Need more space. What are my options?

[mystvearn]

I need more gb. ANd I want to keep my existing hd. I don't want external hd. My hd can do RAID 0, 1. But I think RAID is not a good option. Since there are only two ide cable slots-and all 4 are taken by 2 hd and 3 cdrw+dvdrom, I was thinking on placing more HD. Is there a pci card that lets me add more cables?Anything will do

[RJ]

Sure. What you need is a PCI controller card.
Look at the ones from Promise Technology (http://www.promise.com) they are very good.

RJ

[mystvearn]

Serial / ATA RAID Cards > FastTrak S150 TX4? this card?
Yyes-this is the card I want..guess
Is there a comparison benchmark between these types of cards?

[Kov-Ice]

Doesn't RAID just use a second HDD to make an exact copy of the first (to increase speed of search time and automatically make a back-up copy of your info)?

If you need more storage space, just getting a standard ATA controller card will allow you to add those extra drives. Also, a Serial card means needing to purchase a more expensive (although faster) serial HDD.

[Xayd]

Raid can do that but other thingxs as well, such as mirroring for redundancy.

[mystvearn]

I know RAID can do other things. Serial HD are not the normal HD?not SCSI i mean.

[mwb1jr]

If you need more space, just get rid of that 30 gig drive and get a 120 gig maxtor. I've seen a lot of them sell for $90 on ebay and Fry's electronics.

[mystvearn]

Upgrading. Still in good form. So might as well use it until its broken.

[mike breck]

I would say the 2-Port Serial ATA/150 Controller plus ATA/133 Port is your best bet. That offers support for two S-ATA and two ATA133 HDs.

So whether you go ATA133 or S-ATA on the new HD, you are covered and have an option to use S-ATA HDs in the future.

HTH

[mystvearn]

Have a link to that? Which is mainstream? I think my 2 hd are using sata/ata 133. Is there any difference in the two? Can the two exists using one cable?

[mike breck]

http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?productId=97&familyId=3

This isn't a RAID card - it's S-ATA and ATA.

The point I'm making is that with this controller, you can use two ATA HD and two S-ATA HDs at the same time.

So you could use your existing ATA HD (I'm assuming your existing HD is ATA) and then decide whether your new HD is ATA or S-ATA.

Either way you're covered. You have backward compatiblity for the old HD and have future-proofed yourself, in case you wish to use S-ATA, now or in the future (well the foreseeable future, anyway).

ATA and S-ATA use different cables - but this card will cope with both types.

I don't know what you mean by "which is mainstream"?

[mystvearn]

Well which is used more. How to know my hd is ATA/SATA?I think I a using an SATA cable.

[glc]

ATA is the wide 40 or 80 wire ribbon cable - SATA is a LOT narrower.

[mystvearn]

how can I tell?any pics of the types of hd/cables?

[Kov-Ice]

The SATA cable is narrow and flat. The plugs on the ends look about the size of a USB cable. Here (http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=12-104-150-01.JPG)

A ribbon cable is very wide and flat. The ends look like those that plug into your cd- or dvd-rom. Here (http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=12-104-113-03.JPG)

[mystvearn]

I have SATA cables that came with the mobo. 2 of them. But I don't seem to find a slot for it on my HD-so my hd uses the ribbon cable. So S-ATA hd are expensive? They are newer? I have not seen them in stores(maybe I wsa not interested)> How does the HD looks like?

[mike breck]

SATA HDs don't look any different from normal ATA HDs; however the cable and power connectors are different.

See this article:

http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20030204/serial_ata-01.html

As far as I know, most of the SATA HDs allow you to use a standard 4 pin Molex connector from the PSU as well as the new power connector.

As your mobo has two SATA controllers, you could, if you wish, connect ordinary ATA HDs to it by using a convertor

http://www.directron.com/ide2sata.html

However, I don't know good these convertor cards are.

HTH

[mystvearn]

Well If I get A SATA HD-they can coexisits with my IDE HD?I am not sure SATA drives are availabale here yet-have to check. Price?is it the same?or more?my mobo has conections for both IDE and SATA. my mobo same type as the asus p4g8x

[mike breck]

Well If I get A SATA HD-they can coexisits with my IDE HD?

Yes.

Personally speaking, I wouldn't bother with SATA at the moment until the next standard comes out. Give it time to settle down.

I would just go for a Western Digital or Maxtor ATA 133 HD that has a 8MB cache. That'll be fast enough for most purposes - cheaper too.

HTH