Shortage of sata connections

desdichato

Baseband Member
Messages
37
Hi,

I am in the proces of building myself a server, I am using a Gigabyte board with a I7 Processor (sorry can't recall the numbers) but what I am curious about is I have several HDD's in there:eek: and I have run out of "normal" SATA connections (the Mobo has 6 connections that use the yellow cables (what I regard as normal) and 4 that use red cable) are these two connections compatable....in other words can I use one of the red connection cables on a HDD

Thanks

P
 
we need to know your motherboards model number to help. and why are you using an i7 in a server? its serious overkill.
 
Hi guys,

My mobo is a Gigabyte ga-x58a-ud5 (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3304#ov)...Near the power connection, to the left are the SATA connections, the six blue ones are already fully used with the HDD's the four white ones have a vacant connection, could this be used as an additional connection for the HDD's?????

I agree that an I7 is overkill, originally it was going to be a stand alone machine but I had a couple of large drives in the case and was starting to get a collection of computer bits so I thought I would just throw in a couple more HDD's and try to get rid of some of the bits I'de got.

Thanks

P
 
The difference in color is usually for the differentation between onboard (via the chipset) and secondary controller based SATA connections. Generally speaking, if you're looking to add more hard drives, there's nothing wrong with using all of the connections. If you're running RAID of some kind however, only the connectors with the same color are certified to work together in that setting.

If you're just using drives as they are - that is, plugging them in and using them for storage without using RAID, then there's nothing wrong with filling all of the slots up. :)
 
why are you using an i7 in a server? its serious overkill.
It may be - but there's no way you can begin to make that claim without knowing what the server will be used for! Some of us work where a server many more times powerful than that would be considered woefully underpowered...

My guess is that there's 2 different controllers on the board and that the blue ports are assigned to one and the white the other, so the only restriction is you wouldn't be able to create a RAID array or similar across the two. EDIT: As above, cross post.
 
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