SATA/EIDE Clarification Please

[mcmullgr]

I'm building my FIRST computer this week, so please bear with me. I'm looking thru the MB manual and see that it has SATA1, SATA2, SATA3, and SATA4 in the MB diagram. I am not interested in any RAID 0 or RAID 1 config, but am wondering how to connect my Hard Drive. Will I use any SATA connections or will I simply use the EIDE plugs (master, slave) like I'm used to doing? If so, is there anything special I should know about this config?

It says SATA 1 and 2 are controlled by ICH5R Southbridge and to enable OnChip Serial ATA to use these.
SATA 3 and 4 are controlled by Silicon Image PCI Chip and to enable Serial ATA Controller in BIOS to use these. Maybe you can help translate this. Thanks in advance for your help!

Specs:
Intel P4 3.4C 512K, L2 Cache
Abit IC7-G MaxII Advance (875P)
Western Digital Raptor 74 GB (10,000 RPM SATA)
1 GB (2x512 MB) Mushkin PC 3500
128 MB ATI Radeon 9800Pro
Antec 430 W PSU
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (6.1 channel)
Logitech Z5300 THX Certified 5.1 Speakers

 

[mechBgon]

From trying to help people with ABit P4 boards and SATA drives in the past, that's one combo that makes me want to just run the other way! 😛 But the answer is that you do need to plug your SATA drive into an SATA jack, not an EIDE/PATA plug. Here are the words of someone who got his working:

Under Integrated Peripherals -> OnChip IDE Device:
IDE Bus Master - Enabled
OnChip Serial ATA - enhanced
OnChip Serial ATA Mode - ide
SATA RAID ROM - Enabled

Advanced BIOS Features:
Hard Disk Boot Priority - 1. Bootable Add-in Device
Bootable Add-in Device - Onboard sata
Boot Other Device - Enabled

It's enough of a battle that I wanted to save this for posterity. 😉 You should use the ICH5R's SATA controller first because it isn't restricted to the PCI bus.