Need recommendations on a good PATA/SATA Controller Card

[sygyzy]

I am going to have four IDE (PATA) hard drives and 2 optical drives in my new system. The only way for me to support this is to use a PCI controller card. I have a Promise one (PATA only) that is on my old system that I can transplant over. It's at least 5 years old though.

Have there been any advances since? Would getting a PCI Express card help speeds? Actually, since the DFI NF4 board only comes with a single PCI (16 bit slot) and I need it for my soundcard, I guess I *have* to use a controller card.

Any recommendations?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
I am going to have four IDE (PATA) hard drives and 2 optical drives in my new system. The only way for me to support this is to use a PCI controller card. I have a Promise one (PATA only) that is on my old system that I can transplant over. It's at least 5 years old though.

Have there been any advances since?

Uh... SATA?

Would getting a PCI Express card help speeds?

Unlikely. Unless you're putting all four hard drives on the PCI bus and accessing them all at once or using them as a RAID array, in which case PCIe will be less of a bottleneck.

Any recommendations?

I'm gonna go with a PCI or PCIe controller card on this one. Unorthodox, I know. 😛

 

[sygyzy]

That's the problem. I don't think there aren't many PCIe controller cards. I think there are 3 total at Newegg and they are all SATA. I don't want to throw away all my PATA drives.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
That's the problem. I don't think there aren't many PCIe controller cards. I think there are 3 total at Newegg and they are all SATA. I don't want to throw away all my PATA drives.

Yeah, I'm not having a lot of luck turning one up. Doesn't mean they're not out there, but they're not immediately jumping out at me. A company called "JMicron" makes a PCIe->SATA/PATA chip, and some motherboards use it for their onboard PATA, but I can't find any add-in boards that do the same thing.

There are SATA->PATA bridges... another option would be buying a newer, higher-capacity SATA drive or two to replace the old PATA ones. Or find a motherboard that has some more PCI slots.

 

[Zepper]

Do you plan to put each drive on its own channel or are you going to share channels? IAC, I use and recommend SiliconImage based PCI PATA and/or SATA adapters. They can handle just about any PATA drive ever made as well as opticals (ATAPI) and old Zip/LS-120 drives (about the slowest IDE devices ever made). And they can do RAID 0, 1, 0+1 if you decide you want to down the road - very flexible. Less than $20. each shipped (under several brand names) from your favorite online resellers. I generally buy the Syba brand. Occasionally get a lemon but the Egg takes care of that pronto.

.bh.

 

[sygyzy]

Matthias99 - That's not a solution. These are perfectly working, relatively new relatively new hard drives. It's silly to move to SATA which, in my mind, has little to offer in terms of speed gains. Not only that, but I heard even booting from SATA or mixing SATA and PATA can be troublesome.

As it is, my current system has 4 PATA drives. I need to keep this machine working so I will leave a single PATA in there. I am planning on getting a new primary master (either SATA or PATA) for my new build and bringing over 3 hard drives.

The way MB's are headed, they are forcing everyone to move to SATA.

Zepper - I don't mind sharing channels. Even with sharing, I'd need 2 PATA ports for 3 hard drives.

 

[audscott]

Originally posted by: sygyzy
That's the problem. I don't think there aren't many PCIe controller cards. I think there are 3 total at Newegg and they are all SATA. I don't want to throw away all my PATA drives.

I have been looking: Here's a site I came across. I have not researched the controllers or the sire reseller ratings. They have several low priced PCI-e options.

 

[Zepper]

audscott,
. He's looking for PATA support - that's a SATA site.

OP,
There are "riser" cards you can get that allow you to use up to two PCI cards in one PCI slot on the mobo. You can get vertical, horizontal or flexible arrangements. I don't think anyone is going to bother doing a PCI express PATA card.

Here's a place you can see what I mean. PCI riser cards. Then you just need to find a place to buy them in the States...

Else you may have to move some drives into an external arrangement. Or you could consider a USB "sound card"

.bh.

 

[sygyzy]

audscott - Thanks for your help but they all seem to be SATA cards.

This is rediculous. Do a search on SATA in Technical Support and see how many problems there are. I admit, the wires are prettier but this sucks.

 

[Zepper]

See my last post above yours. I was just thinking that someone might do a combo card for PCI express that has both PATA and SATA channels on it. I haven't seen one though.

And how about adapting a couple of your HDs to SATA. PATA to SATA adapters are cheap on eBay and as low as $10. + sh on Newegg.

.bh.

 

[audscott]

I'm using 2 PATA dreives with PCI - SATA converters. Works very well, although (of course) no bandwidth increase. I wanted the SATA for the improved air movement rhrough my case with the slimmer SATA wires.

SATA/IDE converters run from $10 to $20.00.

However, to scratch my hardware itch, I'm looking at a couple of SATA2 (3 GB/ps) 16MB cache drives.. Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6V250F0, $96.99 shipped or Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 94.99 shipped - both at ZZF.

Hey! I'll sell you my PATA to SATA set-up.

 

[sygyzy]

audscott - I don't quite understand how you are running your setup. You have a PATA drive with a PATA cable going to your motherboard? controller card? which is SATA and there is a converted in-between?