2.2.8Internal connectors

1.Intel® Serial ATA 6.0 Gb/s connectors (7-pin SATA6G_1/2 [gray])

These connectors connect to Serial ATA 6.0 Gb/s hard disk drives via Serial ATA 6.0 Gb/s signal cables.

If you installed Serial ATA hard disk drives, you can create a RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 configuration with the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology through the onboard Intel® X79 chipset.

•

•

•

•

Chapter 2

These connectors are set to [AHCI Mode] by default. If you intend to create a Serial ATA RAID set using these connectors, set the SATA Mode item in the BIOS to [RAID Mode]. Refer to section 3.5.4 SATA Configuration for details.

Before creating a RAID set, refer to section 4.4 RAID configurations or the manual bundled in the motherboard support DVD.

When using NCQ, set the SATA Mode in the BIOS to [AHCI Mode]. Refer to section 3.5.4 SATA Configuration for details.

You must install Windows® XP Service Pack 3 or later versions before using Serial ATA hard disk drives. The Serial ATA RAID feature is available only if you are using Windows® XP SP3 or later versions.

IRST driver note for OS installation

•Windows XP:

32 bit: Intel IRST driver for X79 platform will NOT support Windows XP 32 bit. Please set to [IDE Mode] for OS installation.

64 bit: When [SATA Mode] is set to [AHCI Mode][RAID Mode], it is necessary to load IRST Driver from driver disk during OS Windows XP 64 bit installation for the system to detect the storage devices. For details, please refer to the section "4.5 Create a RAID driver disk".

•Windows 7 & Vista: When [SATA Mode] is set to [RAID Mode], you must load IRST Driver during Windows 7 or Vista installation for the system to detect the Optical Disk Drive (the ODD should be connected to the Intel SATA ports), or else the ODD will not run. We strongly recommend you save the IRST Driver from SCD to the USB Flash Drive before OS installation.

ASUS P9X79

2-23