PATA to SATA question.....

[riversend3]

Hi all, I just got done buying a GA-P35-DS3L to put into an Antec P182 with a Corsair 520HX PSU.

I have a couple of clean-up questions before the stuff arrives tomorrow:

1) I have a single PATA HDD, and two IDE ODDs, and the DS3L has only one IDE controller. Seems to me I should run the two ODDs into the IDE, and the single HDD through a PATA to SATA cable and into a SATA controller. Does that sound right? Are there any conversion cables I should stay away from? For instance, I seem to remember that some cables did not work well with ODDs for some reason. Any issues with most HDDs?

2) Should I also be looking for an extension for any of my power connectors coming off of the 520 HX due to the strange case position of the PSU? Sounds like folks are able to make it work on most mobos, but I'd rather have one in place if it is needed rather than finding out as I install. I live in a smaller town and getting to a store that day to find one is problematic.

Thanks for any help.

RE3

 

[Old Hippie]

Seems to me I should run the two ODDs into the IDE, and the single HDD through a PATA to SATA cable and into a SATA controller. Does that sound right?

Yep, either that, or an IDE controller card. I have never used any of these devices, but with the iffy reviews and 250GB SATA HDDs going for @50.00, you would be much better off just buying a new drive.

 

[Zepper]

The PATA to SATA adapters seem to work fine with HDDs - iffy with opticals. If you ever want to burn a disk in one ODD to the other (direct copy), you will want each drive to be on its own channel. You could get a 2-channel PATA controller as suggested above for your opticals and diable the onboard IDE channel in the BIOS to free up some resources or use it for your PATA HDD. But that means you'll have three of those big flat cables in there...

.bh.

 

[riversend3]

Thanks for the help. I'll try the converter for the HDD, and just plug the ODDs into the IDE controller. If the converter doesn't work for some reason, I'll drop the cash for the new HDD, something I don't really want to do right now.

 

[engiNURD]

You could also throw that IDE drive into an external enclosure and use it for backups.