Hi Gang!
I've got this (now old) Gigabyte motherboard (GA-7N400 Pro2), I've had
it
for just over 3 years.
I use it, so far, with only PATA devices.
I'm toying with the idea of buying a matched pair of SATA drives and when
I install Centos 5 (hopefully soon), building it with software raid (using
the two drives as mirrors of each other).
Now, I wouldn't have ever even thought of this question, except I've
been
reading recently that most/many/some new motherboards, those few that still
offer PATA, often cannot boot from PATA any more because the manufacturer
has saved a couple of bucks by not putting a suitable PATA chip on the board.
Now, given that this board is 3 years old (designed even longer ago than
that), I'm wondering if the SATA support is complete? That is, can Centos 5
boot from SATA on such a board?
or am I merely an old man who worries needlessly?
Thanks for the opinions!
--
---- Fred Smith -- fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us
-----------------------------
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
------------------------------- Romans 5:8 (niv) ------------------------------
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O/H fredex ??????:> Hi Gang! > > I've got this (now old) Gigabyte motherboard (GA-7N400 Pro2), I've had it > for just over 3 years. > > I use it, so far, with only PATA devices. > > I'm toying with the idea of buying a matched pair of SATA drives and when > I install Centos 5 (hopefully soon), building it with software raid (using > the two drives as mirrors of each other).I have this exact board (Rev 1.x) and it has been working solid for years now. However, even if this is not a straight answer to your question, I have to warn you about several speed problems concerning the on-board RAID controllers (either SATA or PATA). How to recreate the problem: First get the latest BIOS for this mobo, it must be the F11 and Gigabyte has never released a newer version. Second create a RAID volume through the RAID-BIOS (PATA or SATA, I tested heavily on PATA) and watch as your disk speed crawls to the floor (yes even on M$ OSes). This is fixed in later BIOS revisions of the RAID chips, but since they are integrated on the board, these BIOSes are updated only when the main BIOS is updated (The main BIOS file contains the BIOSes for the RAID chips) The solution is to mod your BIOS with the most recent RAID BIOS. More info here... http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/image-vp567696.html I have followed these instructions to the letter and have successfully modded my F11 BIOS to overcome the disk speed problem using the pseudo-hardware RAID controller. RTFM and STFW before anything bad happens _________________________________________ Thanos Rizoulis Electronic Computing Systems Engineer Larissa, Greece