Where should I connect my hard drives?

[Diaa]

Hey guys,

I have a bit of a beginner's question, which regards the optimal SATA configuration for my new (and old) drives.

Ok, so I just purchased the following hard drives for my new Windows 10 build:

• Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($173.45 @ OutletPC)
  Western Digital Green 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($134.99 @ Newegg)

And, I already own these three drives from my previous build:

• One single - 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 ST1000DM005/HD103SJ
  A pair of - Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Besides drives, the only thing I have connected to a SATA port is an Optical drive (which I'm not sure is connected to the best SATA port).

My motherboard is an Asus P8P67 WS Revolution ATX LGA1155, and here are its technical specs:

• SATA 3Gb/s - 4 x SATA 3Gb/s
  SATA 6Gb/s - 2 xSATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (gray) by P67 ------ 2 xSATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (navy blue) by Marvell 9128
  SATA RAID - P67: 2 xSATA 6.0 Gb/s ports (gray); 4 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports (blue) Support RAID 0,1,5,10 ------ Marvell 9128: 2 xSATA Gb/s ports(navy blue) Support SATA RAID 0 and 1

I am thinking of using my old Crucial SSD's as a scratch disk, or at least including them in my new build in some way. It would also be great to incorporate my old 1TB drive as well.

So here's the question, if I want my new Samsung SSD to be an OS drive, and I certainly want the WD 4TB drive to be a data drive, and I would also like to incorporate the SSDs and old drive, if possible, where should I connect everything? As in, which SATA port/controller? Is there room? Also, would the answer change if I raid the two smaller SSDs?

I've been researching this over the last few days, and I've managed to get a little confused. Thank you so much for your help.

 

[Spectre694]

The Intel controller is better than the Marvel so you'll want to use it first.

Put both the SSD's on the Intel SATA 6Gb/s then but the HDD's in the Intel SATA 3Gb/s. That really won't be an issue for them Marvell generally works but the preformance usually isn't as good and sometimes the tend to drop disks and the pick it back up later.

 

[Diaa]

Thank you. Do you mind clarifying a little? I have a total of three SSDs, and only two 6Gb SATA ports. In total, I have 5 drives. Here is a link to the mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131714

What do you think would be the smartest arrangement without jeopardizing performance? If necessary, I can give up one or more of my old drives.

 

[Spectre694]

Thank you. Do you mind clarifying a little? I have a total of three SSDs, and only two 6Gb SATA ports. In total, I have 5 drives. Here is a link to the mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131714

What do you think would be the smartest arrangement without jeopardizing performance? If necessary, I can give up one or more of my old drives.

Ahh sorry I read that as one crucial for some reason.
I would still do Intel Sata 6Gb/s for the 850.
9 times out of ten marvell's Sata 3(6Gb/s0 is slower than intel sata 2(3Gb/s) so just use the intel. If you can but the two 64 Crucial's as a RAID 0 on the sata 2 intels (gives you 128GB of space as one drive and faster than either drive alone but if one drive fails then you lose all data on both)

Then plug the other two Hdd's into the other two intel sata 2 or if it won't let you have them while doing RAID then put them on marvell

A quick google search will show you the marvell 9128 sata 3 ports are very slow.