Need help hooking up SATA cables

[wp442]

Newbie here with a couple dumb questions...

I'm building a new rig from scratch to replace my 5-year-old AMD setup. I'm jumping ship and going with an Intel I5 2500K. I haven't been keeping up on the newest technologies over the past few years, and things appear to have gotten a bit more complicated, and I could really use some advice on how to hook up the drive cables.

I've got a Asus Sabertooth P67 mobo. It's equipped with:

- 2 internal xSATA 6Gb/s ports (brown connector)
- 4 internal xSATA 3Gb/s ports (black connector)
- 2 internal xSATA 6Gb/s ports (gray connector) by Marvell PCIe SATA 6Gb/s controller

What I need to hook up:

- 2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6.0Gb/s hard drives
- 1 Crucial M4 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal SSD (SATA 6Gb/s, backward compatible to SATA 3Gb/s)
- 1 Asus 24X Sata DVD Burner

I'm thinking the two Seagate drives will get connected to the 6Gb/s ports (brown connector), and the DVD burner to one of the four 3Gb/s ports (black connector). But what about the SSD? Considering it's going to be the boot drive, hosting the OS and programs, shouldn't it also be attached to a 6Gb/s port? Yes, I do have the two 6Gb/s ports (gray connector) with the Marvell controller, but I've heard less-than-stellar reports on the Marvell, and was with the understanding they should be avoided if possible, especially for a boot drive...and to disable it completely. Will there be a bottleneck by hooking the SSD to a 3Gb/s port?

[strollin]

No mechanical hdd can achieve anywhere near 6G transfer rate so despite them being labeled as 6G drives, it's sufficient to plug them in to a 3G SATA port. You definitely want the SSD plugged in to a 6G port, though.

[David M]

I'm curious why you chose two 6GB/sec, 500 gig drives rather than a single 1 TB, 6GB/sec drive? This would have made it possible to plug all of your fastest drives into your fastest SATA ports.

[strollin]

My guess is that he wants to setup a RAID configuration.

[David M]

Interesting, with a SSD you don't need RAID 0 and RAID 1 does not qualify as a reliable backup.

[glc]

I also would stay away from Seagate 7200.12 drives!

[wp442]

Thanks for the advice...it's definitely appreciated. So I'll hook the SSD up to the 6GB/s port, and the hard drives and DVD burner to the 3GB/s ports.

As for the hard drives, I was originally planning on going with a Raid setup, but have since decided against it. I do kinda regret going with the 500GB units now, definitely should've gotten the 1TBs. Oh well...I have to order a few more pieces tonight to complete the build, I might just go ahead and order one more 1TB unit.

Originally Posted by glc I also would stay away from Seagate 7200.12 drives!

Really? Why is that? I got them based on the overwhelming positive user reviews I found online. If I do add another 1TB drive, which would probably end up being the back-up drive, which would you suggest?

[strollin]

A few years back Seagate shipped some drives with a bug in the firmware that caused the drives to die abruptly. Many people were burned by that failure and it left a bad taste in their mouth. I'm not aware of any issues with currently shipping Seagate drives.

[glc]

The 7200.12's aren't particularly reliable. My drive of choice these days is the WD Black. Put that on the other Intel 6.0 port and use the Seagates for backup.

[wp442]

Sounds like a good plan to me...I'll do that. Thanks again!

[rwest]

Hey lets start with, "I'ved learned alot form GLC!" But I wouldn't use my questionable drive as my back up. I'd backup to the known good drive and put the OS on the one that may take a dive. Much easir to reinstall an OS than to replace work. Just my opinion.

[David M]

You really want an external drive for your backup.

[wp442]

Originally Posted by rwest Hey lets start with, "I'ved learned alot form GLC!" But I wouldn't use my questionable drive as my back up. I'd backup to the known good drive and put the OS on the one that may take a dive. Much easir to reinstall an OS than to replace work. Just my opinion.

The OS and programs are going onto the SSD. The two 500GB drives will be for data storage, and the 1TB drive will be backup. Actually though, I just ordered a 2TB WD external hard drive, so I should be set. However, I had to get the Elements version, since the Black isn't available as an external. I know, I could've gotten an enclosure setup and mounted a Black unit inside, but I think I'll be OK.

Oh...and "I've learned a lot from GLC!" Thanks!