Hi everyone,
I am interested in buying the LG GGC-H20L and I am glad that I checked out these forums before I did. There seems to be quite a few problems with the drive and sata controllers and I must admit that I am a bit overwhelmed with all the information that has been posted about the various fixes and issues.

Just so its clear my PC has the following specs:
Windows XP SP2 with 2GB Ram
Geforce 7800GTX (NOT the 512 version) with 2x19" DVI connected LCDs
Geforce 6200 TurboCache with 1x19" VGA (using VGA-DVI adapter) connected LCD
A8N-SLI Premium Motherboard
Creative X-Fi Fatality Soundcard.

The 3 LCDS are all the same make and brand.

What I really really need is some answers to the following questions:

Sata controller:
From the specs my mobo has two different controllers:
nForce4: 4 x SATA 3Gb/s
Silicon Image 3114R RAID controller: 4x SATA with RAID0, 1, 10, 5

In the various threads I have noticed that there are problems with the drive working on the nforce controller and that a "SYBA SD-SATA-4P PCI SATA Controller Card" is a recommended alternative (after its been flashed) as it has the SIL 3114 chip. My motherboard also seems to have a similar chip (the 3114R) and I was wondering if they were the same and if there have been any problems getting the drive to work on it.

HDCP:
I cannot seem to find out anywhere whether not having a HDCP compliant GFX card or monitors means I will not be able to watch any movies. From what I can gather the answer is no unless I use AnyDVD HD to crack the movies first. I would just like to make sure that this is possible. I will mainly be using the drive for backup and storage but I definitely would like the option to watch Blu-ray or HD-DVD movies every so often - buying AnyDVD HD would not be a problem if it works.

Current Hardware:
I have 4xHDs (installed on the Nforce Controller) and 2xDVD Burners (installed on the PATA IDE connections). Using this drive will mean I have a seventh drive (hopefully on the 3114) - is there any possibilty that all these drives will cause me to run out of bandwidth on the mobo or possibly not allow for a stable enough data transfer when burning a Blu-Ray disc?

I know this is a rather long post but I could really use some advice and help before I go spend £175 on the LG drive. If anyone needs more information about my current setup then please ask me!

You have the right SIL SATA controller, but the wrong BIOS for it to work. The only way to change BIOS on that controller is with a modded motherboard BIOS. This is possible, and SIL provides the tools, but not a job for the uninitiated.

Setting the NV controller to IDE mode and installing the correct driver might prove successful, or might not. Worth a try.

Your NV controller is chipset-based. The IDE and SIL SATA are running on the PCI bus. Thus, they do not share bandwidth with the NV controller.

Thanks for getting back to me

Would I simply just be able to flash the existing bios with the Non-raid one found on their website?

I found the link in another thread:

http://www.siliconimage.com/support/...&ctid=2&osid=0

but I am unsure as to which files I would need to accomplish what you mention.

Plus any idea on the other issue that I mentioned? (the HDCP..)

HDCP complaint hardware is needed but you can output the video through VGA if you don't have HDCP on Monitor and Graphic card. Does your card and monitor have VGA ports?

On the other hand, I read that running AnyDVD in the background could also help, but I never try this (although I have AnyDVD) since my hardware are HDCP compliants.

Only one of my GFX cards (the Nvidia 6800) has a vga port. All three LCDs plus the two ports on my Nvidia 7800 all have DVI connections. Since the 7800 would be much more powerful playing back HD content thats the card I would really like to use.

I guess this means that I am probs gona be stuck simply using AnyDVD until I get HDCP hardware.

Any advice on the flashing of my sata controller? Does the link I provided lead to the correct files?

It has to be integrated into your motherboard BIOS, the controller cannot be flashed by itself. Requires a hex editor and the knowledge to use it, unless you can find a system BIOS that's already been modded by a user. You may find such a thing on one of the motherboard forums at the various web sites.

If you're comitted to going down this path, I'd try it on the NV controller first. But as long as the onboard SIL controller is shut down, it's cheap and easy to add a PCI card and use that instead.

Ah thanks for all the advice...

I think my best option will be to buy the drive and also a PCI card as well. That way if I cannot seem to get the drive to work on my mobo I can just plug it into the PCI card.

My final question is will this SATA PCI Card do:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=270204558643

It has the SATALink 3114A Chipset and its the only card I can find that's cheap and based in the UK.

I would really appreciate it if either you CDan or zevia could take a look at the specs mentioned in the link above and tell me if it's compatible with the bios flashing thats required.

Thanks again for all the help so far!

Ebay links don't work well here, there's a bug in vBulletin still. But I can extract the ebay number (270204558643) and checked.

I think the picture from ebay and newegg (here) is identical so I think I can safely assume that you can flash this card with with Base/IDE drivers to work with the LG drive.

Ah thanks very much for all your time and effort...I think I am gona go ahead and purchase the drive and card.

Hopefully everything will go well otherwise I am sure I will have to scan these forums again for even more answers :P

Thanks to you and CDan for all your help and time

The main thing with the card is that is has the correct type of flash memory. Those cards that look like the SYBA card should be OK.