How can I tell if my Gateway DX4710-09 M.board supports sata hot-swap?

[in66732]

Hi
I recently got a television tuner for my old Gateway DX4710-09 computer and think I will be building a new system once the new Intel CPUs come out. I will do this because I got a television tuner for this computer which I love using both for live over the air television viewing and program recording. The trouble is this system isn't adequate to do all the transcoding I would like to do to get these television program recording to a reasonable size to archive.

The reason I want to build a system with the soon-to-be come out new chips from Intel is that I can't afford to build systems very often. Looking at the literature I got with my present computer it does not tell you much about the motherboard, but I found kinda what mother would it is from this URL http://www.barebonekit.net/gateway-dx4710-09-windows-vista-desktop_i_pcgwdx471009vhp.aspx
But that deos not have enough information for me since I want to make some stop gap improvement in my system till I'm ready to build a new system with the soon to come out new Intel chips. I see there is some spare sata connectors on this motherboard. How can I tell if this motherboard's sata drive connectors support hot swapping of hard drives. If I could get a hot-swap port and large capacity hard drive it will make it easier for me to wait for the new Intel CPU and chipset to come out. Also I would like to use one of these sata ports for a SSD drive to be transferred over to my new system when I build it. Can I use SSP that supports relatively high transfer rates with a relatively slow stata port?

 

[GhislainG]

The included eSATA port should be hot swappable.

 

[in66732]

The included eSATA port should be hot swappable.

That's what I think too.

Thanks

I wrote to the manufacture called kingwin at url http://www.kingwin.com/products/cate/docking_stations/ezd_2535.asp about there hard drive docking port model 2535 and had not heard a reply yet if I do I will post it here but perhaps the perspective I can get from anyone here would be helpful to. So here is a copy of what I wrote..

Dear Sir
I have some questions about your docking station Ezd-2035 can I use it for a sata hot-swap docking station with my computer which is a Gateway DX4710-09 no longer supported by Gateway since the guarantee has run out, but this site add URL http://www.barebonekit.net/gateway-dx4710-09-windows-vista-desktop_i_pcgwdx471009vhp.aspx says this computer users the Intel® G33 Viiv™ Express Chipset and Intel says esata port supports hot-swap is supported at this site where a PDF resides with the information http://www.intel.com/assets/pdf/prodbrief/317311.pdf. It seems that according to this information my computer should support hot-swap with this device however I have also read sometimes you must enable it in the BIOS and sometimes it will not be possible so what do you think? Can I ruin anything in my computer if I try your docking station Ezd-2035 and it does not work do? Am I safe to try your this docking station and hot-swapping hard drives without ruining my computer.

Another question is it says it only supports up to 2 TB. Is that people backup purposes only? Does it come with backup software? And if you exceed the 2 TB by plugging in a larger single hard drive, the one available at this site http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Western+Digital+-+Caviar+Green+WD25EZRSDTL+2.50+TB+3.5%22+Internal+Hard+Drive/3738944.p?id=1218431534407&skuId=3738944&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=3738944 which is 2.5 TB , can you access the last half terabyte archiving purposes only? I wish to get a device which will let me archive many many videos.

Still another question is how do you power this device is itself a power by the esata port itself? If so is there any vantage to powering it externally? Can I make or buy a power cord adapter that will let me use the internal power supply of my computer as a power cord to your device? I see there is a knockout on the rear of my computer and I replaced the internal power supply on my computer with a very hefty one.

My e-mail address is in66732@yahoo.com
my name is Mark Miller

 

[GhislainG]

As long as the controller is configured for AHCI or RAID mode, it should be hot swappable. You can easily find out if you have an eSATA drive. Connect it while the system is on and verify that it gets detected and that you can safely disconnect it.

The Kingwin docking station won't work with drives larger than 2 TB; you can't ignore the specs. A power adaptor is provided and you need to connect it to DC IN.

Unless you don't mind getting spam, you shouldn't post your email address in a public forum.

 

[in66732]

As long as the controller is configured for AHCI or RAID mode. I'm assuming you mean on the motherboard and that the docking station is control less less. Do I look for that AHCI or RAID in the BIOS. I am not that familiar with the BIOS. Any advice on how I find that in the BIOS? Also I have read that in a year or so hard drives will start to get really huge in size by today's standards is it possible to choose a docking station which will accommodate almost limitless numbers of terabytes? Do they make one's which accommodate 100 TB for example or should I just not bother looking for that?

 

[GhislainG]

Both the PC's eSATA port and the Kingwin docking station are hot swappable. If you don't know how to change the BIOS configuration, then you obviously didn't modify the default settings and that's fine (on a Gateway system, you probably can't change much).

The Kingwin could accommodate 100 TB or more as long as you keep on inserting 2 TB hard disks one after the other untill all have been filled. The main drawback is that you're limited to 2 TB of online data at a time. You could buy or build a NAS to have 100 TB online. That can probably be done for less $20K plus another $20K or more for a tape library or another NAS to back it up as you wouldn't want to lose 100 TB of data. Given enough budget, anything can be done.