Not enough sata cables?

Question

I'm supposse to be able to have 4 Hard drives and 4 DVD/CD drives in my XPS,right! Well, I have enough sata connectors for my hard drives but not for my DVD/CD drives. There's only two for my DVD/CDdrives. Where am I supposse to connect the other two DVD/CD drives? Did Dell drop the ball?

Davet50 · Answer

you are right you have the SPACE for 4 harddrives and 4 opticals. However there are only 6 SATA ports. There is however an IDE cable that will allow for 2 IDE devices.

Red Dog1957 · Answer

Hey! Dave50, Could you recommend or tell me what I need to connect an IDE cable that will allow me use 2 IDE devices. Like, will I need a adapter, (Dumb question? But I rather ask then be wrong.) Maybe
some pic's or part numbers or name of parts. I have no ideal of what I need! Thanks!!

Message Edited by Red Dog1957 on 06-30-2008 11:02 AM

tigerwolf7 · Answer

Any normal IDE cable has two connectors on it.  One device is master, the other slave.  It's best not to use two devices on one cable though if you can help it-particularly I wouldn't want to use two hard drives (actually I think I do have two optical drives set up that way in one system...)

tigerwolf7 · Answer

You might have to change jumpers on the devices too.  And occasionally you'll get a weird device that won't work in cable select mode or vice versa.  Ah, the joys of PATA ;)

Davet50 · Answer

The ide cable should be just laying in the upper part of the case, in between the optical cage andthe powersupply so all you would need is the two devices to hook up to it. As tigerwolf says set the jumpers on the devices to Cable Select(CS), Then what ever device is on the end is considered the master and the other the slave.

I used to have 4 devices on my 8300 two on each ide cable. I would like tigerwolf mentioned not mix the drives put either two harddrives or two opticals on the cable.

Red Dog1957 · Answer

So I don't need to buy anything? I mean an IDE cable can't be connected to an SATA optical drive. My hard drives I don't worry about,I got those covered. My XPS came with one optical drive. I bought a 2nd one no problems as far as connecting it. The 3rd one. Problem, no connector for power. I'm using a power connector from my hard drive. In other words I need a sata and power cable to connect my 3rd optical drive and free the hard drive power connector that I'm using for the 3rd optical drive. Hope you understand what I'm trying to do!

Davet50 · Answer

No you cannot connect an IDE cable to a SATA device. If you need SATA ports and are out then only a add in card will help you now. Cannot recall how many power cables were in the system i believe it was six also.

tigerwolf7 · Answer

I'm somewhat confused-are you TRYING to connect a SATA device to an IDE cable?  If you need more SATA ports, as mentioned you could buy an add in card, although you should already have way more than enough built on to the board.

Red Dog1957 · Answer

Well do I then need a power cable splitter/ Y splitter and a IDE ribbon with a IDE to SATA adapter?

Red Dog1957 · Answer

Western Digital Secure Connect SATA Cable

I need a sata and power cable to connect my 3rd optical drive to free the hard drive power connector that I'm using for the 3rd optical drive.

There is a IDE port available on the motherboard. Can I use that free port. I would just need a ide/sata adapter and a ribbon. Plus a y splitter for the power.

I hope you understand what I'm trying to do! Something like this this cable.

Message Edited by Red Dog1957 on 06-30-2008 02:33 PM

Message Edited by Red Dog1957 on 06-30-2008 02:50 PM

Message Edited by Red Dog1957 on 06-30-2008 02:52 PM

Lonewolf_NW08 · Answer

The thing you have to watch is to check your xtra optical drive and see if it is even compatible with an IDE cable, then check the power connectors as I don't think there are very many, if any, optical drives that connect using a SATA Power cable when they are IDE based.....  IDE Drives usually use a four pin molex power connector. And as for the IDE to SATA adapter, I don't think such a thing exists.....  If it's a SATA drive and you already have all your motherboard SATA connectors in use then you will need to install an expansion card like this one here. Message Edited by Lonewolf_NW08 on 06-30-2008 01:51 PM

Lonewolf_NW08 · Answer

Red Dog, I can't see the image, most likely due to my office's network settings, can you email that pic to me? PM me and I will give you the email addy.  Most likely from reading what you wrote and without seeing the image I am gonna guess that what you need is the expansion card that I link you to in the previous post.  There aren't any SATA splitters that I know of.....  SATA power splitters yes, data splitters no...

Davet50 · Answer

I have to agree with lonewolf and tiger.. If you need more SAtA ports then you need a addin SATA board. The IDE will only work with IDE devices.

Just on the curiosity side why do you need 4 hd and 4 opticals.

If your only using the extra hd as storage you might want to condiser making them external. that would free up SATA ports..

Message Edited by Davet50 on 06-30-2008 05:36 PM

Red Dog1957 · Answer

O.K. I open my XPS and what I need is a extra SATA connector. The one that is circle Red. The Blue one I already have.

sata

The XPS only has 6 connectors. Is there a splitter for a SATA connector? Where can I get another one?

Hope this clears up what I'm trying to do.

RANT: Dell drop the ball on this one!

Davet50 · Answer

As lonewolf pointed out you cannot split the data port which is the smaller connector the larger connector is the power connector.

I have to disagree respectfully with your rant. I don't recall the specs ever saying you can have 4 hd and 4 opticals, with SATA. As I pointed out earilery you can in fact have 4 and 4 the only thing is 2 devices would have to be IDE devices.

Message Edited by Davet50 on 06-30-2008 06:03 PM

Locked Topics – Desktops General

Not enough sata cables?

Was this post helpful?