Off Brand SATA Adapters

[properauthority]

Remember a decade or so ago it was strongly advised to ONLY buy StarTech brand SATA / IDE adapters. I remember them costing around $20 USD. Is this still the case? What is yours experiences? Are the $3 USD cheap Chinese ones on eBay acceptable?

[HDShadow]

I've never used the StarTech brand IDE > SATA adapter.

There are three Xboxes I have fitted with SATA HDDs and all are of the same generic design which was recommended on another forum well over a decade ago now. All bought at different times over the years since then too and I've not had any problems with them.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/NFHK-Motherboard-Converter-Adapter-Desktop/dp/B09GPGFLWB

Important thing are having the jumper pins. some similar designs don't and are, presumably, Cable Select only.

Typical price everywhere is £8/$10 or less.

 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2024 by HDShadow
Pic too big

[tiertop]

The problem with the generic adapters is the quality control isn't really there.  Each one of the same model may work well or may not.

And the generic adapters vary in compatibility in general. There are 2-3 different interface chips AFAIK. The XBox doesn't like all of them.

Edited May 14, 2024 by tiertop

[Dempsey_86]

16 minutes ago, tiertop said:

The problem with the generic adapters is the quality control isn't really there.  Each one of the same model may work well or may not.

And the generic adapters vary in compatibility in general. There are 2-3 different interface chips AFAIK. The XBox doesn't like all of them.

look here: https://www.xbox-scene.info/forums/topic/340-ide-to-sata-adapter-compatibility-thread/#comment-571

[nikeymikey]

I use Startech whenever possible tbf. I have had mixed results with the China adapter 1 on that page. Some worked fine, others worked for a while then died, some were DOA. 

Build quality does vary a LOT on the cheaper Sata adpaters in my experience. I used to buy them in batches of 10 and ALWAYS had at least 3 in each batch that were DOA. 

A Startech is pretty much guaranteed to work without issues for a long time. 

[Bowlsnapper]

3 hours ago, properauthority said:

Remember a decade or so ago it was strongly advised to ONLY buy StarTech brand SATA / IDE adapters. I remember them costing around $20 USD. Is this still the case? What is yours experiences? Are the $3 USD cheap Chinese ones on eBay acceptable?

After researching that adapter, it seems that it is limited to certain UDMA speeds, and lags significantly at boot when using a DVD-ROM drive (unplugged DVD drive leads to instant boot times). The design may have been improved upon since the postings that I have found, but really: The Startech is 20 bucks. That's an hour of work in this drowning economy. A cheapo adapter is, on average, 7-10 dollars. I have always used Startechs and have blasted away at UDMA-6 with perfect reliability and snappy speeds with every one. The cheapos have issues and not great quality control. Several end up DOA. As long as it's one box, I don't see what the reason would be for not just getting one. You know it'll work and it'll perform. Whereas with a cheapo, you saved a whopping 12 dollars once and now may have to spend money again because it may not meet expectations. Now, if you were buying in bulk to mod consoles regularly, then yes, that would add up and you may wanna figure out a way to use them often without many problems. But for one personal build, I'd say Startech, and it's worth the extra money.

[MadMartigan]

Boot lag and loading speed is the major setback with the cheap adapters. Yes, Amazon still has the  Startech adapter for less than $20 shipped If you're in the US. 

StarTech.com IDE to SATA Hard Drive or Optical Drive Adapter Converter, 40-Pin PATA to 2.5" SATA HDD / SSD / ODD Converter https://a.co/d/eOy9piG

Edited May 14, 2024 by MadMartigan

[prtscn]

startech and similar brands, supports multiple ata interface speeds - you can use stock 40pin cable.

chinese, limited ata interface support, so you need to use 80pin cable. some cheap adapters support 40pin cable, hit or miss. inferior build quality.

personally i use chinese adapter, no problems. 2tb hdd no problems.

[properauthority]

4 hours ago, prtscn said:

startech and similar brands, supports multiple ata interface speeds - you can use stock 40pin cable.

chinese, limited ata interface support, so you need to use 80pin cable. some cheap adapters support 40pin cable, hit or miss. inferior build quality.

personally i use chinese adapter, no problems. 2tb hdd no problems.

Do you have a part number of source you can share? Thanks

[NeMesiS]

 

Just finished designing my SATA adaptor prototype...

The idea was to have a similar layout to the generic 3.5" adaptors,
while using the Marvell IC found on StarTech adaptors.

The majority of the SMD components are on the rear side of the PCB.
Full size Molex connector with reversed orientation to better suit HDD caddy/power cable.
Switch for master/slave/cable select, instead of just a pin header and jumper.
PHD connector to use DVD cable as alternative power source (experimental)
PHD connector also eliminates the DVDrom (no dvd-check bios required)
Power and HDD activity LEDs...

I'll still make some changes, but I'll get a couple prototypes made up as they are.
So, I can test fitment and the performance of the device before I continue any further.
 

Any feedback would be much appreciated, Nem

[Raidernick]

That green china adapter is fine as long as you put a 0603 100ohm resistor at R4. Doing that will give instant boot times and allow the adapter to run in UDMA6 mode at near UDMA6 speeds(around 90-95% speed). It's not as good as startech, but close enough at a small fraction of the price. Also, the startech chipset does have that incompatibility with newer cerbios versions, samsung b dvd drives and hdd's over 1tb in size(this may be hit or miss for some people).

[Bowlsnapper]

46 minutes ago, Raidernick said:

That green china adapter is fine as long as you put a 0603 100ohm resistor at R4. Doing that will give instant boot times and allow the adapter to run in UDMA6 mode at near UDMA6 speeds(around 90-95% speed). It's not as good as startech, but close enough at a small fraction of the price. Also, the startech chipset does have that incompatibility with newer cerbios versions, samsung b dvd drives and hdd's over 1tb in size(this may be hit or miss for some people).

I also keep forgetting about the resistor mod. Maybe I'll buy a pile of AliExpress clones and put it there... If it fixes all these issues, why the HELL wouldn't they populate R4 themselves? Wouldn't it improve their sales? Will it really run with a UDMA-6 bios? I keep seeing that people can only get UDMA-5 and that's only with the DVD drive disconnected. I keep forgetting about the Samsung drives. VERY important point. What about the HDD over 1TB thing? I haven't seen that. And newer Cerbios versions? I'm not familiar with those issues.

Maybe I should get one of these, populate R4 and do some conclusive testing for us all.

[Raidernick]

42 minutes ago, Bowlsnapper said:

I also keep forgetting about the resistor mod. Maybe I'll buy a pile of AliExpress clones and put it there... If it fixes all these issues, why the HELL wouldn't they populate R4 themselves? Wouldn't it improve their sales? Will it really run with a UDMA-6 bios? I keep seeing that people can only get UDMA-5 and that's only with the DVD drive disconnected. I keep forgetting about the Samsung drives. VERY important point. What about the HDD over 1TB thing? I haven't seen that. And newer Cerbios versions? I'm not familiar with those issues.

Maybe I should get one of these, populate R4 and do some conclusive testing for us all.

As long as it's the green adapter above with the master/slave jumpers then you can get UDMA6 to work as long as all the solder joints are good(you might need to reflow stuff).

As for the Samsung drive issue, it's the whole issue I posted about a while back where if you combine a Samsung B drive with cerbios 2.3.1 or greater and a hdd over 1tb(I tested 2,3 and 4) that on first console boot the DVD drive will give a busy error in XBMC or just not read the disc at all until you reboot the console once. Rebooting the console, starting xblast(or similar) first THEN the bios or putting the disc in before bios load does not cause the issue. It only happens on first boot directly to bios THEN inserting the disc and you get a busy error or it just won't read. It's a very specific issue that only happens under a specific set of circumstances but is very annoying. Using the china adpater prevents the bug entirely so on those consoles that is what I use instead of startech which I use for every other drive type.

[HDShadow]

1 hour ago, Raidernick said:

That green china adapter is fine as long as you put a 0603 100ohm resistor at R4. Doing that will give instant boot times and allow the adapter to run in UDMA6 mode at near UDMA6 speeds(around 90-95% speed). It's not as good as startech, but close enough at a small fraction of the price. Also, the startech chipset does have that incompatibility with newer cerbios versions, samsung b dvd drives and hdd's over 1tb in size(this may be hit or miss for some people).

Is there a guide for doing this mod? I assume it is just a replacement of an existing resistor but where exactly is "R4"?

[Bowlsnapper]

2 minutes ago, HDShadow said:

Is there a guide for doing this mod? I assume it is just a replacement of an existing resistor but where exactly is "R4"?

IIRC, it's actually missing entirely. It's just open pads but with R4 on the silkscreen.

@Raidernick Do other adapters with the Marvell controller exhibit the same Samsung drive issue?

[Raidernick]

1 hour ago, Bowlsnapper said:

IIRC, it's actually missing entirely. It's just open pads but with R4 on the silkscreen.

@Raidernick Do other adapters with the Marvell controller exhibit the same Samsung drive issue?

yes they do, I ordered 2 from other countries that look like bootleg startech adapters with the same chipset and they all had the same problem.

[PRince404]

Startech costs me like 60-70$ bucks with shipping since it is only available in the western hemisphere. AliExpress is banned for me. So I can't buy quality stuff. I'll have to go with those cheapo adapters and try my luck. Next biggest hurdle is finding a 80wire cable. Which is also only available on western e-commerce and AliExpress. 

[nikeymikey]

7 hours ago, NeMesiS said:

 

Just finished designing my SATA adaptor prototype...

The idea was to have a similar layout to the generic 3.5" adaptors,
while using the Marvell IC found on StarTech adaptors.

The majority of the SMD components are on the rear side of the PCB.
Full size Molex connector with reversed orientation to better suit HDD caddy/power cable.
Switch for master/slave/cable select, instead of just a pin header and jumper.
PHD connector to use DVD cable as alternative power source (experimental)
PHD connector also eliminates the DVDrom (no dvd-check bios required)
Power and HDD activity LEDs...

I'll still make some changes, but I'll get a couple prototypes made up as they are.
So, I can test fitment and the performance of the device before I continue any further.
 

Any feedback would be much appreciated, Nem

Looks great, I'll take a couple when they are available. 

 

[prtscn]

12 hours ago, Raidernick said:

That green china adapter is fine as long as you put a 0603 100ohm resistor at R4. Doing that will give instant boot times and allow the adapter to run in UDMA6 mode at near UDMA6 speeds(around 90-95% speed). It's not as good as startech, but close enough at a small fraction of the price. Also, the startech chipset does have that incompatibility with newer cerbios versions, samsung b dvd drives and hdd's over 1tb in size(this may be hit or miss for some people).

my adapter has it, interesting

 

[Raidernick]

10 hours ago, prtscn said:

my adapter has it, interesting

 

 

That's the older version of the adapter, the newer ones are missing several components on them. I guess they are cheaping out on the production quality now.

[L2000]

13 hours ago, prtscn said:

my adapter has it, interesting

 

Have you tried using or are you using Cerbios UDMA6 with it ? 

[tiertop]

I have some of the generic adapters and I know some of those did boot up very quickly. I use these things for old PCs sometimes too.  On the XBox I replaced the generic with a Startech because of how highly recommended that is.  Maybe sometime I will try some of the generics again with Cerbios UDMA5.

Edited May 20, 2024 by tiertop

[Halo_2]

On 5/15/2024 at 7:34 AM, NeMesiS said:

 

Just finished designing my SATA adaptor prototype...

The idea was to have a similar layout to the generic 3.5" adaptors,
while using the Marvell IC found on StarTech adaptors.

The majority of the SMD components are on the rear side of the PCB.
Full size Molex connector with reversed orientation to better suit HDD caddy/power cable.
Switch for master/slave/cable select, instead of just a pin header and jumper.
PHD connector to use DVD cable as alternative power source (experimental)
PHD connector also eliminates the DVDrom (no dvd-check bios required)
Power and HDD activity LEDs...

I'll still make some changes, but I'll get a couple prototypes made up as they are.
So, I can test fitment and the performance of the device before I continue any further.
 

Any feedback would be much appreciated, Nem

If these fix the issue with Samsung b drives I’m very interested.

[Raidernick]

3 hours ago, Halo_2 said:

If these fix the issue with Samsung b drives I’m very interested.

It uses the same controller IC as the startech, so no it won't fix the issue as that IC is the cause of the problem.

[properauthority]

The CERRXIAN IDE to SATA adapter, image attached and Amazon Canada link HERE.

It has 100+ reviews at 4/5 stars and cost exactly half the grand total of what StarTech adapter does.

Additionally, when installing a functionally similar adapter with a SATA hard drive, why is everyone adamant I just get an 80-pin IDE ribbon? .

Even the godly StarTech adapter specifies it's for use as a 40-pin IDE adapter. See second attached photo.

Is there any point at all to upgrading to an 80-pin IDE ribbon?

Thanks