SATA or GSATA? Need help hooking up my HD to the mobo.

[audiobahn1000]

I have this hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148144

And this mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128012

I need to know how to hook it up. My mobo has two main different type of connections for HD’s. Here are the two:

SATAII0/1/2/3 (SATA 3Gb/s Connector, Controlled by Intel ICH8)

AND

GSATAII0/1 (SATA 3Gb/s Connector, Controlled by GIGABYTE SATA2)

So what one do I choose to hook the hard drive up to?

Here is a pic of the cable provided with the mobo for the hard drive. It also shows the three pairs of connections for the hard drive. The GSATA is the purple one and the SATA is the yellow one.

Also here is a pic of my hard drive. It has three connections on the back. One is for power the other fits the yellow cable in the above picture. So I assume it goes to the mobo. But there is a third connection. The longer one of the two. What is that for? I do not have any cables that fit it. Do I need it?

Also what’s the difference between SATA 2 and SATA 3? My HD says its SATA 2 but the mobo says it supports up to SATA 3. And what’s the difference between the two jacks I listed above?

 

[Geoff]

SATA3 doesn't exist... yet.

It sounds like the GSATA is just a Gigabyte RAID port, and your hard drive should work in either one.

And the connector next to the data cable is for a SATA power cable.

 

[Cromewell]

I run my drive off of SATAII0 (top most connection in the pic). The 'GSATA' is just SATAII ports provided by the gigabyte stamped JMicron SATA controller.

I can't tell from your HDD pic (too blury) but you only need the power and SATA cable and they only fit on the one they are supposed to go on. The longest connector (red box) on the drive is the SATA type power connector, the blue box looks like the SATA data cable connection and I can't tell what the purple one is but it looks like it has jumper pins

 

[audiobahn1000]

Ok well is the GSATA or SATA port a better option?

 

[audiobahn1000]

There are six plugs on the mobo for the HD. What one do I use? They are labeled as follows:

SATAII0
SATAII1
SATAII2
SATAII3
GSATAII0
GSATAII1

 

[Geoff]

I would use the SATAII 0 port.

 

[Cromewell]

I would say the SATAII0 is the best option, but it shouldn't matter. If you want to run a RAID, then you have to use the GSATA ports.