Using SATA drives with IDE motherboard

IanCooper · Post by **IanCooper** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:10 pm

Is it possible to use a SATA hard drive with a motherboard that only has support for IDE (ATA/100/66)?

My server is a Mini-ITX system: a VIA EPIA 5000 fanless motherboard inside a Casetronic 2677 case. It has an 80GB hard drive in it, and I'd like to switch it out for a newer, bigger hard drive. But IDE hard drives are getting less common these days, so I was wondering if there was a way to use SATA hard drives in my system. Then I could use a Western Digital Green drive, for example.

xan_user · Post by **xan_user** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:22 pm

http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... ps-sellers

one of many options.

bgiddins · Post by **bgiddins** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 12:39 am

There's also variants on that item that plug directly into the motherboard, allowing you to use a SATA cable. You'd need a molex to sata power adapter though, but cabling would be neater.

IanCooper · Post by **IanCooper** » Sun Nov 16, 2008 11:15 pm

Thanks for the pointers. The ones that plug directly into the motherboard seem more convenient -- I was worried about that something attached to the drive wouldn't fit in my case. But they're pricier than I hoped -- I was hoping to do it for less than US$10.

bgiddins · Post by **bgiddins** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 1:27 am

Are you likely to spend some extra money on a round IDE cable to replace the default ribbon IDE cable in order to improve airflow? If so, compare that cost to the motherboard adapter option.

I wish I'd seen the motherboard adapter options before I committed to buying an IDE DVD burner, I ended up spending $15 AUD on a round IDE cable as well. Would have offset half my purchase price of the mobo adapter.

Strid · Post by **Strid** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 4:00 am

You can get a discrete SATA-II controller, if you have an available PCI port (or PCIe, of course). Granted that you can physically fit the card inside your case, that is.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:50 am

bgiddins wrote:Are you likely to spend some extra money on a round IDE cable to replace the default ribbon IDE cable in order to improve airflow? If so, compare that cost to the motherboard adapter option.

I wish I'd seen the motherboard adapter options before I committed to buying an IDE DVD burner, I ended up spending $15 AUD on a round IDE cable as well. Would have offset half my purchase price of the mobo adapter.

Two things:

1) Rounded cables are a big no-no. They compromise data integrity (slowing down data transfer) and they are even bigger, blockier obstructions. At least ribbon cables can be folded or cablegami-ed and run under the mobo or other areas. Rounded cables provide no flexibility.

2) These adapters work ok, but I would not trust my entire system partition to one. I use one currently on my gaming machine on my spare drive (actually its the IDE drive to SATA converter, but it's the same chip). It hasn't failed on me at all, but those instructions included are a joke. It doesn't spell everything out, but just make sure you ID what every pin is for and what it does on the off change you miss the one that you really to jumper. They are notorious for not working with optical drives to boot from, so be aware.

Read some of the horror stories on Newegg, you'll get the idea.

bgiddins · Post by **bgiddins** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 3:44 pm

jhhoffma wrote:Two things:

1) Rounded cables are a big no-no. They compromise data integrity (slowing down data transfer) and they are even bigger, blockier obstructions. At least ribbon cables can be folded or cablegami-ed and run under the mobo or other areas. Rounded cables provide no flexibility.

I've had a different experience with them - mine is a 15cm AC Ryan cable that is very well routed, and much less bulky than the ~50cm ribbon cable that was included with the motherboard. I've had no issues booting Ubuntu Live CDs with it (about ~20 times now). I guess if you look at the typical length round cables, then they would be difficult to neatly route because of their stiffness, but I sought out the specific length I needed for my case layout.

IanCooper · Post by **IanCooper** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 5:41 pm

My current set-up uses a rounded IDE cable! I haven't seen any problems with it, but I haven't measured the speed or anything. It feels fast enough. I just want more storage. The SATA cables are definitely nicer than the IDE cables, though.

jhhoffma · Post by **jhhoffma** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 11:13 pm

I'm not saying that rounded cables won't work, I'm saying that it's not worth it to use them instead of ribbons.

I've seen too many DIY systems have HDD errors for no reason go away with a simple swap from rounded back to ribbon cables to think otherwise. I used to use rounded cables myself, until I did a comparison of a couple hard drives using ribbon vs rounded. I watched repeatedly as the rounded took longer to complete file transfers (I assume due to error correction).

Of course it could have been a bad cable or two, but I learned not to mess with them, especially since folding a ribbon cable is so much fun!

Vicotnik · Post by **Vicotnik** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:27 am

My experiences regarding round PATA cables matches those of jhhoffma. I strongly recommend using ribbon cables instead.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 8:50 am

FWIW, I've also had data corruption with (expensive) rounded cables. Since then I've only used ribbon cables, and had to learn how to route them to keep the air flowing through the case. Certainly more work than just slapping in a rounded cable, but the data should be first priority, right?