Best Pci Sata Card? Options

[cechlin]

Okay, well i have an older computer that doesnt have sata at all, and i was wondering what my best option is.

I want to be able to flash any drive...if thats possible.

Also, what else would i need to purchase to flash any 360 drive.

[deilzfcjk]

Seems like you're trying to find a magic bullet that covers all 360 drives. Good luck. You'll need at least 2 different computer's with varying combos of PCI adapters. You sound like you're going to buy a 360 and want to have a setup working to flash the drive. You;ll save money by just buying the 360 first and finding out what you need second.

[cechlin]

see the thing is all of my friends also want to be able to flash their drives also, we will all be splitting the cost so $$ is no problem

[RDC]

You can use a Via chipset card (6421) for all of them. The issue with that though is you may run into some Hitachi v78 drives that are picky about them and either will not work or you'll have to mess with it to get it to, but it can be used for all other drives, Samsung ms25/28 and the Hitachi v59 and lower versions. Do NOT use a SIL (Silicon Image) chipset card on the Hitachi v78 either, you'll brick the drive.

The Ben-Q can't be flashed at the moment and the Hitachi v79 needs to have the FW chip removed and flashed on an external programmer, until the Pass Key is released later on when it's finished.

Having the power adapter from the X360USB (Xecuter) is really nice as well and you can flash any Hitachi v59 and lower drive from the USB to SATA adapter it comes with, but they're the only ones that work with it. I'd grab a Via chipset PCI card and the Xeno kit, since it's just the power adapter and HDD adapter. That way you can power your drives from the adapter and not need to have the 360 sitting over at the PC every time ya have to do one. I have an X360USB and Via card and haven't had any problems doing the Samsung drives or any of the v59 and lower, I haven't run across a v78 to mess with though.

Some notes about my recommendations, the Xeno kit doesn't have a power switch on it, so you should add one to make doing the ms28 drives as well as all of the others easier. The Xecuter board does already come with the switch if ya wanna spring for that one, but I hated the slide switch on mine and replaced it with a toggle (thing acted funky sometimes), as well as had to repair the cable a couple of times also from it coming apart. Either one will work though, so it's really up to you on which one ya wanna go with. that's all dependent on if ya go that route as well, you may want to use the 360 to power the drives, just a a lot easier this way IMHO for getting the Hitachi v59 and lower into modeB as well as not having to have the 360 cluttering up the space you're working in and have all that stuff plugged in as well.

[cechlin]

thanks a lot your post was really full of useful information

other opinions are also greatly appreciated.