SATA support on non-sata motherboard?

[ungovernable]

I got an old Pentium4 laying around and i would like to use it as a NAS. My problem is that the motherboard doesnt support SATA. What would be the best way to enable SATA support ?

Will it work if i buy this card then just plug the HD into it?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VIA-VT6421-3-SATA-IDE-Serial-ATA-RAID-PCI-Card-HDD-/270813686338?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f0dc0ea42

Or i also found this IDE to SATA converter... Will it work even if my motherboard doesnt support SATA ?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PATA-IDE-SATA-Adapter-Converter-Card-3-5-HDD-9757-/170681248252?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27bd6529fc


Thanks!

 

[Pyree]

Stay away from the VIA VT6421. They have problem with HDD over 320GB.

 

[Marco925]

I wouldnt go for either of those cards either.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...7 600022627&IsNodeId=1&name=SATA II (3.0Gb/s)

if you live in the United states. Newegg has plenty of options for SATA Cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132017 This is a decent one for the cheap.

If you want something better and more reliable, you'll have to spend more for the branded cards.

 

[ungovernable]

And this kind of card will give me 4 SATA ports even if my motherboard doesnt have support for SATA and even if i dont use the drives in RAID?

 

[Pyree]

Yes, it gives you sata port.

If your mobo does not have sata, I assume it won't have pcie. You are limited to use pci card and the bandwidth of the pci card limits the number of HDD you can attach to it and still transfer with good speed, which is 1.

 

[ungovernable]

but why is there PCI cards that can support up to 4 hdd, like this one ?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/290521535467?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

It will work but i will get crappy transfer speed ? But if i write only on one disk at once i suppose that i shouldnt notice a difference ?

 

[Pyree]

You get crappy transfer rate. Use it for 1 disk.

How many IDE and pci you have and how many drives you plan to put in there?

 

[ungovernable]

Well basically i will use this NAS for all the old drives i dont use anymore.... a few 80gb's, some 160's and 320's.... half of them will be IDE, others will be SATA

i have 5 PCI and 2 IDE

 

[Pyree]

Yeah, if you are attaching so many drives, you have to connect several of them to 1 pci card.

The VIA VT6421 should works if you do't attach HDD more than 320GB on it. But knowing that it has problem wit hit, I will select something better. The Sil3114 controller you select on your second link can support up to 2TB.

 

[ungovernable]

The Sil3114 controller you select on your second link can support up to 2TB.

Great, thanks, i just bought it... i'll test the write speed with a couple of sats disks plugged in, if it is too slow i'll just buy more cards

thank you !

 

[ungovernable]

Best answer selected by ungovernable.

 

[ungovernable]

The Sil3114 controller you select on your second link can support up to 2TB.

Are you sure of that ? I asked seller after buying, and he told me it wont even support 1tb !

 

[Pyree]

On older bios of the card supports up to 500GB I think but on newer bios they can support 2TB. I think you are most likely to land on a card with a new bio now days. Anyway, you can flash them.

http://www.siliconimage.com/support/searchresults.aspx?pid=28&cat=15

But since you are not going above 320GB, flash it or not is your choice.

 

[ungovernable]

I see, thanks a lot for the infos !! That was very helpful