Extra Sata ports for hard drive expansion.

[sebwilkins]

Mobo: Asus M4a79t Deluxe

So i want to use my older machine from 2009 for file storage, the m4a79t mobo has limited me to five sata ports. Right now it has 4x2tb WD Drives and a DVD-RW. I want to expand the total storage capacity and add 2-3 extra drives. But alast i have run out of internal Sata ports.

Is their currently a method for expanding the number of drives i can run; with one as a primary drive and the others all for pure storage.

 

[thestepster]

look at just a plain pci sata card mate cheap addition

 

[yuri04]

Yes, there is,

Depending on what slots you have left on your motherboard you can get PCI/PCIe cards with additional sata ports.

Or you can go for a proper RAID card. These are expensive though.

However I don't think its possible to span a RAID over multiple controllers, but perhaps it is.

 

[sebwilkins]

I see, so do these internal ports allow the sata connectors to be connected internally? at present their are four ports left as it houses a 5870 right now. And would their be any issues in the Bios or Windows 7 when it came to accessing the files?

 

[Aurus_OC]

I see, so do these internal ports allow the sata connectors to be connected internally? at present their are four ports left as it houses a 5870 right now. And would their be any issues in the Bios or Windows 7 when it came to accessing the files?

Yea you can use any, but I would recommend a PCI-express card just because it is the more future proof standard

. And no there won't be any problems

 

[sebwilkins]

Great thanks alot for the advice guys, i've found a few on Ebuyer now so ill just order a one and its should do the trick.

 

[sheroo]

If you are looking for a cheap no frills expansion card:-

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/lycom-pe-103r5-pci-e-dual-port-controller-%28raid-50110-and-jbod%29-ncq

I have 3 of these in my home server and they work a treat.