Interesting info on the S-ATA problem. Never believe a store/vendor when they say they've never heard of a problem. I've had vendors tell me that when I called them...a week after having talked with them about it before. They have VERY short and CONVENIENT memories. I've also seen it happen when I had some rough statistics that showed a third or more of purchasers were experiencing the same problems I was...

Detection type problems are not uncommon with motherboards. Graphics cards often get the short end of the stick, but sometimes it is specific models of memory (not infrequently some high end stuff!) S-ATA still seems to be working out a few kinks. I remembe when USB was rife with trouble.

Word of mouth is the best way to find out what is happening with specific hardware. Without internet forums we would be back in the dark ages of hardware (and software) troubleshooting.