GA-X58A-UD3R (rev. 2.0) and SATA 3 drives

[sonic66]

Howdy!

  I am working on my first high-end PC build and need some help with installing two SATA 3 drives on a GA-X58A-UD3R mobo.  My current build is i7-950 CPU, 3x2GB G.Skill DDR3-1600 RAM, and a MSI GTX 560 TI GPU with no OS.  The drives I am trying to install is a Crucial C300 64GB SSD and a Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB drive (no jumpers).  Both are rated for the SATA3 connection.  I installed the SSD on port 6 and the 1 TB drive on port 7. 

When I boot up to the BIOS (FF), under Integrated Periphrases, I only see the 1 TB drive under IDE Channel 7.  If I swap the drives, the SSD shows up under IDE Channel 7.   I have tried swapping out cables and only having the single drive plugged into port 6 but I have been unable to get both drives to show up.  One time when swapping ports, I was able to see both drives.  But after a reboot,the problem persists.  I have tried switching the Ctrl Mode to IDE and AHCI with no luck.  Also, when a drive is in port 6, POST seems to load much slower.  If I unplug from the port, it loads pretty quick.

  I understand that the I TB drive won't really benefit from the SATA3 speed and I may swap drives to one of the 0-5 ports but I am still concerned that I cannot see both drives at the same time.  I'm planning to install Windows 7 Pro. 64-bit and am trying to be prepared for when I install the OS.

I appreciate ANY help that is given.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

The best ports for you to use would be the SATA2_0 and SATA2_2 for the two drives with the SSD on the lower numbered port. These are both controlled by the Intel ICH10R southbridge controller and  are the fastest ad most reliable on the board. The optical drive, assuming you are having one, I would suggest you put on a different controller and set to IDE mode. For the the two hard drives set the controller to AHCI mode.

[sonic66]

Thanks for the reply.

  Would there be any performance changes when changing to slower SATA 2 connections?  I really would like to keep my storage mediums on the SATA3 ports for access speed.  Also, even though I can use the different chip sets, it is still a mystery why both ports will not work at the same time.

If I can't solve the issue before I get my OS, ill probably move the 1 TB drive to SATA_0, the SSD to SATA_7, and my optical drive to SATA_9.

[Dark Mantis]

I specifically listed those ports because of the problems with the Marvell 9128 controller for the SATA3 ports. It never lived up to expectations and in effect was actually no faster then the SATA2 ports. The fastest set up you could have is how I described it initially.

[sonic66]

Thanks for the clear up!  I'll probably follow your advice and to what you recommended.

[Dark Mantis]

I think that would be favourite.