Easy questions for someone...

[Team Obi Juan]

Is SATA 3.0 Gb/s backwards compatible with SATA 150?

I have an abit AI7.
http://abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=147

Says it supports SATA 150. If I buy SATA 3.0's, will they downshift to work with the 150?

I want these hard drives to work when I upgrade my system next too...

Also, will I need to have a floppy drive to install these and set windows up on them? How does that work? Will I need my mobo's floppy disks or the hard drives drivers? I don't think I have any disks for my mobo...

I keep saying "them", cause I'm going to go RAID 0 since now I have to upgrade since my HD died. I still will have a secondary for storage, but I've never done raid and I want to lose my cherry. Is it just a simple BIOS tweak to enable raid 0?


I'm budgeting a ~$150 upgrade to get 2 hard drives and a PSU with native SATA power. SLi not necessary...

PSU:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817104954
HD's:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822135106

And are all SATA cables the same? Since I'll be getting OEM drives more than likely I'll need some cables... any specific ones to get or stay away from? Looks like I need 8" max...

 

[Sparkyy]

Is SATA 3.0 Gb/s backwards compatible with SATA 150?

Yes, SATA 3.0 Gb/s is backwards compatible and it will work with SATA 150.

I am assuming your mobo can do RAID 0 and if that is the case then Abit's website should have a floppy driver for doing RAID. When installing the OS it will say at the very first screen to "Press F6" and you need to press it right then, it will continue to do its thing and then after its loaded all the files. It will ask you for a floppy.

RAID 0 is not true RAID, if you lose one hard drive, you lose EVERYTHING on that setup, so backup or do not store anything important on there at all.

And are all SATA cables the same? Since I'll be getting OEM drives more than likely I'll need some cables... any specific ones to get or stay away from? Looks like I need 8" max...

All SATA cables are the same, though you might get some that are too loose or too tight on the connections but there is no difference in SATA cables, there is no actual 3Gb/s cable nor a SATA 150.

 

[Team Obi Juan]

You da man!

I don't care about the potential loss of data... hell I just had a seagate 120 die on me after about 8 months of use! Don't have a box so even that awesome "5 year warranty" isn't even worth mentioning...



EDIT:

Ok they have an "intel accelerator RAID driver" on their website, but it's waaaay to big @ 17 megs. wtf?

 

[Sparkyy]

Generally you do not need the box to have a hard drive company fulfill their warrenty. All my drives are OEM, so no box and I still can RMA the drive, just need the drives serial # to make it happen.

Ok they have an "intel accelerator RAID driver" on their website, but it's waaaay to big @ 17 megs. wtf?

That driver is for use IN windows after it has been setup, you want:
"Sil3112 Sil3114 Intel VIA Installation Disk"

That is how you create a floppy disk.

 

[Team Obi Juan]

Generally you do not need the box to have a hard drive company fulfill their warrenty. All my drives are OEM, so no box and I still can RMA the drive, just need the drives serial # to make it happen.


That driver is for use IN windows after it has been setup, you want:
"Sil3112 Sil3114 Intel VIA Installation Disk"

That is how you create a floppy disk.

Thanks again buddy!