Question about SATA 150/300 PCI cards (Could use some suggestions as well)

[Darncrazy]

I have an ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe motherboard with only two SATA 150 ports. I already have 2 sata hard drives, one 200GB Seagate and another 300GB and want to add another drive but I don’t have any more open ports.

I have a Promise FastTrak 378 SATA RAID controller card built into the motherboard and I heard from another post that you cannot have two of the same type of SATA card (https://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-10218-SATA-QUESTIONS-onboard-amp-PCI-card.html. So I have a few questions about SATA 150/300 cards.

If I were to buy a non Promise sata card, let say a 2 port SATA 150/300 card, would I still be able to use the two onboard SATA 150 ports or would I need to buy a 4 port non Promise card?

I could also use some suggestions on SATA cards too. I don't plan on using any RAID features, I just want to use SATA hard drives. So if anyone can recommend what to buy or what not to buy, that would be awesome.

Thanks in advance
-DarnCrazy

 

[Nodsu]

Uhm.. Your motherboard has a normal SATA controller and a SATA RAID controller, giving you total of 4 SATA ports. The RAID controller is capable of working with non-RAIDed drives too.

Of course both of the controllers work simultaneously. Why would they put two of them on the motherboard if they didn't?

 

[Darncrazy]

Uhm.. Your motherboard has a normal SATA controller and a SATA RAID controller, giving you total of 4 SATA ports. The RAID controller is capable of working with non-RAIDed drives too.

Of course both of the controllers work simultaneously. Why would they put two of them on the motherboard if they didn't?

Honest to God I thought you could only use one or the other. Well I feel stupid now. *sigh* Oh well, thanks for clearing up my misconception of not being able to use it.