JMicron chip/SATA question

[eclectasy]

I'm in the middle of building a new PC. I have an EVGA x58 mobo. I am gearing it with a WD Raptor HDD. The mobo manual says I have SATA0-6 controlled by South Bridge, 8-9 controlled by JMB363 and 6-7 controlled by JMB362. I know 363 is used for RAID configs. It also says SATA 6 is my eSATA. I've never used anything but an IDE drive so I have a few newbie questions:

If I'm only hooking up my one Raptor HDD, should I plug it in to SATA0 or one of the JMicron ports? If so, which one (and why if possible)?

I would like to use my eSATA for an external drive, so do I have to do anything extra for that?

 

[r_manic]

Hey eclectasy, in principle, connecting the Raptor to any SATA drive should work. If you'd like to use eSATA for your external drive, is it already accessible from the outside of your case?

 

[evongugg]

eSATA:

Your sata port needs to be set to AHCI mode. Without this it may not support hot swap.

It has to be hot swappable for the OS to detect it automattically like a USB device.

 

[evongugg]

Connect your Raptor to SATA0-5. On the other ports, you may need a driver.

 

[eclectasy]

Well, there's an eSATA port on the back of my case via the I/O panel of the mobo. The manual defines this as SATA6 (a JMB362). I also have an eSATA port on the front panel of my case that needs to be plugged in to something. I plugged it in to SATA7 (the other JMB362 port) because it seemed logical. Not totally sure if it's the correct thing to do.

The thing that hung me up on the raptor drive is that it came with a bright red SATA cable (the exact color of the JMB SATA ports on my mobo) so I wasn't sure if the JMB ports are faster and better utilize the high-rpm of the raptor drive. Perhaps it was just coincidence though.

I'm cool with tracking down a driver if there's any added benefit. Otherwise, if it's just for RAID support then I won't bother.