Can I put a SATA card in computer that doesn't have a SATA bus

Hi,

I want to install a SATA card with external ports in my current
computer, so that I can copy files from my current hard drive to a new
internal SATA drive (which will be in an external enclosure).

On two or three web pages, nothing was mentioned about needing a SATA
bus to install a SATA card, but on one page it said "People who own
computers that employ a Serial ATA (SATA) bus with an available PCI
slot can install a SATA card" Nothing in my current motherboard
manual (ASUS A7M266) says anything about a SATA bus, only a PCI bus.

Do you think my motherboard can handle a SATA card?

Thanks a lot.

mm wrote:

> Can I put a SATA card in computer that doesn't have a SATA bus
>
> I want to install a SATA card with external ports in my current
> computer, so that I can copy files from my current hard drive to a new
> internal SATA drive (which will be in an external enclosure).
>
> On two or three web pages, nothing was mentioned about needing a SATA
> bus to install a SATA card, but on one page it said "People who own
> computers that employ a Serial ATA (SATA) bus with an available PCI
> slot can install a SATA card" Nothing in my current motherboard
> manual (ASUS A7M266) says anything about a SATA bus, only a PCI bus.
>
> Do you think my motherboard can handle a SATA card?

You need a SATA bus to use a SATA drive, but you don't need a SATA bus
to make a SATA controller work with a motherboard. A PCI or PCI-E bus
is enough for a SATA controller card. Every motherboard I've seen
that had a PCI-E bus also has built-in SATA ports, so you need a PCI
SATA controller, and I suggest you get one based on a Silicon Image
chip, like the SiL3112, SiL3512 (virtually the same as the 3112), or
SiL3114 (4-drive version). The 3112 and 3512 are availble from Ebay
dealers for as little as $6, delivered.

Avoid controllers based on a VIA VT6421x chip because they don't
recognize drives running in 300MB/second SATA mode, as virtually all
modern SATA drives do. They require that drives be limited to 150MB/
s, which can be done through a jumper with Seagate and 3.5" Western
Digital drives but not with Hitachi or Samsung drives. The latter
require running a utility program, but it won't work unless the SATA
controller recognizes 300MB/s drives.

If you're using Windows XP, you'll have to load in a driver program
for the SATA card, either from a floppy disk or with a Windows
installation CD that's been slipstreamed to include the SATA driver
program.

I use Silicon Image and Promise SATA PCI controllers with an old ECS
K7S5A Pro mobo and an Asrock K7VT4A Pro. The latter has a SATA
controller built into it, but it's lousy because it's based on the VIA
VT6421A (built into its VT8237chip).

mm wrote:

> Can I put a SATA card in computer that doesn't have a SATA bus

Yes, or use an adapter on the drive.

> I want to install a SATA card with external ports in my current
> computer, so that I can copy files from my current hard drive to
> a new internal SATA drive (which will be in an external enclosure).

> On two or three web pages, nothing was mentioned about needing a SATA
> bus to install a SATA card, but on one page it said "People who own
> computers that employ a Serial ATA (SATA) bus with an available PCI
> slot can install a SATA card" Nothing in my current motherboard
> manual (ASUS A7M266) says anything about a SATA bus, only a PCI bus.

SATA support will be listed in the hard drive section.

> Do you think my motherboard can handle a SATA card?

Yes. Its crucial to get a PCI card, not PCI-e etc, that motherboard only supports PCI cards.
That does mean that it wont be able to do the full SATA speed because its limited by the
slower PCI bus speed.

The other approach is to get an IDE/SATA adapter that goes on the drive itself and makes it
look like an IDE drive to the motherboard. That works fine and will allow the drive to be used faster.

> Thanks a lot.

mm <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Can I put a SATA card in computer that doesn't have a SATA bus

Yes. My recomendation for PCI is the "Promise SATA 300 TX4".
You may or may not need an OS driver.

Arno
--
Arno Wagner, Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform., CISSP -- Email: (E-Mail Removed)
GnuPG: ID: 1E25338F FP: 0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F
----
Cuddly UI's are the manifestation of wishful thinking. -- Dylan Evans

On 21/08/2010 7:18 PM, Arno wrote:
> mm<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> Can I put a SATA card in computer that doesn't have a SATA bus
>
> Yes. My recomendation for PCI is the "Promise SATA 300 TX4".
> You may or may not need an OS driver.
>
> Arno

If a motherboard doesn't currently have any SATA ports in it right now,
then you will need to get either a SATA card with its own BIOS, or a
SATA-to-IDE adapter. Otherwise, you won't be able to boot into the SATA
drive.

Yousuf Khan

On 21 Aug 2010 23:18:15 GMT, Arno <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>mm <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> Can I put a SATA card in computer that doesn't have a SATA bus
>
>Yes. My recomendation for PCI is the "Promise SATA 300 TX4".
>You may or may not need an OS driver.
>
>Arno

Thanks, Arno. Ebay had one, with 4 ports, for 65 dollars. Too rich
for my blood.

This is interesting, this page has at least 10 stores selling it for
about 70 dollars
http://www.google.com/products/catal...CAcQ8wIwADgA#p

But this page has 17 selling it for 280 to 338 dollars, only one for
less than 280, 262. ????
http://www.google.com/products/catal...CCcQ8wIwAjgA#p

They seem like the same thing, well one is 300 and the other is II but
the first paragraph of the descriptions are word for word the same.

Promise SATA300 TX4 Storage controller- Serial ATA-300- 300 MBps --
the first page

Promise SATA300 TX4 Storage controller- Serial ATA II- 300 MBps ==
the second page

But right belows is the first page opening paragraph. It's identical
to the first paragraph of the second one. And so is the part that
shows after I click "More". What does this mean?

Plug-in card, PCI / 66 MHz, 4.7? x 2?, PC
The 4-port Promise SATA300 TX4 SATA controller offers a low-cost
solution for connecting up to four of the latest, high-performance
SATA 3Gb/s disk drives to PC motherboards with a PCI interface. While
drive capabilities continue to advance at a fast rate, the vast
majority of available motherboards still use the PCI interface to
connect peripheral devices. With the SATA300 TX4, users can benefit
from a flexible solution that connects the most advanced drives to
their existing system, the ideal future-proofing upgrade. While
storage system performance is affected by components throughout the
storage system, SATA drives with 3Gb/s can deliver ...

But this is the second page opening paragraph,
Plug-in card, PCI / 66 MHz, 4.7? x 2?, PC
The 4-port Promise SATA300 TX4 SATA controller offers a low-cost
solution for connecting up to four of the latest, high-performance
SATA 3Gb/s disk drives to PC motherboards with a PCI interface. While
drive capabilities continue to advance at a fast rate, the vast
majority of available motherboards still use the PCI interface to
connect peripheral devices. With the SATA300 TX4, users can benefit
from a flexible solution that connects the most advanced drives to
their existing system, the ideal future-proofing upgrade. While
storage system performance is affected by components throughout the
storage system, SATA drives with 3Gb/s can deliver

Amazon is listed as a vendor of both things, at either 65 or 300
dollars. How can this be? I'm confused!

On Sat, 21 Aug 2010 11:49:29 -0400, Mark F <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>On Sat, 21 Aug 2010 00:33:32 -0400, mm <(E-Mail Removed)>
>wrote:
>
>> Can I put a SATA card in computer that doesn't have a SATA bus
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I want to install a SATA card with external ports in my current
>> computer, so that I can copy files from my current hard drive to a new
>> internal SATA drive (which will be in an external enclosure).
>>
>> On two or three web pages, nothing was mentioned about needing a SATA
>> bus to install a SATA card, but on one page it said "People who own
>> computers that employ a Serial ATA (SATA) bus with an available PCI
>> slot can install a SATA card"
>It would be nice to have the URL for the page that is troubling you,

Sorry. In hot weather, my current computer has been overheating, so
I've gotten in the habit of closing tabs as soon as I can, but since
it wasn't weeks ago, I found it easily with FF history from yesterday.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2202963_card...cix-slots.html

>but the page writer seems confused.

I guess so! The article covers external drives too which everyone
here says will work without the SATA bus.

>A PCI or PCI-E add-in card
>will provide the SATA bus that you can plug in a cable from your
>external disk. I suggest getting a card with eSATA connectors rather
>than SATA connectors, but SATA connectors work if you are careful
>not to break them.

I don't usually hurry but I was at Best Buys and for 20 dollars got
DYNEX 2-port e-SATA PCI-Express Adapater, which I'm sure is the same
as eSATA, right?
>
>You could also get an external box with a USB 2 connector instead of
>or in addition to an eSATA connector and use the USB 2 connector on
>the motherboard. It would be slower than a SATA connection, but
>the board seems to have PCI, not PCI-E slots

So I do need PCI-E slots for this PCI-Express card???

I could do the USB thing.

> (per
> http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/a7m266/page2.asp ),

It's not working right now.

but,
>if you are only doing the operation one time

The original plan was once only, but then I thought about keeping the
2 computers matching. OTOH, if I could only get my local network
working, aren't there easy ways to sync to XP computers through the
network. Who am I kidding? I won't keep this up for more than 2
months. So it's a one-time thing!

(Off topic: Now I have win2000 in the basement and XP upstairs. I
should still have been able to get the network working, since they
both access the router, the basement computer wirelessly. I'll get it
eventually.)

>in order to copy
>to a new computer you might not want to buy a PCI card. Also,
>PCI cards for SATA might not be able to handle 2TB drives or even
>512GB drives, so that should be considered)

The current drive is only about 80Gigs and if I can find the SATA
drive a friend gave me, that's not that big either.
>
>Also, depending on your configuration and what you plan to do
>in the future you might want to get a PATA to SATA converter
>card. You won't get all of the functionality of SATA, but you
>will be able to get the advantages of higher capacity and
>higher speed of the new drive. Again, there might be problems
>for larger sized drives.
>
>> Nothing in my current motherboard
>> manual (ASUS A7M266) says anything about a SATA bus, only a PCI bus.
>>
>> Do you think my motherboard can handle a SATA card?
>>
>> Thanks a lot.

Thanks again, to you and everyone.

On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 04:53:33 +1000, "Rod Speed"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>mm wrote:
>
>> Can I put a SATA card in computer that doesn't have a SATA bus
>
>Yes, or use an adapter on the drive.

Good to know.
>
>> I want to install a SATA card with external ports in my current
>> computer, so that I can copy files from my current hard drive to
>> a new internal SATA drive (which will be in an external enclosure).
>
>> On two or three web pages, nothing was mentioned about needing a SATA
>> bus to install a SATA card, but on one page it said "People who own
>> computers that employ a Serial ATA (SATA) bus with an available PCI
>> slot can install a SATA card" Nothing in my current motherboard
>> manual (ASUS A7M266) says anything about a SATA bus, only a PCI bus.
>
>SATA support will be listed in the hard drive section.

My mobo is probably at least 10 years old. No use of the word "SATA"

>> Do you think my motherboard can handle a SATA card?
>
>Yes. Its crucial to get a PCI card, not PCI-e etc, that motherboard only supports PCI cards.
>That does mean that it wont be able to do the full SATA speed because its limited by the
>slower PCI bus speed.

It's a good thing I asked. The card I bought comes in a
non-recloseable package. They'd still give me my money back but I
don't like to do that. that.

>The other approach is to get an IDE/SATA adapter that goes on the drive itself and makes it
>look like an IDE drive to the motherboard. That works fine and will allow the drive to be used faster.

Good to know. Really, even though on this computer I'll probably only
do this once.

>> Thanks a lot.
>
Thanks again Rod, and to everyone.

On Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:01:46 -0400, Yousuf Khan
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On 21/08/2010 7:18 PM, Arno wrote:
>> mm<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>> Can I put a SATA card in computer that doesn't have a SATA bus
>>
>> Yes. My recomendation for PCI is the "Promise SATA 300 TX4".
>> You may or may not need an OS driver.
>>
>> Arno
>
>If a motherboard doesn't currently have any SATA ports in it right now,
>then you will need to get either a SATA card with its own BIOS, or a
>SATA-to-IDE adapter. Otherwise, you won't be able to boot into the SATA
>drive.
>
> Yousuf Khan

If someone ends up with the Rosewill RC-210, be sure to read the
reviews on this page
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816132007

The third one talks aobut how, for him, the card bios interfered with
his computer bios, and not only that, he says how to get rid of the
problem, by flash erasing the card bios, and where to get the software
to do that.

The first two reviewers seem to have no trouble. Still they got 21
and 22 people who found their reviews helpful and the guy with all the
info only got that from 9 people. Heck, even if I never have the
problem the third guy had, I'd consider his review much more helpful,
just in case I did.

Arno wrote:
>
> Yes. My recomendation for PCI is the "Promise SATA 300 TX4".

What about for us mere mortals who can't get special deals?

4-port Promise cards, even knock-offs, seem to be expensive for a
Socket 462 system, at least $50, delivered. OTOH 4-port Silicon Image
cards can be had for $14, delivered. If I was going to spend $50 for
SATA support, I'd rather get a mobo with built-in SATA because it will
be compatible with almost all optical drives and be able to boot from
them, and I haven't found a plug-in controller that could boot from
optical drives. Some Fry's and Newegg mobo & CPU combos don't cost
much more than $50 (I'm using a BioStar G41-M7 with Intel E3300, <
$40).

There's no benefit to a PCI card having SATA 300 support because PCI
is limited to 133MB/second, and all SATA 150 PCI cards, except those
using VIA's SATA 150 chips (like the VT6421A), are compatible with
SATA 300 drives.