Will this hard drive config work OK on my Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR?

[Imyourzero]

I read through the "Unofficial" thread for this board and it seemed like some people were having problems with the Promise controller. I currently have mine disabled b/c I'm not using it; I have a 74GB Raptor on one of the nVidia SATA ports (the other one is empty) and I am using both of the nVidia IDE channels for optical drives and a 250 GB PATA Maxtor.

I just worked out a deal for 2 Seagate 200 GB SATA drives because I want to end up using only SATA hard drives in my system if possible. I will keep the Raptor as my boot drive and I want to use the two Seagates as storage drives. I will still keep my DVD-ROM and DVD-RW on the nVidia IDE channels and the Maxtor will be taken out of my system--it's going to serve as a clone of the 250GB WD hard drive in my XBOX just in case it decides to die one day.

So I'd like to use all 3 available SATA ports on the mobo but I know that's going to require me to enable the Promise controller and basically I just want to make sure that other people are using its SATA port with no problem. Is there anyone using all 3 SATA ports on this mobo without issue?

Also--and this is purely out of curiosity--do the IDE ports on the Promise controller have to be used in a RAID array, or can they be used as regular IDE ports for up to 4 more IDE devices for a total of 8 on the mobo?

 

[krose]

There are 4 SATA ports, 2 nvidia, 2 Promise. There is also a PATA IDE port on the Promise, but I don't know for sure how it can be used. The Promise controller can be set up for RAID or just SATA, look under integrated peripherals in BIOS. When installing Promise drivers, do not use the Promise driver floppy it does not work. You must find the files on the CD and make another.

 

[Imyourzero]

Originally posted by: krose
There are 4 SATA ports, 2 nvidia, 2 Promise. There is also a PATA IDE port on the Promise, but I don't know for sure how it can be used. The Promise controller can be set up for RAID or just SATA, look under integrated peripherals in BIOS. When installing Promise drivers, do not use the Promise driver floppy it does not work. You must find the files on the CD and make another.

You're right; I had it backwards. I thought the Promise controller had 1xSATA and 2xPATA but it's 2xSATA and 1xPATA...thanks for clearing that up. I think you can turn the RAID function of the Promise controller on or off in the BIOS, correct?

I didn't know not to use the Promise floppy though, I appreciate you telling me.