Motherboard headers

Hey guys!

This will probably be a stupid question, but one I am going to ask regardless as it is something that I ponder when ever I see it.

If a motherboard has contacts for, let's say, SATA 3, but no actual header, is it possible to solder on the missing headers and use them as normal?

Just curious.

-Fri

How can you tell the header is for SATA3? That functionality is not in the connector, but instruction sets within the chipset and/or on 3rd party controllers.

Its akin to adding a decorative exhaust kit on your car and expecting more horsepower. It won't do it by itself!

(ok, ok, poor poor analogy, but I hope you get my point, LOL!)

The contacts have the SATA 3 and SATA 4 labels next to them, as does the headers that are actually present.

So it would not work due to the chipset etc?

You're analogy makes sense to me, so that's okay XD

-Fri

I suspect if the board is a cut down revision of another board, that you might be able to flash a different bios and enable some things, but if the connectors are left off it is likely that other components necessary would have been left off as well.

Are you sure that is not just the number of ports... as there is not a SATA4 spec out...

EarthDog said:

Are you sure that is not just the number of ports... as there is not a SATA4 spec out...

Click to expand...

I think he means SATA port #4

Exactly my point... I thought he mentioned that to say that it actually had SATA3, but its just the number of the port (I asked above how he knew it has SATA3 support and it appears he replied to support his assertion but with port numbers).

I didn't realize that haha, I'm a pain for skim reading DX Sorry, no it is Motherboard from a DELL Optiplex which I have lying around. It's definitely not SATA4 for obvious reasons and I doubt it is SATA3 XD

My point is each of the headers is labelled by a port number and SATA ports 3 and 4 do not have headers. I didn't occur to me about it possibly being a lower model and that the chipset would need to be programmed to support these ports.

It was just a pondering thing XD I suppose that when I am certain that I do not have any need for it any more I could try to solder on the headers to see if the BIOS does in fact identify them, though I highly doubt it will. Would make for some fun faffing around, haha.

Sorry for not making any sense and possibly confusing you all XD

-Fri