IDE and SATA in a Dim 4600?

Question

Hi.   I'm looking to upgrade 2 Dimension 4600's with extra drives. Both came with the 80G IDE's.  I would like to add an SATA drive to each.    Does the 4600 include SATA support on the motherboard?  Do I need any extra pieces (controllers, pwr supply converters, etc)?  What do I need to do with the XP Home configuration to support both IDE and SATA?   Any info is appreciated.   ref - 2.4Ghz CPU, 512 RAM, purchased mid-2004

ejn63 · Answer

There is support for two SATA drives.

You will need a data cable for each drive. Unless the drives you buy have MOLEX connectors, you'll need a power converter for each.

If you install both SATA and PATA into a 4600, the SATA drive MUST be the boot drive.

Storage, Drives & Media

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