John Carter wrote:
>>>> WINDOWS XP Pro SP3 is my software.
>>>>
>>>> Are there issues with SATA controllers similar to IDE controllers
>>>> with respect to performance.
>>>>
>>>> For example, I have always been told that one should separate higher
>>>> speed devices from lower speed devices on IDE channels. Don't put a
>>>> fast hard disk on the same IDE channel as a DVD/CD burner. So I
>>>> have always put 2 hard disks on one IDE channel, with the fastest as
>>>> the Master, and put my CD/DVD burners on a different IDE.
>>>>
>>>> I currently have an ASUS M2N-E, which has 6 SATA ports. I have a WD
>>>> Raptor drive on 1 port, and have 2 Raid arrays on 4 other ports,
>>>> leaving 1 open. I want to add a DVD burner to my system - I already
>>>> have a single burner on one of the IDE channels, and that is an
>>>> option, but I'm seeing great deals on SATA DVD burners, so was
>>>> wondering what impact a DVD burner on the remaining SATA port would
>>>> have on the system.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for any and all replies.
>>>> John Carter
>>

Barry Watzman wrote:
> I took the discussion to be about ports directly on a motherboard.
>
> I think that pretty much everyone else took it that way also.
>
>

The comment was with respect to whether a SATA port was restricted
to operating with one device only. Using a port multiplier, a
single interface on a motherboard, can support multiple drives.
But in terms of cabling, the cabling is point to point, and isn't
multi-drop like IDE is.

With a port multiplier, the only interaction would be bandwidth
sharing, as seen on the drive side. If you had five drives on the
port multiplier, and ran them in RAID0, each drive could only
operate at an average of about 50MB/sec, since the cable on
the host side would be a bottleneck.

I think this was only brought up, because there isn't a lot of
awareness out there, that port multiplier is an option. I'm betting
they don't sell a lot of them.

There is also another concept, but it isn't embodied in a standard.
Silicon Image, makes chips which "hide" multiple drives on one
side of the chip, from a cable leading to the host. This allows
things like external dual drive ESATA enclosures, to appear
as a single "generic" disk to a host computer. I think you can
also stack these in a binary tree, so three chips can be used
to support four drives.

http://www.siliconimage.com/products...t.aspx?pid=103

Paul

On 13 Sep 2009 19:28:41 GMT, John Carter <> wrote:

>WINDOWS XP Pro SP3 is my software.
>
>Are there issues with SATA controllers similar to IDE controllers with
>respect to performance.
>
>For example, I have always been told that one should separate higher
>speed devices from lower speed devices on IDE channels. Don't put a
>fast hard disk on the same IDE channel as a DVD/CD burner. So I have
>always put 2 hard disks on one IDE channel, with the fastest as the
>Master, and put my CD/DVD burners on a different IDE.
>
>I currently have an ASUS M2N-E, which has 6 SATA ports. I have a WD
>Raptor drive on 1 port, and have 2 Raid arrays on 4 other ports,
>leaving 1 open. I want to add a DVD burner to my system - I already
>have a single burner on one of the IDE channels, and that is an option,
>but I'm seeing great deals on SATA DVD burners, so was wondering what
>impact a DVD burner on the remaining SATA port would have on the
>system.

none

>
>Thanks for any and all replies.
>John Carter