[OT] SATA Drives?

["Paul Gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

Has anyone started using SATA IDE stuff yet?

I'm wondering if I can use it as a means of installing a number of drives
externally to a PC, - primarily a way of getting round the standard ATA
18"
cable length limit.

I have a rack-mount module that has a number (about 8 I think) of standard
5.25" drive bays, complete with a PSU to power them etc... I was
thinking
about how I might best use this, and I wondered if I could load it with IDE
drives and use SATA to connect them back to a PC - I already have a number
of 120GB IDE drives, and I could use IDE-SATA converters (I was thinking of
using a drive caddy like the SI-125SA available here:
http://www.acmetech.co.uk/mobile_rack.htm)
 Does this sound feasible?

So the obvious next question is, what's the max number of SATA channels I
can squeeze into a PC? - anyone know of controller cards with 4 channels?

Thoughts?

Paul G.

Oh, and so it's not _completely_ off topic, the primary reason for this is
for my MP3 jukebox PC....

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