Clarification, please.

[ShoobieRat]

Okay, I know MicroBell posted that great topic on SATA drives, but I need some extra confirmations and head-nods.

Can I take this board (MSI K7N2 Delta2 Platinum), 2 brand new SATA drives (ex. Seagate 120g SATA), and just plug them in, fire up the system with the WinXP Pro disc in the CD-ROM drive, and go?

Or do I have to play around with something else?

I've never setup a clean system with SATA's. I've either only had IDEs, or installed SATA drives after-the-fact (on an established system).

I'm buying a new system (self-built) and I plan on having SATA drives installed first. Later I'll pop-in my old IDEs on the IDE chain, after I have the new system stable and running.

 

[Nikkon]

I guess your afriad the SATA driver won't be there?

First I would set it up and try it. It should work fine. When you first boot your system it boots from the CD-ROM (make sure you have this selected in your BIOS). During the Windows install it should give you a list of all dectable devises (EIDE and SATA) choose which hard drive you want as your primary. The rest is cake.

 

[ShoobieRat]

That's kinda what I figured.

I'm guessing that the board I picked (since it's newer and supports SATA) will be all set and ready. I know people who've used PCI-SATA controllers have had problems, but since this board has the connectors right on it, I don't think I should run into any problems.

 

[Nubius]

I got the MSI KT6V board, also has 2 SATA connectors. Have never touched them. Process seems long and windy from the thread that discusses how to set them up =/