Sata Interfaces; Sata Raid - Intel BOXDX79SR Specification

Intel Desktop Board DX79SR Technical Product Specification
1.6.2

SATA Interfaces

The board provides eight SATA connectors which support one device per connector:
• Two internal SATA 6.0 Gb/s connectors through the PCH (blue)
• Two internal SATA 6.0 Gb/s connectors through a Marvell 88SE9128 controller
(gray)
• Four internal SATA 3.0 Gb/s connectors through the PCH (black)
The PCH provides independent SATA ports with a theoretical maximum transfer rate of
6.0 Gb/s for four ports and 3.0 Gb/s for four ports. A point-to-point interface is used
for host to device connections.
The underlying SATA functionality is transparent to the operating system. The SATA
controller can operate in both legacy and native modes. In legacy mode, standard IDE
I/O and IRQ resources are assigned (IRQ 14 and 15). In Native mode, standard PCI
Conventional bus resource steering is used. Native mode is the preferred mode for
configurations using the Microsoft Windows* XP, Windows Vista*, and Windows 7
operating systems.
NOTE
Many SATA drives use new low-voltage power connectors and require adapters or
power supplies equipped with low-voltage power connectors.
For more information, see: http://www.serialata.org/.
For information about
The location of the SATA connectors
1.6.2.1

SATA RAID

The board supports the following RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Drives) levels
via the PCH:
• RAID 0 - data striping
• RAID 1 - data mirroring
• RAID 0+1 (or RAID 10) - data striping and mirroring
• RAID 5 - distributed parity
NOTE
In order to use supported RAID features, you must first enable RAID in the BIOS. Also,
during Microsoft Windows XP installation, you must press F6 to install the RAID
drivers. See your Microsoft Windows XP documentation for more information about
installing drivers during installation. Both Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft
Windows 7 include the necessary RAID drivers for both AHCI and RAID without the
need to install separate RAID drivers using the F6 switch in the operating system
installation process.
22
Refer to
Figure 13, page 48