Upgrade to my Dimension 3000....

[RobbieG1977]

I am looking at upgrading the memory and hard drive. Here are a couple of questions.

1. Where can I find a 1TB ide compatible hard drive?
2. Where can I find an IDE cable that has a slave connection?
3. Is this the memory that I need. I just want to double check with you pros here.

I have tried searching amazon and tigerdirect and I am not finding anything that supports IDE. It is all SATA....

This is what appears on a stick of memory that i have right now.

V826632K24SCTG-D3
256MB DDR-400MHZ0CL3
PC3200U-3033-0-A0

[Staren]

You're not going to find an IDE hard drive in that size unfortunately. They just were never made. All drives had moved to SATA before they ever got that big. I think the biggest common IDE drives were 320s. There might be a couple of 500s floating around, but they would be rare.

The cable is easier. Newegg.com has them for a few dollars. Most of them will have two connectors on them.

As far as the ram goes, Yes that is correct. DDR-400 / PC3200 looks right for that system.

Updating a system of that age is going to get exceedingly harder. Compatible parts are no longer real common, but at the same time it isn't old enough to be vintage and there be a niche market like there is for older computers like PDP-8s or Commodores. The parts are out there, but its going to be more and more of a hunt.

[strollin]

Here's a place that claims to have a 750G IDE drive, although it's a pull. ST3750640AV Seagate 750GB 7.2K RPM 16MB Buffer 3.5 Inches Ultra ATA 100 Hard Disk Drive. New Pull Factory Tested.

[RobbieG1977]

That is a big reason why I use this site. You guys help educate me in understanding what I need to know to make me a better IT guy. I know enough to get a job in the field, but this site is the main site I use to educate me to make myself a better tech.

So okay 1tb hard drive is out. I will research something else. But as you say I am correct about the memory. Nice...

Again thank you.....all

[RobbieG1977]

Originally Posted by strollin Here's a place that claims to have a 750G IDE drive, although it's a pull. ST3750640AV Seagate 750GB 7.2K RPM 16MB Buffer 3.5 Inches Ultra ATA 100 Hard Disk Drive. New Pull Factory Tested.

$240 bucks for that! YIKES...like I said. I will keep researching!

[jdeb]

The max you can use in that system is 2GB. Here is the link for the company I use for Name Brand Systems. Guaranteed compatible and the pricing is competitive.

Computer memory upgrades for Dell Dimension 3000 Desktop/PC from Crucial.com

Hard drive prices are still high and it will be even worse for ATA.

This is probably your best buy these days
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAJB 320GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 / ATA-6 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Here is the cable
Newegg.com - Link Depot 18" ATA133 UV Cable Model UV-ATA18-BU-3

[RobbieG1977]

awesome exactly what I need and want...thanks...

[strollin]

Another option would be to install a SATA controller card so you could use SATA drives.

[Staren]

That is an option, but could get expensive. I wouldn't trust one of the cheap cards for a boot drive.

[RobbieG1977]

I have an 80gb drive for the OS. I just wanted another as a slave so I could free up some space on my current computer's HD. So the SATA controller might just work! Now I don't know much about those so what brand do you guys think would be the best?

[Staren]

Ok, that makes sense. The main reason I am nervous about SATA add-on cards is that most of the cheap ones have really high failure rates. You only need to look at the Newegg reviews to get the gist. The good ones usually cost hundreds.

Here is one that looked good in a quick Newegg search, but I don't use them so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Newegg.com - SYBA SD-SATA-4P PCI SATA (1.5Gb/s) 4 Port RAID 0/1 Card

[glc]

I'd use an IDE drive. I'd also advise you not to spend much money on that system.

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by glc I'd use an IDE drive. I'd also advise you not to spend much money on that system.

I agree. Bad enough you have to spend 105.00 on a drive and you will spend that regardless if it is a sata or IDE.

[glc]

With a 2gb ram max, the machine is really only suited for XP or Linux - you can run Vista or 7 on it, but not effectively. Multitasking will be pretty sluggish.

[RobbieG1977]

I only have XP on it anyway. I like XP. So do you think I should put another IDE drive (which I already have) in this system to have a total of 160 gb hard drive space and then go and buy the memory. Then leave it as is!

[David M]

Which do you need more? More drive space or a little faster?

[glc]

60 bucks to max out the memory is probably worth it - but if you had to BUY a hard drive right now, forget it. If you have a spare drive, throw it in. Note that you don't have a drive bay in that case for a second hard drive, you will have to improvise. With a 3 connector cable, you can master/slave the 2 drives on the primary IDE and leave the optical on the secondary IDE. Use CS (cable select) jumpering.

[RobbieG1977]

Yea my new plan is to get the memory upgrade and improvise the two 80gb hard drives that I currently have. Will take your advise on cable jumpering...

Thank you for all your help and support!