No SSDs for K7VT6?

You could try picking up a cheap PCI SATA2 controller. I imagine you have tried different SATA cables and all possible BIOS options? If you have I suspect the add in card may be your only choice.

It may be that the SSD requires AHCI mode and the board does not support it. Some SSDs are able to run in "legacy" or "IDE" modes but some will not function without AHCI. I looked up your drive and it seems quite a few people found it problematic or impossible to get it to recognize in BIOS on older SATA 1 boards. I would recommend an addin card that supports AHCI or you could return the drive and get a different one that supports legacy SATA 1 systems. SSDs did not even exist in the consumer segment when your board was released so I am not surprised that there are problems. Ultimately one can't really fault the manufacturer for not being able to predict the future  

Edited by Xaltar - 23 Aug 2015 at 4:03am

tecc wrote: Yes, I've already tried different cables and settings. The controller might be an option since it's quite unlikely for Asrok to release a BIOS on this old mainboard. Still wonder why a 120 GB SSD should make problems as opposed to a regular SATA HDD.

My guess is the VIA chipset used on that board, and the last BIOS update was literally 10 years ago. Plus the RAID driver is vintage 2005 - 2006, which is pre-AHCI.

Also, the SATA version/protocol the chipset supports is pre-SATA II, which means more than just the speed of the interface. There were SATA version changes implemented in the Intel 8 series chipsets (now two generations old) that caused some early SSDs to no longer function with those boards. Some new SATA features are not backwards compatible, and at some point had to be left behind. Given that in general, I'm not surprised your board will not work with a current SSD.

More bad news about an add on SATA card and that board. It has no PCI Express slots, just PCI slots and an AGP graphics slot. Most current SATA cards require a PCI Express interface. You would need one for a PCI 2.2 slot, like these I found:

http:////www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=sata+controller&N=100007607%20600022626%20600022728&isNodeId=1

Can I guarantee these cards would work with a SSD and that board? No, sorry to say.

tecc wrote: Looks like my dad's gonna get my current machine and I'm gonna build a new one. Any suggestions on what board to get? I'd like to get an Intel board this time and I'll be using the PC to mostly surf the Internet, remux some Blurays (no new encodes) and I wanted to get into virtualisation, so I'd need a CPU with extensions for that. Are there any boards with onboard graphics that can play Starcrat 2 in FullHD? It's important to me that is has lots of USB3 ports and uses quite less power while surfing or being idle.

Given your requirements, you need to think about the CPU first.

Only certain Intel processors and boards support virtualisation, and then there are multiple kinds of virtualisation. Intel's line of processors alone can be mind boggling, regarding which model has what features, and the boards (chipset/CPU socket) they can be used with.

I'm realizing how difficult it is to answer your simple questions, because the hardware available is not simple, and there is so much of it. You'll have quite a learning curve if you are not current with all the Intel technology, and I have no idea where you are in that area.

I get a hint about that when you wrote, "Are there any boards with onboard graphics...". ALL of Intels "onboard graphics" are part of the CPU itself, and not a separate chip on the mother board. AMD has abandon that architecture as well. Sure you can get a separate video card, but that's not the same thing as graphics built into a mother board. Intel put their "integrated graphics" on the CPU itself about four years ago. Some Intel processors do not contain any integrated graphics, another thing to watch for.

The term "onboard graphics" currently means the graphics capability of the CPU, which a mother board supports by supplying the graphics output connectors. So if you read "onboard graphics", it means the integrated graphics on the CPU.

Current Intel mother boards either support the graphics included in the CPU, and/or a video card can or must be used. The Intel graphics is not well known for being great for high resolution game play, but how can they be when the chips used on graphics cards have more transistors on them than an Intel CPU plus the integrated graphics.

What are you using to play Starcraft 2 in full HD now? That is also a simplification of the many game settings that exist that need more graphics power to provide.

Let's get you started with a look at Intel's processor families. Note that only the 4th, 5th, and 6th Generation, and HEDT series processors are mainly available new, with many Pentium and Celeron processors available. But this almost historically complete list goes back seven or eight years, and those models are not available new:

http://ark.intel.com/#@Processors

Sorry if it's not simple, or at least not simple if you want to understand what it is all about.