question about a sata controller card

dtokez · 5 Mar 2009 at 00:04

hi all, i need some extra storage for my htpc or whatever they are called lol. im using a small form factor pc with only 1 ide connection and im thinking about getting a sata controlled card and making a small external enclosure to house 3 or however many the card can control hdds, wiring it into the card in the pc with some long sata cables and using a spare psu to power them.

the main question being that i dont want to have all the harddrives running at all times, i know theres a feature in windows that spins down any hardrives not active after however long you want, but will using the interface card work in the same way in other words will the hard drives i connect be able to do this?

cheers

dtokez · 5 Mar 2009 at 15:29

bump? sorry

Zarf · 5 Mar 2009 at 15:52

Are you sure you don't have any SATA ports on your motherboard?

In any case, windows should be able to spin down any sata drives just the same, using an expansion card shouldn't make any odds.

You might want to get some sata to esata pci brackets (or just esata pci cards) as well, and use esata hard disk enclosures. That would be neater than running long cables out through your case.

dtokez · 5 Mar 2009 at 18:39

thanks for the reply mate. yeah ive checked and just the one ide as its a few years old anyway.

thanks for your suggestion

the only problem is that its a sff case and only 2 expansion slots (1x agp for gfx card & 1x pci for sata controller). maybe i will take the bracket off of the sata card if possible then run them through that.

what are the enclosures like and how much are they?

cheers