8800GT blocking SATA ports

El_Guappo

Chieftain
Joined
Dec 28, 2007
Messages
8
OK, here's my problem. I've got an old-ish EVGA nforce4 939 board, and just bought myself a shiny new 8800GT card. When I go to install it, I realize that it's covering up my SATA1 and SATA2 ports on the MB. Of course, I installed my RAID0 array using those two ports. :( So, here are my questions:

1. How can I migrate my RAID0 to SATA3 and SATA4, which would both be available? I'm afraid to try this without backing up my system/reinstalling Windows, which I hope to avoid taking the time to do.

2. Has anyone used 90-degree angled SATA cables to get around a blocking issue? I don't mind trying that, but probably can't find those cables locally and would have to wait if I order them online. I don't like waiting!

3. If I just say heckwithit and use one of the PCI-E 8x slots instead of my main (16x) slot, is this going to slow down my shiny new 8800GT?

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Hey, just last week I had the same issues, although with DFI board, and an 8800 GTS card.

1. I'm honestly not sure if the RAID 0 array can be moved to different SATA port with the data intact, I would imagine so, but I'd look for a better source of information (than me) if I were you. If you're running RAID 0, you should really have everything backed up anyway, if one drive fails at any time, you lose everything.

2. Since the sata ports on my mobo (couldn't find pics of yours) are directly beside each other, in groups of two, I planned it out beforehand, and ordered 2 "left angle" and 2 "right angle" cables. Unfortunately, the left angle cables still rise out too far to fit under the video card, so I used the right angle cables, and managed to fit straight cables in the other 2 ports. I'm not sure what you're location is, I ordered the cables from directcanada for quite a bit less than what they're selling on the startech site.

3. There will be a bit of a slowdown, but not too badly, see here for benchmark numbers, page 3, and 6-12.
 
Zelig, thanks a bunch for the info. I was thinking about going with a left-bend and right-bend cable pair also. Are you saying that the left-bend cable rises a little higher than the right-bend one?

I'm in the US (Atlanta, GA) to be precise, so directcanada probably isn't the way to go for me, but I did find a few places online that have the cables. I doubt I'll find them at a brick/mortar store, though. Anyway, thanks again for the info.
 
From what I understand you can change the SATA ports you're using for your RAID array (both physically and in BIOS) without losing any data or having to re-format.

Then again that probably depends on the motherboard. Try asking this question on the EVGA forums. They have sub-forums for different mobo makes, etc.
 
Are you saying that the left-bend cable rises a little higher than the right-bend one?

Yes, no idea why they wouldn't make them the same (but bending the other way), the left-bend ones rise too much to fit under the video card.

Depending on how the sata slots are layed out on your motherboard, you might be able to make do with only right-bend and straight cables, like I was.
 
I would try right angle connectors first. If the SATA ports are directly under card it may not work, but if they're slightly off to the side it will probably do the trick.

With most RAID controllers if you change the location of the drives you'll be asked to recreate the array, and bye-bye data. The ideal way to do this would be to use an imaging program (Ghost, True Image, etc) to image the partition, then make the move and drop the image back in place.
 
@zelig: wow, that's just plain bizarre - why would they do that? Anyway, it sounds like the SATA cable approach is out. Unfortunately, the end of the card is sitting directly over my SATA1 and SATA2.

@speedo: ya, that's kind of what I thought. I wasn't optimistic that I could switch the ports without having to re-do the array. I'll post on EVGA's boards and see what folks have to say.

For now, I think I'll plan on picking up a copy of Ghost and just get ready to do it the "hard way." Thanks to all for their input.
 
Just in case anyone's interested, I ended up buying two angled SATA cables. However, I only ended up using one of them. You can't fit two angled SATA cables side-by-side because the ports are too close together. However, using one angled cable (in SATA1) and a plain-jane sata cable in SATA2 gave me just enough clearance to get the video card in. The upright cable in SATA2 just squeezes by the heatsink/fan on the card.
 
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