GA-EP45-UD3R - best SATA ports to use?

[BillK]

Just got my new Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R board and it's been a long time since I built a new PC - so long that I'm pretty much lost when it comes to the SATA ports and other things.

I see the bank of 6 Orange SATA ports and the small bank of 2 Purple ones.

Could someone please tell me the best ones to use. I'll have (2) 500gb Seagate SATA hard drives (not in a raid) and just 1 Asus SATA DVD Burner.

I just want to make sure I'm going to get the best performance and want to use the right SATA ports from the get-go.

Also - I see there are 2 power connectors on the mobo - one big - one small - do I utilize BOTH or only one of them? I bought an OCZ 600w power supply for this build.

Thanks!

Bill

[wtfchuck]

Re: GA-EP45-UD3R - best SATA ports to use?

The general opinion is it's best to use the orange ones.

[flyfisher]

Re: GA-EP45-UD3R - best SATA ports to use?

Use the orange ones. They are controlled by the Intel ICH10R southbridge. Put your boot drive on SATA 0. In the BIOS under integrated peripherals set the SATA 0-3 port native mode to enabled.

[Idle]

Re: GA-EP45-UD3R - best SATA ports to use?

Yes, use the yellow/orange connectors — the other controller is best left to the IDE cable (its main reason for existence) — odd things seem to happen on the purple SATA ports.

You need to (must!) use both connectors (your OCZ PSU will have plugs to fit both — I have the 700W version and it's extra well equipped connector-wise.)

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-EP45-UD3R - best SATA ports to use?

As said above, use the Intel Controller and put your Hard drives in Port 0 + 1 and then put your CD/DVD drive in the last yellow/orange port or if it is IDE you know the drill there.

As for Power plus, I assume as Idle did you meant your ATX 24 Pin, and ATX4/8Pin, yes you HAVE to connect both the 24 pin and the 8pin (Or 4pin if your PSU Does not have 8)

[BillK]

Re: GA-EP45-UD3R - best SATA ports to use?

Thanks so much for the replies guys - I'm really looking forward to this build. My last PC I built was with an ABIT KV8-Max3 mobo - so it's definitely been a while.

My system when done will consist of Intel 2.4ghz quad core, 4gb Gskill PC8500 ram, 2 500gb Seagate 32mb sata hd's, Sapphire 4870 512mb video, Asus sata dvd burner and a Lian Li PC A05 case.

If only NewEgg hadn't screwed up my order I'd have it built by now - but for some reason they never shipped the case until 5 days after I ordered it - so all the rest arrived on Monday and the case is MIA until next Monday - 1/5/09.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-EP45-UD3R - best SATA ports to use?

Ya, that is a Bit old. You will love the upgrade for sure

Did you call and get a shipping refund? If not, you should! Be nice and you will get shipping refunded for sure, I have done it MANY times

[Loctite]

Re: GA-EP45-UD3R - best SATA ports to use?

I am glad have run across this thread of info on this particular Gigabyte MB. I just bought one and would have asked the same question regarding SATA ports on this board.
Thanks,
Loctite

[7Enigma]

Re: GA-EP45-UD3R - best SATA ports to use?

Quick question since SATA is new to me. I just built a system with this mobo and have a single SATA HD and SATA DVD drive. I (using the manual's recommendation) have the DVD drive on Sata0 (orange) and the HD on the purple one. I have no RAID or plans for it and so am wondering if I should change the cables to the recommended Sata0 (orange) for the HD and Sata6 (last orange) for the DVD drive? Or should I just leave it alone?

Will it autodetect or do I need to select something?

Thanks.

[Idle]

Re: GA-EP45-UD3R - best SATA ports to use?

Yes, definitely change it.

If you're not using RAID and have only the one drive, it should auto-detect.

[SpeedEuphoria]

Re: GA-EP45-UD3R - best SATA ports to use?

Also if you dont use the purple slots or IDE/floppy you can disable those in bios

[7Enigma]

Re: GA-EP45-UD3R - best SATA ports to use?

Thanks for the reply. I'll be changing over today, hopefully with no issues. When I disable the GSATA ports will that decrease power on the mobo at all or just disable detection in windows? :D

[Idle]

Re: GA-EP45-UD3R - best SATA ports to use?

It will let your system start a little faster and free up some memory.

You won't really notice anything unless you're running with minimal RAM — possibly not even then.

[7Enigma]

Re: GA-EP45-UD3R - best SATA ports to use?

Nope I'm running with 4gigs. But I'm definitely interested to see if it quickens boot time. When I switched HD's and cloned the system I now have a 5-7 second disk thrashing right before the windows logo comes up when loading. I had thought it was a cloning issue where the info isn't exactly where it thought it is (even though the clone should be identical), but now I'm wondering if it's the GSATA port. If that fixes the issue it will be great, as it slows down my boot but more importantly thrashes the disk for no apparent reason.