Asus K8N-E Deluxe number of hard drives.

[Vamp]

I currently have one 200gb HD in my ASUS, does anyone know how many more it can hold? I've just started up a videography/editing business so I'd like to add another 250GB to it. Will having some video files on one harddrive and some on the other cause problems with speed etc? But the main question is how many my motherboard can hold.

[clocker]

How many IDE ports does it have ?
I'm guessing two, so you could have four HDDs installed.

[Vamp]

If this helps?

Drive Support: 6 SATA (RAID or Non-RAID) for six SATA drives, 2 EIDE UDMA 100/133 headers for four IDE Drives

I have no idea what that means.

http://www.jncs.com/pictures/motherboards/as-k8ne-dx.gif

What is the difference between Ultra ATA and Serial ATA? My current HD is a Western Digital WDC2000JB-00GVA0 which is apparently Ultra ATA...If I got a Serial ATA HD would it still be read?

[lynx]

What is the difference between Ultra ATA and Serial ATA? My current HD is a Western Digital WDC2000JB-00GVA0 which is apparently Ultra ATA...If I got a Serial ATA HD would it still be read?Ultra ATA uses a 40 pin parallel connector, Serial ATA uses a 7 pin serial connector.

You can add an Ultra ATA drive to a Serial ATA port with a suitable adapter, but AFAIK there's no adapter to make the opposite connection, so if your current mobo doesn't have a SATA port other you can't add a SATA drive unless you also buy a SATA card.

[Vamp]

Well, the motherboard is listed as " 6 SATA (RAID or Non-RAID) for six SATA drives, 2 EIDE UDMA 100/133 headers for four IDE Drives "

So I'm guessing it's a SATA...How many harddrives can I run in it though? 6?

[DrBeerMan]

10 drives, it says clearly 6 sata for six sata drives and it says 2 EIDE headers for four drives(meaning 1 master 1 slave on 1 header, 1 master 1 slave on other)='s 10

well also i may need to take in affect that if you are going to use cd roms/dvd burners/floppy drives: they use eide headers, so if you only have 1 of those drives i believe then you could have 9 HDD's.

[DrBeerMan]

as lynx stated "You can add an Ultra ATA drive to a Serial ATA port with a suitable adapter, but AFAIK there's no adapter to make the opposite connection, so if your current mobo doesn't have a SATA port other you can't add a SATA drive unless you also buy a SATA card."

That basically means if you don't have a sata drive you can take a drive normally plugged to an eide header and use an adapter to plug it into a sata header.

[Vamp]

Ohhh, this shit makes no sense to me. When I get a new HD I'm just going to ask a tech if it will fit.

[Vamp]

But thanks a lot for the help :)

[Appzalien]

On the bottom of the picture you posted are two connectors one blue and one black, those are your ide connectors and each one can hold two drives either ide hard drives or cd/dvd-rom drives. If you plan on doing video stuff you probably want one or two cd/dvd rom drives which leaves you two places for hard drives of the ide type.
To the left of the photo along the left bottom side you will see two blue connectors and right above that a group of four black connectors (they may actually be orange on your motherboard depending on its revision) these are sata connectors for sata hard drives.
All that aside, it really depends more on your case than on how many connectors your motherboard has. If your case has room for only two hard drives there is your limiting factor not the motherboard. If your case is a full size server or workstation case it will usually hold four drives but if it a micro or mini case the limit will be more like one or two. To tell, you will have to open the sucker up and look to see how much room there is above and below the drive you already have installed.

[Vamp]

Well, by the looks of things I dont have the HDD installed in a SATA slot, so does that mean, provided my case is big enough, that I can have four HDDs in those while I have one in the IDE slot? Can I have one HDD in the IDE and another in the SATA slot? Does the actual HDD sit somewhere else and a cable connects it to a SATA or IDE connector, or is it slotted straight into the SATA or IDE slot (like a GPU sits directly in a AGP/PCI-E slot?

Currently I have a floppy drive, a DVD writer and a DVD-ROM along with my single 200GB HD...And a relatively big case.

[lynx]

Don't forget that your dvd-rom and dvd-writer will each be using an IDE connection, so having accounted for your existing hdd you only have a single IDE connection left.

However, there's nothing to prevent you from mixing SATA hdds and IDE hdds in the same case. The actual drives go in the same place in the case, but the connectors are different. One other thing to remember with SATA drives, they also have different power connectors. If your case doesn't have any SATA power connectors you will need an adapter (except WD which have both types). 2 were supplied with my last ASUS board so check around, you may already have some.

[Vamp]

It came with 4 SATA Connectors and 2X2 port SATA power connectors...What is the difference between SATA and IDE? If I use the last IDE connector for a HDD, then technically I still have 4 more SATA sockets to connect 4 more HDDs to?

[lynx]

It came with 4 SATA Connectors and 2X2 port SATA power connectors... Actually, there are 6 sata connectors, but possibly only 4 cables. 2 are between the processor and the AGP slot, the other 4 are in 2 rows near the edge of the board.

What is the difference between SATA and IDE?
IDE is at the limit of its capability, SATA is really only just getting started. The basic difference is the interface.

IDE cable
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/ide-ribbon.jpg
SATA cable
http://www.usb-ware.com/images/7-pin-sata-cable.gif

Obviously they are not interchangable.

If I use the last IDE connector for a HDD, then technically I still have 4 more SATA sockets to connect 4 more HDDs to?
Basically yes except 6 not 4.
You have 2 different SATA interfaces. The 2 connectors between the processor and the AGP slot are driven by the Nvidia chipset. In native mode you don't need drivers for these, but you need them if you try to use the raid function. The 4 connectors near the edge of the board are driven by a Silicon Image chip. If you use these you will have to install the SiI drivers, whether you use raid or not.

In either case you need to enable the relevant chip in bios before they will work.

[Vamp]

...Like I said, I'll just get a tech to do it :D

Does a floppy drive use up an IDE connector?

Is it recommended to mix brands? Like have a Western Digitial and a Seagate HDD?

[lynx]

The floppy drive has its own connector.

There's no problem mixing manufacturers.