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I just bought a new HP computer, and guess what, no PATA ports! Nada, zip. There are only SATA ports on the motherboard. Big bummer since I have a bunch of PATA optical drives that I want to use.

Seems to me that there is only Plextor, the PX-755SA. kinda expensive at more than $100, while I already have a bunch of $40 NEC drives. any other option? I tried using a promise Ultra ATA PCI card, but it won't work if I only connect an optical drive on it.

Did you hook up the drive to the "master" connector on the IDE cable and set the drive to "master" ?

I've heard there are problems with the Promise card.

I recommend the SIIG SC-PE4B12. I have 2 of them, in different computers, and they work great.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815150022

You could also try those IDE to SATA adapters.

stix wrote:I recommend the SIIG SC-PE4B12. I have 2 of them, in different computers, and they work great.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815150022

manufacturer's webpage:
http://www.siig.com/product.asp?pid=437
stix, do you have HDs or Opticals on this card?
if Opticals, how good does it work for you?

i have a different Siig card, called "USB 2.0 + 1394 + UltraATA133 RAID" supposedly same as your + RAID + USB + FireWire.
http://www.siig.com/product.asp?pid=300
got a BenQ DVDRW and Toshiba DVD-ROM on it.
every now and then, the Toshiba hangs up and locks the system, have to push reset.
though i can't be sure it's the Siig card's fault. my system is a bit of a mess
<sorry for off-topic>

back on topic:
there's a new LG GSA-H30N drive, it's really new i don't know if it's a available for purchase yet.
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=21916
if i had to choose a SATA drive now, i might very well try that one. the Plextor is way too expensive for me.

Ian's suggestion is very good too.

stix wrote:Did you hook up the drive to the "master" connector on the IDE cable and set the drive to "master" ?

I've heard there are problems with the Promise card.

I recommend the SIIG SC-PE4B12. I have 2 of them, in different computers, and they work great.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815150022

Will this card work if you only connect optical drives on it? (no hard drive connected). The problem with Promise Ultra ATA cards is that you have to connect a PATA hard-drive for its BIOS to load. It won't do it if you only connect ATAPI devices.

Ian wrote:You could also try those IDE to SATA adapters.

Do you have one to recommend? I heard they are not that reliable. Most reviews I read on the net only covers converting PATA hard-drives to SATA, no mention about optical drives.

Well, I found a lite-on SATA combo drive.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827106040
Not a DVD-RW drive, but still cheaper than that Ultra ATA card, and probably will have to make do until all manufactures start rolling out SATA optical drives. Ironically, HP doesn't even offer any SATA optical drives for sale, while the optical drive they included with the new PC is SATA.

What do you guys think about that lite-on combo drive? My primary use at this point is probably DVD ripping.

pika2000 wrote:

stix wrote:
I recommend the SIIG SC-PE4B12. I have 2 of them, in different computers, and they work great.

Will this card work if you only connect optical drives on it? (no hard drive connected).

Yes. I have one optical drive connected to this card. It works perfectly. It also works perfectly with more than one optical drive. and works great with hard drives.

I've got all 4 of my IDE hd's connected through the IDE/SATA converters and so far the only problems I've had is making sure all the connections stay tight. They work great and every so often somebody blows them out cheap. Just make sure you get all the adapter cables needed to make them work or you allready have the ones they need. The better ones also work with optical drives too, just make sure optical support is listed if you get some. I've seen some as cheap as 8 bucks with all the stuff you need but they are typicaly 12 and up.

the Lite-On drive sounds fine but i think an IDE/SATA adapter is a better solution for you.

I'd buy an LG GSA-H30N in a second if they were available in the US.

well, IDE/SATA adapter till SATA drives are to be found.
LG, Samsung-Toshiba, Lite-On?
bring it on!
me, i'd go for a LG too. i love my H10L

pika2000 wrote:

Ian wrote:You could also try those IDE to SATA adapters.

Do you have one to recommend? I heard they are not that reliable. Most reviews I read on the net only covers converting PATA hard-drives to SATA, no mention about optical drives.

Coincidence?
My recent 2c worth on this issue

pika2000 wrote:Do you have one to recommend?

Unfortunately, I don't. I haven't had the need to for any (yet).

Maybe it would be worth doing an article on this. It sounds like a lot of people are in the same boat.

Ian wrote:Maybe it would be worth doing an article on this. It sounds like a lot of people are in the same boat.

Yeah, this is the complete opposite of parallel/serial/PS/2 ports. Everything is going USB, and yet I still see parallel/serial/PS/2 ports taking up space on motherboards, space that can be used for more USB ports. Seems that manufactures are abandoning PATA much quicker than parallel/serial/PS/2 ports, while SATA optical drives are still hard to find, let alone mainstream.

I finally bought a CompUSA Ultra ATA card. It detects my PATA optical drives just fine without the need to connect a PATA hard-drive to it, albeit it increases the boot-up time considerably. I can't believe Promise cannot do something simple like this with their ATA cards. Even worse on their SATA+PATA combo cards, the PATA port on those Promise card does NOT support optical drives.

pika2000 wrote:It detects my PATA optical drives just fine without the need to connect a PATA hard-drive to it, albeit it increases the boot-up time considerably.

same with my Siig card. very annoying

Ian wrote:I'd buy an LG GSA-H30N in a second if they were available in the US.

After paying attention further to my new HP PC, apparently the SATA DVD-writer bundled with it is GSA-H30L! I assume it's the Lightscribe version of H30N? It's not too hot though, it only burns my Verbatim DL media at 2.4X, while my NEC can burn it at 4X. Some 8X media that can be burned at 16X with my NEC, can only be burned at 8X with the H30L. I dunno. There's no product listing of it, not even at LG korea, let alone a firmware update. Hopefully LG can improve the firmware soon.

pika2000 wrote:After paying attention further to my new HP PC, apparently the SATA DVD-writer bundled with it is GSA-H30L! I assume it's the Lightscribe version of H30N?

Probably. LightScribe support is the only difference between the GSA-H10N and GSA-H10L.

GSA-H30L!
that's the first i've heard of this drive!
yeah, it seems extremely likely that the H30L is the LightScribe version of the H30N.

pika2000 wrote:the SATA DVD-writer bundled with it is GSA-H30L! I assume it's the Lightscribe version of H30N? It's not too hot though, it only burns my Verbatim DL media at 2.4X, while my NEC can burn it at 4X. Some 8X media that can be burned at 16X with my NEC, can only be burned at 8X with the H30L. I dunno. There's no product listing of it, not even at LG korea, let alone a firmware update. Hopefully LG can improve the firmware soon.

it's a very new drive, so it's not listed on LG's websites. they usually take a while (and then some).
for the same reason there's no firmware updates for it. it will be a while.

i'm very surprised about burning Verbatim DVD+R DL at 2.4x only.
what kind of DVD+R DL is it? 2.4x rated or 8x rated?
the 2.4x rated should be able to burn at up to 6x. at least it does on the H10N/L drives.

edit:
now i see that the H20N/L do 2.4x Verbatim DVD+R DL at 2.4x only!
and since the H20N is a Panasonic chipset, and the H30N is also Panasonic chipset (and we assume that the H30L is identical to the H30N) it's very possible that the H30N/L also do only 2.4x on this media.
very uncool
maybe a firmware update will help out, but if it's a chipset issue it might be that there's no help, only to use 8x rated Verbatim DVD+R DL.

dodecahedron wrote:edit:
now i see that the H20N/L do 2.4x Verbatim DVD+R DL at 2.4x only!
and since the H20N is a Panasonic chipset, and the H30N is also Panasonic chipset (and we assume that the H30L is identical to the H30N) it's very possible that the H30N/L also do only 2.4x on this media.
very uncool
maybe a firmware update will help out, but if it's a chipset issue it might be that there's no help, only to use 8x rated Verbatim DVD+R DL.

The newer BenQ drives can only burn MKM001 at 2.4x also. Really MKM001 should never be burned faster then 4x anyways, if you want consistantly good results I mean.

If you use the media code hackers available for many drives you can change it to write at 8x again with the 1655 and many others. My 1640 does the older verbatim dl at 8x with darned good results and so does my Pioneer 111.
It depends on your drive/luck as to how well they do at faster speeds I think.
Now if you want to be sure I'd think writing at rated or one step higher with a good drive should be safe, 2 buck coasters suck.

dolphinius_rex wrote:The newer BenQ drives can only burn MKM001 at 2.4x also. Really MKM001 should never be burned faster then 4x anyways, if you want consistantly good results I mean.

My NEC can write it at 4X, and I never have any redability problems. Although 2.4X is not as slow as I thought it would, I prefer 4X. Oh well, I just hope either LG or HP can provide a firmware update soon.