Optical SATA Drives?

[Bushmaster78FS]

Folks, I have a mobo that has an Intel RAID Controller and 4 internal SATA ports. It is a Sony VGC-RC210G Computer which I modded a little since 2006 purchase. Not sure what type of SATA these ports are, as in SATA I or II. My 2 optical drives are IDE. I would like to replace these drives (Sony's OEM Pioneer burner is broke, doesn't burn anymore) with SATA drives but all my internal SATA ports are taken, I have 4 HDDs. Also I have an external HDD that has an eSATA port.

I went on Newegg and looked at some "SATA cards" as I have 1 PCIx1 port available. I was disappointed not being able to find a quality card. These cards I found on Newegg did not have many ports, or they didn't support "optical drives" per user reviews. There was one that had 4 internal and 2 external ports supported either or, you could not connect internal and external sources at the same time. That one didn't do optical either.

What I am trying to do is to connect two new SATA optical drives (one Blu-ray) and my external Seagate HDD through one SATA card.

What are my options? Should I get a RAID Controller and transfer the internal HDDs to the add-on RAID and connect Optical Drives to the built-in SATA ports? Would that work? Can you have 2 RAID controllers in one system? Please ask if I skipped any other information.

[ripken204]

do you have a pcie x1 slot? or pci slot?

you can have two raid controllers in one system.

if you are willing to pay for a decent raid card then go for it.

what is your current motherboard?

take a look at something as simple as this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16816132008

Edited August 1, 2009 by ripken204

[Bushmaster78FS]

do you have a pcie x1 slot? or pci slot?

you can have two raid controllers in one system.

if you are willing to pay for a decent raid card then go for it.

what is your current motherboard?

Oh sorry it is a PCIe X1 slot.

Here is the mobo, it is a OEM Intel manufactured for Sony I guess, there is no support available for it.

I can have two RAID controllers, that is good, any suggestions on a decent card and would it support a BD reader and a DVD burner both SATA? I am opting to go with Sony Optiarc's models...

[ripken204]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16816132008

here is a cheap card that i would only use as extra ports.

[puntoMX]

Stick with the PATA/IDE drives, no need to change, you will also need some extra SATA power connectors. You will save a PCI-E slot, teh extra SATA power connects and teh cost of the PCI-E SATA card .

[Bushmaster78FS]

Stick with the PATA/IDE drives, no need to change, you will also need some extra SATA power connectors. You will save a PCI-E slot, teh extra SATA power connects and teh cost of the PCI-E SATA card .

Surely I can do that but there are NO IDE Blu-ray drives in the market... Or are there?

[ripken204]

i highly doubt that, lol.

[jcarle]

i highly doubt that, lol.

If you'd check instead of shooting off your ignorance, you'd know.

They are rare and few, but they do exist.

[puntoMX]

My bad, didn't read the blu-ray part. But is the rest of the hardware up to reproduce? Besides that, I would check the compatibility with for example Silicon Image chips, I know that VIA might be dead with their mainboard chipsets but they are more compatible I have found out.

[jcarle]

Silicon Image chips tend to do fine as well. I wouldn't necessarily consider one to be better then the other. They're both budget chips.

[puntoMX]

It's good to know that they work fine, I must say that I had problems before with optical drives on SI but that could be the motherboard BIOS also as most were embedded on the motherboard.

[Bushmaster78FS]

Sony BWU-100A is their first product, they tend to mess up with the first product and then straighten it out. I know I use their GPS devices, TVs, Walkmans, Home Theater audio, computer displays, laptops etc etc. I will pass on that.

I need to get a RAID card that supports optical drives or I need to find an external Blu-Ray drive and replace my broken DVD burner with another IDE DVD burner. Sony Optiarc is as cheap as 25 bucks right now for IDE.

[jcarle]

There are others. LG makes one, for example. I just used that model as an example.

[Bushmaster78FS]

Are you still using it? What model? How would you rate it?

[jcarle]

I personally do not own a blu-ray drive. I appologize if the wording used was confusing. I meant that I was referencing the link to that model as an example. I did not mean to say that I was currently using it.