Beginner question regarding sata cables and hard drives

When hooking up ssd's and HDD's to the motherboard does each drive require its own sata cable from the motherboard?

I notice most motherboards come with 6 sata cable plugs so I'm wondering if 6 is the max amount of drives it will support.

Thanks

 

When hooking up ssd's and HDD's to the motherboard does each drive require its own sata cable from the motherboard?

• Yes, 1 sata cable per drive. You can however power multiple drives from one power cable, given it has enough connections.

I notice most motherboards come with 6 sata cable plugs so I'm wondering if 6 is the max amount of drives it will support.

• You can probably get an internal pci-e addon card(s) if you need more than 6 drives.

note: all motherboard sata connections might not be equal. some may be colored to denote they are faster (6
Gbit/s, etc..)

 

Thanks S.Prime that answered my question

 

It's as it says 6 can be supported on the motherboard other high priced board will have more but it comes "As Is" Sata ports on the motherboard but you can add a PCi-express card with more Sata connectors as I did. My board has 10 sata connectors and I added 8 mores with two PCI-e cards-I tried a 8 port Sata PCI-e but that didn't like the board or vise versa. So you can add more Sata ports but can only use the amount of Sata connectors giving to you on the board itself this is because of chipset design.

Forgot to mention just make sure your PS is min 750watts 80-90% rated and if you can get a 1K watt 80-90% PS then go for it as that will insure you got enough juice to keep your system going and not be overtaxed.

 

Uhmmm, I don't think OP has mentioned anywhere what kind of system he runs. What if OP has i3 and GT750, where he's gonna put those 750W?

 

Agreed, match the power supply to your needs, no point in getting a 1000 W PSU if you have a low power system.

Regarding power cables, most power supplies I've seen usually have a couple HDD power connectors on the same cable. It does come in pretty handy to reduce cable clutter.

 

There is also SATA port multiplier possibility. It works like an usb hub to usb cables does. Not so common but they exist. Support from motherboard/chipset is also required.

They are usually found inside external hdd JBOD boxes (1 cable to 4-5 drives) but also internal "cards" are available.

 

This is the problem some board the newer one doesn't like this with a passion. I read about it and one should read carefully what the multiplier requirements are or check with your motherboard manufacture to determine if the Sata port multiplier is compatible with their boards as well. So if one wants to use multiplier they should contact the motherboard manufacture support tech and ask them does this Sata port multiplier work with their board.