Difference between GSATA and SATA

**Vital Core** · 14-04-2009

On my motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA790FX-DS5 there are six Sata ports. 2 of those ports are in different color. I tried to read the ports name and it reads like Sata & Gsata. I also referred to manual to confirm and the other 2 were Gsata. Now I want to know what is Gsata. It is given in manual as 'Gygabyte SATA' but I didnt understand what does it mean. So what is the difference between this SATA and GSATA? Is there any benefits of 1 over another?

**RoninBlade** · 14-04-2009

GSATA ports are provided by the onboard JMicron controller (rebranded by Gigabyte). Their performance is slightly lower than the native SATA ports on the ICH10 controller and you may experience driver issues. Personally I will connect all my drives to the SATA ports first before using the GSATA ones.

**Fabian** · 14-04-2009

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

**Killen** · 14-04-2009

I am just going from memory here. It is in the manual.
The purple connectors (GSATA) will only do raid with 2 drives. So only raid 0 or 1. The orange (SATA) can have up to 4 or 6 drives I think for raid 5. I can check later when I get home.

**Vital Core** · 14-04-2009

So, what is the final answer? Which type of SATA connector should we use?
GSATA or the standard one (southbridge). Which one would give better performance?

**Hardwareman** · 14-04-2009

Originally Posted by killen

I am just going from memory here. It is in the manual.
The purple connectors (GSATA) will only do raid with 2 drives. So only raid 0 or 1. The orange (SATA) can have up to 4 or 6 drives I think for raid 5. I can check later when I get home.

You are right. Generally you can configure these as standard ports for RAID 0 or 1. They will need a different controller and driver. These are capable of building a RAID array. These are becoming more popular but they do have a down side. I don't think these ports can be used for CD ROMs, DVDs and such but they do add expansion capability or RAID capability if you want it. If you configure a RAID array and want to load Windows on it, you will need to pre-install RAID drivers. If you use a RAID array as a secondary drive, you do not. Hope that helps.