looking at an Asus Maximus VI Hero

njitgrad

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Jun 13, 2012
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Looking to finally upgrade from an EVGA 680 SLi that ran a Core 2 Duo for at least 5+ years. My requirements are at least 7 SATA ports and very dependable (but still affordable). I have five SATA hard drives and two SATA DVD drives which is why I need at least 7 on-board ports. Currently four of my HDs are running off a SATA interface card so I'm looking to eliminate that one component in my new system.

The Asus Maximus Hero VI has very good review but I have a question about the 8 SATA ports. Six of them seem to be on the Intel Z87 chipset and the other two on the ASM 1061 controller. What does that actually mean? Does it matter which one of the eight ports my system drive will be connected to? Does it mean that my four data-only HDs and two DVD drives have to be connected in a specific configuration?

Edit: I meant to update my post before I got some responses, so sorry for the confusion.
 



Not trying to be funny, but personally I would consolidate at least 2 of those HDDs into 1 large HDD (3tb or 4tb). LOL. I also would invest in some Blu-Ray burners instead of having two DVD burners. We are almost half way to the year 2020! DVDs are a thing of the past! LOL Lastly, invest in a SSD or two! LoL.

 


The four data HDs are each 1TB and working fine...I'll cross that bridge one day. I don't have a BluRay player so I don't need a burner.

 
Would my old power supply from the EVGA mobo (LGA775) still work on the newer ATX boards? My mobo is so old that it's not even listed in my NewEgg history which dates back to 2007. I definitely got a lot of mileage out of it.
 


All I am saying is that you will get better performance with larger HDDs with more available space. For example, it is better to have 900 gb of data on an 2TB HDD (45% capacity), than it is to have 900 gb of data on a 1TB HDD (90% capacity).

Regarding, the Blu-ray burners, they play Blu-ray movies also!! LOL Further, you can burn your movies/videos in full 1080p on a Blu-ray writable disc as opposed to DVDs. They also hold much more storage (25 gbs).
 


Aren't the optical drives ATAPI devices? The ASMedia SATA ports can only be used for hard drives and not ATAPI drives according to the manual.

 


So basically one of my 1 TB HDs is going to have to go into an ASMedia port:

Intel 1 = 256 GB Samsung 840 Pro (new SSD for OS/Apps)
Intel 2 = 1 TB WD Black
Intel 3 = 1 TB WD Black
Intel 4 = 1 TB WD Black
Intel 5 = Asus Blu Ray
Intel 6 = Asus Blu Ray
AsMedia 1 = 1 TB WD Black
AsMedia 2 = Unused