how would i add more internat SATA ports

toblarone45 · 9 Mar 2009 at 12:35

hey all

as the title says i've got 4 at the moment but have just got another DVD RW drive and i've run out

does anyone know the best way to add more internal ones? i've browsed around and see various PCI cards that have 2 or 3 ports on them (and a external port - which i really like) but they're all classed as RAID controllers - is this what i want?

tbh none of my HD are in RAID and i'd ideally like to be able just to plug in the card/device, hook up DVD drive and away i go. but some seem rather expensive (some £500+).

any adivce would be greatly appreciated

thxs

PhillyDee · 9 Mar 2009 at 12:46

Doesnt matter. You can configure RAID cards just to use a single device. Sometimes you need to configure the card as a single JBOD device (Just a Bunch of Disks), but thats it. Pick one that has the amount of extra ports you need. You only have 4 sata ports? Sure you dont have a couple tucked away as a different colour and marked as RAID?

toblarone45 · 9 Mar 2009 at 13:01

PhillyDee said:
Doesnt matter. You can configure RAID cards just to use a single device. Sometimes you need to configure the card as a single JBOD device (Just a Bunch of Disks), but thats it. Pick one that has the amount of extra ports you need. You only have 4 sata ports? Sure you dont have a couple tucked away as a different colour and marked as RAID?

wow thank you for the quick and helpful response

Nope i've only got the 4

So does that mean i could get something like this
then configure it as a JBOD - either in the BIOS or through windows and then hook up more disk/drives etc?

PhillyDee · 9 Mar 2009 at 13:05

Yup, the card itself will probably have its own BIOS (Not sure on the cheaper cards though!) and you do the configuring in there. Its simple enough if you mess about with PC's. You may not have to configure it, it depends on the card. Someone who has used one might be by to advise differently

. I use a more expensive one I got for dirt cheap

, ive never used the adaptec ones.

sev · 10 Mar 2009 at 15:02

Adaptec controllers are industry standard, and the fact that they're now looking at mainstream users is real plus point1

This controller is really good, and as everyone has said on the review, it does have vista drivers availiable for it.

One thing to note here is that the card allows you to take all the controller dependency off the CPU, so if you get this card, i'd run your system discs off this and leave the rest of your stuff like the optical units to the onboard controller.

That particular card does have it's own Bios, and it will just show up as Adaptec XXX in your boot settings.

It'll need configuration, but if you know your way around a raid controller you shouldn't have any problems with it, if you don't want the raid function, yes, the JBOD set is the way to go. Hope this helps.