Ray Davison wrote:
> I have a MB that has two IDE connectors for four IDE devices and two 
> SATA connectors, presumably for two SATA devices, for a total of six. 
>   The BIOS - both on the boot screen and in setup - shows:
> 
> IDE Channel 0 Master
> IDE Channel 0 Slave
> IDE Channel 1 Master
> IDE Channel 1 Slave
> IDE Channel 2 Master
> IDE Channel 3 Master
> 
> Also for a total of six.  Is this the same six, does six IDE equal 
> four IDE plus two SATA?  Just what can be plugged into a SATA connector?
> 
> Ray
> 
> 
>  
>
Hi Ray,

   IDE (or EIDE) can be SATA or PATA - that is Serial ATA or Parrallel ATA.

   Parrallel ATA is what you know as IDE - i.e. the old standard. Serial 
ATA is the new standard. Depending upon the controller chip, Danis 
drivers will normally support both.

   This is the first time I have heard of a motherboard with so may 
on-board connectors. I also find it a little strange if as you say both 
controller types are on one board.

By the fact that you have the interfaces listed as:

 > IDE Channel 0 Master
 > IDE Channel 0 Slave
 > IDE Channel 1 Master
 > IDE Channel 1 Slave
 > IDE Channel 2 Master
 > IDE Channel 3 Master


I would expect channel 2 and channel 3 to be the SATA connections and 
theothers to be the PATA connections, however your motherboard manual 
will tell you.

SATA is used for everything that PATA is used for. Most often harddisks. 
There are at least two versions of SATA - SATA-1 and SATA-2. SATA-2 is 
faster than the old PATA-EIDE interfaces. You will different cables to 
connect SATA drives than to connect PATA drives.

The industry is changing to SATA and it is already becoming difficult to 
buy PATA drives so if you are building a new system, I would recommend 
you to go for SATA rather than PATA, once you have check the SATA 
controller is supported by the latest Danis drivers. Silicon Image 
appears to be the most common SATA controller and I have that working 
without problems using the latest Danis drivers.

Cheers/2

Ed.


 
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