Find Mobo - Sandy Bridge & IDE / PATA & 8x/8x SLI-capable

[tech-poster]

Does a motherboard exist by any manufacturer that has the Intel Sandy Bridge (SB) chipset (any of H67, P67, Z68) and an IDE / PATA connector (only need one, don't care 100 or 133 standard) and two PCIe x16 width card slots that run in 8x/8x when in SLI or CrossFireX (since we're talking SB, they'll be either PCIe standard version 2 or 3, don't care which)?

I am aware of the AsusTek SB motherboards (P8P67 and P8H67 series), but they only come in 16x/4x with the IDE / PATA connector. When you move to the models with 8x/8x support (like the PRO line in the series) they lose the IDE / PATA connector. Anyone know why? The space where the connector was is empty and I hardly think it's PCB trace real estate. SB should support 16x or 8x/8x PCIe 2.0 direct to the CPU die, while any IDE / PATA support would have to come over the DMI via the chipset (South Bridge). Support for one shouldn't effect the other. Those boards usually have more USB support, so maybe that's the trade-off AsusTek made. Too bad for me.

Much thanks in advance!

PS Please don't post just to say IDE / PATA is a dying or dead interface and any peripheral I have on that standard I should just buy a SATA equivalent.

 

[CaedenV]

Pata connectors are quickly disappearing in modern equipment. If you really need one (i assume this is for an old CD drive) then you can get a cheap PATA PCI adapter, but for the same price you could just get a new SATA CD burner and not have the extra card wasting space.

 

[CaedenV]

LOL, sorry I just read the last line of your post. But it is the truth, they just dont exist on most high end boards anymore.

 

[ko888]

The following two Cougar Point Chipset motherboards have an ATA133 IDE connector (supports 2 x IDE devices) and include an ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card. To be able to support NVIDIA SLI two PCI Express x16 slots must be able to operate in at least x8/x8 mode so the inclusion of an ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card seems to confirm this.

ASRock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen3

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157263


ASRock Fatal1ty P67 Professional

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157240


ASRock is a company spun off by ASUS to create motherboards for the mainstream market.

 

[tech-poster]

Short Reply / Question : Anyone have experience with PATA / IDE to SATA converters? Like the little PCB ones that would be perfect inside a computer case were I can connect a psu 4-pin molex power cable and SATA data cable to a PATA / IDE drive and be ready to go for only a few bucks investment with little space lost or size added to the drive.

Long Reply : If I do go the converter route, I would opt for a PATA to SATA converter rather than through the PCI interface (also dying vs PCIe, but not as dead as PATA vs SATA, imho). The devices I'm still hanging on to are from the last iteration of PATA, the 133 standard (Ultra ATA 133 aka Ultra DMA 133 aka 133 MB/s). At 133 MB/s, PCI will bottleneck at its peak 133 MB/s rate (talking 5V 32-bit 33 MHz standard) because it's shared and I would like to utilize PCI sound and/or TV tuner cards. USB 2.0 yields only 480 Mb/s (60 MB/s). That leaves SATA 1.0 (1.5 Gb/s or roughly equivalent to the UDMA 133 MB/s). Since SATA is backward compatible, SATA 2.0 (3 Gb/s) and 3.0 (6 Gb/s) will still accept the slow connection.

I also want to keep these devices inside the case, so external enclosures are not my preference. My issue is mainly the burden of an external power supply vs access to the 4-pin molex connectors inside the case. I currently own an enclosure to convert PATA to USB 2.0 (why I mentioned that above vs 3.0 which easily handles 640 MB/s) and it's a hassle.

Full disclosure, it's two PATA HDD and an ODD I'm hanging onto. I want to be able to boot off these, too. Anyone know if UEFI (sigh, "another one bytes (sic) the dust" - pun intended - cya BIOS) supports boot from USB (ie my PATA HDD in an enclosure)?

When it makes sense (cost/benefit) I'll ditch the PCI as well as PATA. I've long since let ISA and AGP go. ;-)

PS Blows my mind FDD connector, serial port, and parrallel port can still be found on modern mobo. Waiting for VGA connectors to disappear, my next headache.

 

[tech-poster]

Reply to ko888 -

Thanks, these do fit the description. (wondering why I didn't remember these when I did a Power search on newegg.com using the ATA133 and ATA100 check boxes with LGA 1155 checked, then I remembered) However, these Fatal1ty boards come at a price premium. They are at least 100 bucks more than the AsusTek boards. At that price point (cost/benefit) it makes sense to buy the cheaper board and use the $100 on a SATA ODD and two SATA HDD.

Note to self, Cougar Point is the code name for the Intel 6000-series chipset and Sandy Bridge is the code name for the 2nd Gen Intel Core processors associated with that chipset and its LGA 1155 socket. FYI, for anyone else.