Controlled by P55 Chipset or SATA2? For non-RAID ...

[OCChew]

Hi Folks,

I have decided to go for a non-RAID configuration with 2 HDDs i.e. 1st SSD (80G) and 2nd HDD (1TB), both SATA drives.

OS Win 7 on 1st SSD.
Data & storage on 2nd HHD.

My mobo is Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2.

In the instruction booklet it says:

SATA_0/1/2/3/ (SATA 3Gb/s Connectors, Controlled by P55 Chipset, Blue)

GSATA2_0/1 (SATA 3Gb/s Connectors, Controlled by GIGABYTE SATA2, White).

Question:

1) Which one do I choose for my setup above?

2) Are they different in terms of performance etc?


Also ... in Chapter 5 ... configuring SATA Hard Drive(s) ... the instruction says ...

"Make a floppy disk containing the SATA RAID/AHCI driver for Windows XP"

Question:

3) I do not have floppy disk so how am I going to create the driver for the SATA RAID/AHCI driver for Win 7?

Cheers

 

[OCChew]

Thanks Folks for your inputs.

Sorry for the late update as I have been changing fans & adding fans to my rig. The cable management is a bit of a nightmare. LOL!

Oh ya ... I have also added two 40mm fans at the rear to pull out the hot air to make it some sort of air flow tunnel.

As to my question of Controller that is one item cleared, one step closer to the new build.

So Blue SATA port it is.

Question:

1) Which blue SATA2 ports do I connect my HDDs to for since there are five SATA2 ports on my mobo? I mean which two exactly? Vertically? Horizontally?

This is how they are arranged on the mobo in pairs but what are those numbers beside the ports i.e. the number 7 & 1 ? 7 [ ... ] [ ... ] 1

7 [SATA2_3] [SATA2_1]1
7 [SATA2_2] [SATA2_0]1

7 [SATA2_4]

2) Why is there a lone 7 [SATA_4] and what is it for?

I am glad that Win 7 will install the drivers for me instead of having to use floppy.

Yes, I will ask more about the updates to driver, chipset, bios etc later on once the rig is ready to go.

I am also lining up the followings software ... Shadow Defender, Macrium Reflect, etc

Cheers



p/s: I feel my proudest moment after 2 nights contemplating on how to mount the H50 radiator I feel really good using the bicycle chain links as the extension for the bolts. No case drilling etc at all. At one point I was even thinking of using Meccano toy parts.

 

[OCChew]

well, it doesnt matter which of those you plug the drives into, your motherboard should detect them just the same. If its bugging you, then sata0 and sata1 would be your best bet.

The 1s and 7s seem like they're labelling pins on the sata cable, so you know which way the cable goes in (ie, pin one goes on the side labelled 1 and vice versa with pin 7). however, sata cables only go in one way, so i have no idea why gigabyte decided to label them...

the lone sata4 is there because the p55 supports 6 sata ports. However, one of these is used by the esata on the backplate, so theres only 5 left in the bottom corner.

hope that helps

by the way, did you ever get your case issue sorted, or do you still have the red one?

Thanks for the info. Now I know. Learn something new everyday. Been reading the instruction book for the mobo ...

Will use the ports as suggested then.

No, the black case is out of stock so I am alright with sticking to the red one. No problem with the colour just don't like the price different due to colour that's all.