SATA --- A setup nightmare? POLL EDITED

[laurenlex]

I will be building a new rig in the next few months. I think it is time for my Pentium 3 at 500mhz to retire.

I was totally sold on the SATA hard drives, as next generation is always a good thing. I understand they are not any faster, but getting rid of those ugly grey cables would be nice.

In looking at this excellent forum, I have came across many threads with major problems installing a SATA drive. I am a newbie, and don't want any setup hassles.

So, would it be a stupid move to stick with an PATA drive, or just prepare for a hassle with the SATA?

On edit: I will be buying one drive to start, then adding a second storage drive to use for video capture / encoding when I save some money. This will be a general use computer, some gaming, but not a total gaming rig.

Potential specs
A64 3000+
Cheap NF250 motherboard
Antec case
512 ram (another 512 when i get funds)
NEC dual layer dvd
video card ??????? thinking 9600xt
leadtec capure card
120 or 160 harddrive ??????

 

[Schadenfroh]

SATA is easy

 

[mechBgon]

SATA is a challenge to the newbies and some intermediate builders, particularly when they're trying to use it as a boot device on a board that doesn't treat SATA drives as native ATA devices (RAID controllers). If you're getting a drive that comes in either interface, then the chances are good that PATA will be simpler for you to set up and won't hurt performance either.

 

[sharkeeper]

SATA is not difficult to set up at all. If so, perhaps you should rethink a few things.

Also, it does help to RTFM from time to time!

Cheers!

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: sharkeeper
SATA is not difficult to set up at all. If so, perhaps you should rethink a few things.

Also, it does help to RTFM from time to time!

Cheers!

You are welcome to start helping the newbies with their SATA-setup woes, I'll even assign you some if you like There's a reason I have over 650MB of motherboard owners' manuals in .PDF format (so far)...

 

[darkswordsman17]

Yeah, SATA can be very easy. It was certainly easy enough on my first board and first build. However this last one has been anything but. I installed different drivers, did everything I could (I was trying to install Windows on the drive). I was able to get Windows on there fine, however the motherboard refused to boot to that drive, regardless of what I did (and yes I know how to set it up right in the BIOS). In the end, I'm not sure if the drive went bad (it caused me a problem in the past) or if the SATA just didn't want to work right. Of course this was on the Asus K8N-E Deluxe, a board that has been far from problem free for a lot of people.

 

[sharkeeper]

You are welcome to start helping the newbies with their SATA-setup woes, I'll even assign you some if you like There's a reason I have over 650MB of motherboard owners' manuals in .PDF format (so far)...

LOL for some reason that brings up some of the service keyboards that have worn out F6 keys!

Cheers!

 

[Turkish]

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: sharkeeper
SATA is not difficult to set up at all. If so, perhaps you should rethink a few things.

Also, it does help to RTFM from time to time!

Cheers!

You are welcome to start helping the newbies with their SATA-setup woes, I'll even assign you some if you like There's a reason I have over 650MB of motherboard owners' manuals in .PDF format (so far)...

lol mech, i like the pizza picture on your site: http://www.omnicast.net/~tmcfadden/guides/build/caseprep1.html

lol :beer:

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: XietyCOM

Originally posted by: mechBgon

Originally posted by: sharkeeper
SATA is not difficult to set up at all. If so, perhaps you should rethink a few things.

Also, it does help to RTFM from time to time!

Cheers!

You are welcome to start helping the newbies with their SATA-setup woes, I'll even assign you some if you like There's a reason I have over 650MB of motherboard owners' manuals in .PDF format (so far)...

lol mech, i like the pizza picture on your site: http://www.omnicast.net/~tmcfadden/guides/build/caseprep1.html

lol :beer:

Hehe, thanks

 

[laurenlex]

Only 6 votes????

And 50% think I am an idiot???

I kinda thought that would happen.

But please more votes on IDE or SATA please.

 

[jhu]

well, they're both ide. i guess it depends on the motherboard that you get, it can be easy or difficult. personally, i don't think a thin cable is worth any potential hassle. that's also why i just upgraded to a lowly duron.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: laurenlex
Only 6 votes????

And 50% think I am an idiot???

I kinda thought that would happen.

But please more votes on IDE or SATA please.

Well, you need to put a few more options... SATA is cool, but PATA is far from useless...

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

If you think inserting a floppy is extremely difficult then I recommend you steer clear of sata otherwise go for it.

 

[User5]

Im having nothing but trouble installing a SATA hard drive on my Asus K8V Deluxe. Its almost as if Asus makes it so that the only times you can use SATA drives, is with a RAID configuration, not a single one. Even the manual just skips over setting up SATA hdds, and goes straight to SATA RAID

But maybe its just Asus.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: User5
Im having nothing but trouble installing a SATA hard drive on my Asus K8V Deluxe. Its almost as if Asus makes it so that the only times you can use SATA drives, is with a RAID configuration, not a single one.

But maybe its just Asus.

Asus didn't make your VIA SATA controller, though

 

[Dug]

They can be a nightmare to setup. Especially if there's no clear explanation of how the bios should be set.

People like sharkeeper probably don't go through enough hardware to understand the manual doesn't fix problems in the bios, and the only thing you can do is wait for an update before its fixed.

But beyond that its still is a hassle even when things do work. Schadenfroh's link proves that.

Not to mention the problems with backup programs not recognizing SATA drives, ghosting, etc.

 

[stryker999]

Uh oh - I'm a novice/intermediate computer builder and I'm building a computer for my friend. I ordered him an SATA Hard Drive, and now this thread is making me nervous, haha. The motherboard im using is the Gigabyte K8NSNXP, and I need to install Windows XP Pro on the HD. Is it not going to be plug the HD in and install like I was hoping?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: stryker999
Uh oh - I'm a novice/intermediate computer builder and I'm building a computer for my friend. I ordered him an SATA Hard Drive, and now this thread is making me nervous, haha. The motherboard im using is the Gigabyte K8NSNXP, and I need to install Windows XP Pro on the HD. Is it not going to be plug the HD in and install like I was hoping?

Use the native nVidia SATA jacks, and you are probably not going to need any drivers, it may just work like you were expecting. On that motherboard, the native nVidia SATA controller uses the two SATA jacks that are located above the AGP slot. Good luck, and if it doesn't work out so easily, read the manual.

 

[OMGoddess]

GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAT, I got a SATA drive for my K8V Deluxe...I'm screwed.

 

[sharkeeper]

People like sharkeeper probably don't go through enough hardware to understand the manual doesn't fix problems in the bios, and the only thing you can do is wait for an update before its fixed.

Most problems are caused by people not RTFM.

There are a few products released that have issues but that is rare since I avoid the junk that's out there. (avg $670k hardware purchased so far this year btw)

Cheers!

 

[Budman]

yes I agree, most problems are just people not RTFM.

 

[Dug]

Originally posted by: sharkeeper

People like sharkeeper probably don't go through enough hardware to understand the manual doesn't fix problems in the bios, and the only thing you can do is wait for an update before its fixed.

Most problems are caused by people not RTFM.

There are a few products released that have issues but that is rare since I avoid the junk that's out there. (avg $670k hardware purchased so far this year btw)

Cheers!

I see, and not one problem with a SATA controller yet?
Absolutely amazing.

Almost every motherboard from Asus and Abit has had an initial boot problem with the first few bios revisions.

If you stick with a standard Intel chipset and controller you will be fine because you don't need a driver on install.

Just browse any Abit or Asus forum and it's riddled with people trying to get them to work.

 

[frontwards]

Originally posted by: User5
Im having nothing but trouble installing a SATA hard drive on my Asus K8V Deluxe. Its almost as if Asus makes it so that the only times you can use SATA drives, is with a RAID configuration, not a single one. Even the manual just skips over setting up SATA hdds, and goes straight to SATA RAID

But maybe its just Asus.

i had a similar problem with my gigabyte board. there was tons of documentation of RAID, but nothing for the case where a SATA drive was your primary HDD. i just called gigabyte and told the tech guy that i needed drivers so that i could use the SATA drive. He emailed me the drivers, i put them on a floppy and pressed F6 during the windows install to install my 3rd party SATA drivers. it was a bitch before i got that disk, but that was the only hard part.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: sharkeeper

People like sharkeeper probably don't go through enough hardware to understand the manual doesn't fix problems in the bios, and the only thing you can do is wait for an update before its fixed.

Most problems are caused by people not RTFM.

There are a few products released that have issues but that is rare since I avoid the junk that's out there. (avg $670k hardware purchased so far this year btw)

Download the manual for the K8V SE Deluxe and start here. Your first assignment.

 

[stryker999]

frontwards, do you think you could email me those drivers? i'm going to install a SATA drive on the socket 939 gigabyte board soon.