Sata 2 - ICH10R vs GIGABYTE controller. Help.

[irlwizard]

Hello my mobo is a GB-X58A-UD5 rev 1.0 and it has 8 sata 2 ports. 6 of them are ICH10R Sata 2 controller and the other 2 are GIGABYTE Sata 2 controller.

I have no idea what controller is the best. Can someone explain their purpose and what to look for in a controller so I know how to pick a good mobo when I buy a new PC in the future. Thanks in advance.

 

[ngrego]

Your ports are 2xSata3 6Gb/s and 6xSata2 3Gb/s.

These are your Mobo specs according to Gigabyte:
South Bridge:
1.6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_0, SATA2_1, SATA2_2, SATA2_3, SATA2_4, SATA2_5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices
2.Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
Marvell 9128 chip:
1.2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3_6, GSATA3_7) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
2.Support for SATA RAID 0, and RAID 1

That was on their site...

 

[Hawkeye22]

I'd start with the ICH10R sata ports first.

 

[smorizio]

on your mb the 6g sata spec had just came out that why you have a 3 party sata chipset on your mb. intel newest chipset now have the 6g sata built into there chipset. most 3 party sata chipset on newer mb are used for people doing raid or need lot of drives in there pc.

 

[irlwizard]

Your ports are 2xSata3 6Gb/s and 6xSata2 3Gb/s.

These are your Mobo specs according to Gigabyte:
South Bridge:
1.6 x SATA 3Gb/s connectors (SATA2_0, SATA2_1, SATA2_2, SATA2_3, SATA2_4, SATA2_5) supporting up to 6 SATA 3Gb/s devices
2.Support for SATA RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10
Marvell 9128 chip:
1.2 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors (GSATA3_6, GSATA3_7) supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices
2.Support for SATA RAID 0, and RAID 1

That was on their site...

Halfway there... My mobo booklet (page 30) says the 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are Sata 3.0 gb/s on a ICH10R controller. Note: Page 10 under the summary titled Storage Interface calls it South Bridge. So I am guessing ICH10R is another name for south bridge or something.

The marvell controller is the only Sata 6gb/s, slot 6 and 7, they are both currently used. Lot 6 is my SSD and slot 7 is my HDD.

Then slot 8 and 9 is Gigabyte Sata 2 chip... The mobo book says on page 10 that it supports...
- 1x IDE connector supporting ATA-133/100/66/33 and up to 2 IDE devices
- 2x Sata 3Gb/s connectors (GSATA2_8, GSATA2_9) supporting up to 2 SATA 3GB/s devices
- Support for SATA RAID 0, 1 and JBOD.

Note: the Sata 6GB/s on the marvell controller are also GSATA (GSATA3_6. GSATA3_7)... The ICH10R are just SATA2.



So, I am simply wondering if I should connect my 3rd backup drive to slot GSATA2_8 (gigabyte sata 2 controller) or SATA2_0 on the South Bridge (aka ICH10R) storage interface.

Also worth noting that I run Windows 7 64bit and plan to run all my storage drives in AHCI mode not IDE. Apart from three Storage drives I also have 1x DVD Burner that is an IDE drive. With that in mind should I make the BIOS for south bridge IDE and use my DVD burner there. Then use my 3rd backup drive in GSATA2_8 with AHCI mode. Or the other way around.

PS: I don't know the difference with GSATA2 and SATA2.

 

[irlwizard]

Going to note some BIOS settings from the 'Integrated Peripherals' subheading that I don't understand while I am at it.

Q1
ICH Sata Controller Mode - IDE, RAID (XHD), AHCI
According to my BLOCK DIAGRAM. GSATA2 is connected like this...
GSATA --> PCI Express Bus --> Intel ICH10R ---> Intel X58.
So if I have this set to IDE for say, DVD Burning can the GSATA still function as AHCI since it would have to pass through the IDE set ICH controller?

Note: The Sata 6Gb/s don't pass the ICH. Just...
2SATA 6GB/s --> PCI Express Bus --> Intel X58

The ICH10R Sata go...
6 Sata 3GB/s --> Intel ICH10R --> Intel X58 (no PCI Express Bus).

Q2
Sata Port 0-3 Native Mode - Enable, Disable.
When Enabled, Native IDE mode. When Disabled, Legacy IDE mode.
What is the difference between Native and Legacy mode? And why do I have this option if my ICH Sata Controller Mode is set to AHCI?

Q3
SATA 3 Firmware Selection - Onboard, Auto, Force. Don't understand what this does or what to set it as.
SATA 3 Raid mode Controller - IDE, RAID, Auto. Why is this option coming up when I don't want to run raid and why can't I disable it? Since I am forced to select something , what should it be. I don't want my nonRAID Sata3 drives to be IDE mode but there is no option for AHCI here.

Q4
GSATA Ctrl Mode - IDE, AHCI
GSATA IDE Ctrl Mode - IDE. AHCI or RAID/IDE.
Why do I have two Ctrl mode options for the GSATA? Is it even possible to select AHCI on the first and IDE on the second.

Q5
eSata Ctr Mode - IDE, AHCI, RAID (eSata is portable harddrives right? Should it be set to IDE or AHCI?).

Q6
Onboard H/W 1394 (what is that. onboard network card perhaps)?

Edit: Edited Question 1-6 for easier answering and if you can only answer e.g. Q2 you can do that and leave the rest out.