Question about Intel DP965LTCK motherboard

[Jeff Barnett]

I have ordered the above motherboard and expect it here in a few days.
It supports several SATA disks but no raid of any kind. While scanning
some of the "customer feedback" at newegg.com about that board, I
noticed that a few people complained because a floppy was not shipped
with it and they had to dig it out of Intel's website. Since there is no
raid, I assume that the "F6" style installation of XP is not necessary.
I looked around Intel's driver download site and in there knowledge base
and could find nothing to support the need for such installation-time
drivers.

There seems to be two possibilities: (1) the feedback providers are
smoking dope and probably reviewed the wrong board - there are a lot of
965 chipset boards or (2) there is an actual need for a special driver
presentation during OS installation. Has anyone seeing this message had
experience with this specific motherboard? Any knowledgeable feedback
would be most appreciated.


-- Jeff Barnett

 

[Paul]

I have ordered the above motherboard and expect it here in a few days.
It supports several SATA disks but no raid of any kind. While scanning
some of the "customer feedback" at newegg.com about that board, I
noticed that a few people complained because a floppy was not shipped
with it and they had to dig it out of Intel's website. Since there is no
raid, I assume that the "F6" style installation of XP is not necessary.
I looked around Intel's driver download site and in there knowledge base
and could find nothing to support the need for such installation-time
drivers.

There seems to be two possibilities: (1) the feedback providers are
smoking dope and probably reviewed the wrong board - there are a lot of
965 chipset boards or (2) there is an actual need for a special driver
presentation during OS installation. Has anyone seeing this message had
experience with this specific motherboard? Any knowledgeable feedback
would be most appreciated.


-- Jeff Barnett

The board uses an ICH8 Southbridge. AFAIK, that gives 4 SATA ports.

Traditionally, Intel SATA ports have had either "compatible" or
"enhanced" mode options. Compatible behaves like an old IDE disk,
uses IRQ 14 and 15, and the drive registers are in the I/O space.
Enhanced makes the drive control appear in the PCI space.

An OS like WinXP SP1 has a driver for the PCI option, so no
driver should be required for the Southbridge ports.

The big question, is the PATA (IDE ribbon cable) port. The Intel
manual is quiet on the topic of what chip is used. I did find one
reference in Google:

"It turned out that DP965LT uses Marvell 88SE6101 controller
for PATA, not a JMicron one"

And that just might be a reason for a floppy and F6. If, say, you
wanted to boot from PATA.

Paul

 

[Anna]

The board uses an ICH8 Southbridge. AFAIK, that gives 4 SATA ports.

Traditionally, Intel SATA ports have had either "compatible" or
"enhanced" mode options. Compatible behaves like an old IDE disk,
uses IRQ 14 and 15, and the drive registers are in the I/O space.
Enhanced makes the drive control appear in the PCI space.

An OS like WinXP SP1 has a driver for the PCI option, so no
driver should be required for the Southbridge ports.

The big question, is the PATA (IDE ribbon cable) port. The Intel
manual is quiet on the topic of what chip is used. I did find one
reference in Google:

"It turned out that DP965LT uses Marvell 88SE6101 controller
for PATA, not a JMicron one"

And that just might be a reason for a floppy and F6. If, say, you
wanted to boot from PATA.

Paul

Jeff:
There is no need for the "F6 routine" with that Intel motherboard in order
to provide auxiliary SATA drivers. The SATA controller driver is integrated
in that MB. Should you also install a bootable PATA HDD you will be able to
set the boot priority order in the BIOS so as to boot to either that HDD or
to a bootable SATA HDD.
Anna

 

[Jeff Barnett]

The board uses an ICH8 Southbridge. AFAIK, that gives 4 SATA ports.

Traditionally, Intel SATA ports have had either "compatible" or
"enhanced" mode options. Compatible behaves like an old IDE disk,
uses IRQ 14 and 15, and the drive registers are in the I/O space.
Enhanced makes the drive control appear in the PCI space.

An OS like WinXP SP1 has a driver for the PCI option, so no
driver should be required for the Southbridge ports.

The big question, is the PATA (IDE ribbon cable) port. The Intel
manual is quiet on the topic of what chip is used. I did find one
reference in Google:

"It turned out that DP965LT uses Marvell 88SE6101 controller
for PATA, not a JMicron one"

And that just might be a reason for a floppy and F6. If, say, you
wanted to boot from PATA.

Paul

I will be booting from a SATA drive. Thanks for the information.

-- Jeff Barnett

 

[Jeff Barnett]

Anna wrote:

Jeff Barnett wrote:



I have ordered the above motherboard and expect it here in a few days. It supports several SATA disks but no raid of any kind. While scanning some of the "customer feedback" at newegg.com about that board, I noticed that a few people complained because a floppy was not shipped with it and they had to dig it out of Intel's website. Since there is no raid, I assume that the "F6" style installation of XP is not necessary. I looked around Intel's driver download site and in there knowledge base and could find nothing to support the need for such installation-time drivers. There seems to be two possibilities: (1) the feedback providers are smoking dope and probably reviewed the wrong board - there are a lot of 965 chipset boards or (2) there is an actual need for a special driver presentation during OS installation. Has anyone seeing this message had experience with this specific motherboard? Any knowledgeable feedback would be most appreciated. -- Jeff Barnett



"Paul" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...



The board uses an ICH8 Southbridge. AFAIK, that gives 4 SATA ports. Traditionally, Intel SATA ports have had either "compatible" or "enhanced" mode options. Compatible behaves like an old IDE disk, uses IRQ 14 and 15, and the drive registers are in the I/O space. Enhanced makes the drive control appear in the PCI space. An OS like WinXP SP1 has a driver for the PCI option, so no driver should be required for the Southbridge ports. The big question, is the PATA (IDE ribbon cable) port. The Intel manual is quiet on the topic of what chip is used. I did find one reference in Google: "It turned out that DP965LT uses Marvell 88SE6101 controller for PATA, not a JMicron one" And that just might be a reason for a floppy and F6. If, say, you wanted to boot from PATA. Paul



Jeff: There is no need for the "F6 routine" with that Intel motherboard in order to provide auxiliary SATA drivers. The SATA controller driver is integrated in that MB. Should you also install a bootable PATA HDD you will be able to set the boot priority order in the BIOS so as to boot to either that HDD or to a bootable SATA HDD. Anna

Thank you for the reply.

-- Jeff Barnett