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Advice please,
I run two hard drives on my PC, but would like more "4 max"
is it just a matter a replacing the double IDE cable?
I've had a look on google but only came with IDE Dual Device Cables,
but that would only hold 3.
pehaps a external caddy would be a solution
Any advice appreciated
You can only connect 2 drives to IDE cable (Master and slave).
Most motherboards have 2 IDE connectors so 2 cables can support up to 4 devices. The problem is that optical drives also use them.
If you motherboard has SATA then you can use that.
You can also use a USB2 external housing.
Lastly, you can add a PCI card that can add more expansion capabilities to your system.
What motherboard do you have?
Most MB have 2 IDE connectors (each connector can handle 2 devices each for a total of 4 devices). Your are NOT going to find an IDE cable with 3 or 4 connections because there is no such animal.
Other solutions:
SATA Drives
USB external drives (you can daisy chain these up to 128 times)
_____________________________
Damn VB, you're too fast for me! Or I'm too slow.
Each IDE connector can have 2 devices. A master and a slave. Most mobo's have 2 ide channels, so you can have 4 hard-drives, so long as you don't want any optical drives.
You might want to consider a SATA drive, or connecting an external drive via USB.
Thanks for the info
I've got a KM2MCOMBO-L ~ a bit outdated now :(
I like the sound of the PCI card for expansion, did not know they did one.
ebuyer have a caddy @ £3.99, looks okIDE Caddy With 2 Fan
I'm sure they would work on the PCI expansion
I'm a bit unsure about USB2 for an external drive, compared to the PCI card idea, Will see if I can get some details on transfer speeds first.
SATA Drives: don't know if that would work on my PC, unknown if I could convert, I've seen the New Maxline Pro 500GB with 16 MB Cache, good reports.
Much appreciated
External Serial ATA 1+1 Port PCI Adapter - ebuyer @ £12.04 PCI Adapter
This would be a great upgrade for my PC at a low cost,
and would work well I hope with the Ebuyer Caddy + sata drive for each bay in the PC, and would be handy so I can hot swap if need.
Ask a question, get an answer, problem sorted, Nice one!
It's just because you're not French.Quote:
Originally Posted by CELEBS_ARE_US
We seem to terrify them...
Anything terrifies the French lol...
Hey Duff...how's the RAID array working out?
The PCI card that I was refering to was: http://www.promise.com/product/produ...&product_id=87
http://www.promise.com/product/images/Ultra133_TX2.jpg
Thanks for the info :)
the only price I can find at the mo is £34.61 for this card, not as cheap.
looks good, can run 4 drives on it, but the data rates only 133mb/s
would I be better using the SATA Port card with data rates @ 1.5Gb/s
and the Serial ATA card comes ready with the cable as well.
I'm sure this is the one to go for, well hope! :lol:
I would go for that card and a sata drive.Quote:
Originally Posted by CELEBS
Then you can use the drive if you build/upgrade your computer later on.
Make sure you've got enough connectors for power in your computer, and for a sata drive you will need a molex to sata cable.
Thanks Rossco, The one thing I did not think about... "power connectors"
just had a look, yes i have two available.
found a molex to sata on ebuyer @ £4.11 each:ITEM:
Seagate ST3250824AS 250GB @ £65.77 each
x2 HDD £131.54/x2 molex to sata £8.22/1x Serial Ata card £12.04
= £151.80 ~ 304.726 CAD
sounds quite good to me, will be a good setup at a good price!
Thank you
EDIT: Sata power converter on ebay, buy it now price £1.99 + £1.00 p&p
eh good, i get problems if I don't defrag once in a while, but other than that i get 12 day uptimes no prob, sometimes it does that clicking but it doesn't crash it anymore, so its all cool.Quote:
Originally Posted by clocker
IDE maximum data rate is 133MB/sQuote:
Originally Posted by CELEBS
SATA maximum data rate is 150MB/s
But the mechanical limitation of most drives is still less than 100MB/s.
You won't notice any speed difference.
You can still go with SATA if you want. Look for the best price for the card and drive combination.
Quote:
Originally Posted by clocker
Or the French Canadiens ,who just like to be different ! :) Ok OK could n't help it !:D
Try the new WD drives:
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=94403
16MB cache for only 60p extra per drive but save money on the sata power converters - WD drives still accept molex power connectors.
If you are getting 2 drives don't forget that you need a data cable for each drive with sata. The controller card only comes with one cable so you need to buy one for the second drive.
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=58191
Thanks Lynx
All I need now is buy one get one free :lol:
Thats a good deal, 250GB - 16MB Cache at that price.
love the look of the SATA cables compared to the old IDE, that would make a well tidy PC.
Thanks all for ya help on this one :)
If you have chosen sata drives thats ok, you can always switch them to a sata capable motherboard later but you need to know that a sata pci card is limited by the speed of the pci bus, you will not get 150mb/s speeds until you have a sata motherboard.
Standard pci bus throughput is 33MHz x 32 bits width = 1.056Gb/s. While this does not match the 1.5Gb/s (not 150mb/s) of the Sata I interface, it still outstrips the media speed of about 500mb/s for a high end drive. Without multichannel RAID the limiting factor is still the media transfer speed and will continue to be for some time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Appzalien
Quote:
Originally Posted by lynx
http://www.sata-io.org/faqs.aspQuote:
What is the long-term road map for SATA?
SATA defines a roadmap starting at 1.5 gigabits per second (equivalent to a data rate of 150MB/s) and migrating to 3.0 gigabits per second (300 MB/s), then to even higher data rates. This roadmap supports up to 10 years of storage evolution, based on historical trends.
Perhaps 'alien had his casing wrong....
but then I've seen multiple instances of case-raping in this thread. :frusty: