upgrade MB? or add in a ATA100 card?

[leepalao]

I have some advices to ask. I have a P3 800mhz. I have MB "Eupa" which run at ata 33. I'm gonna purchase a 40 gig 7200rpm, and figure that it won't make that much of a difference if the MB is transfering data at 33mb/s. Well, this is what I'm asking. Would it be better to buy a new MB? or buy an ATA 100 pci card? One thing about buying a new MB is that, I forgot which kind to buy if I were to get one. I know my cpu is p3, slot 1, and maybe 100mhz front bus. I forgot if it has an "E" after the 800mhz or not. Can I just buy any motherboard that support slot 1, regardless of the "E" or not?? I think "E" is 133mhz front bus or something. Since the ata card cost as much as a brand new MB, I'd rather get a new MB such as Abit, or Asus or Epox and have a better stable, and more reliable computer. which MB do you guys recomend for a P3 slot 1 cpu that can accept both 100, and 133mhz front bus? Thanks.

[HAL9000]

The 7200 RPM will make a difference and I wouldn't bother spending the money for a different motherboard. ATA100 cards are cheap and will maximize the performance of your drive.

[morriswindgate]

Go with an ATA 100 controller card. And if you plan on using your old hard drive with the new drive, Put the new ATA100 drive on the controller card IDE1 channel and the Old Drive on the Controller Card IDE2 channel. Then in the BIOS set the Motherboard IDE 1 channel to None. (If the computer hangs, set this back to Auto)
Remember Controller cards do not support CD Drives, so you cannot use tham for that.

[Confused]

Arial density and rotational speed are more important than burst speed. http://www.dalantech.com/hard-drives.shtml That 7200RPM is going to make a big difference if you currently have 5400RPM
Chas

[casey]

Hallo everyone,
I often read that controller cards do not support CD Drives (on various forums)this is not correct. I use the following on various systems:
Iwill Side Pro 66: Attached CD Rom & Sony DVD
Zoltrix ATA 100 Controller: Attached CD Rom & Aopen Slot 16 x 40 DVD Drive
Any comments
By'e
Anton

[HAL9000]

That's right, they do not properly support other devices that hard drives, but this doesn't necessarily mean they won't work, but it's also the cause of a lot of problems. I fail to understand why people attach these other devices to an Ultra66/100/133 controller card when the device doesn't run at these speeds anyway. Keep the hard drives on the controller where they belong and the other devices on the motherboard and everything will be happy.

[casey]

Hal9000,
Reason for using controller card,
Board Gigabyte-GA60xet 2x ATA100
Primary Master - IBM Deskstar 30 gig 7200 ATA 100
Primary Slave - as above
Secondary Master - Ricoh Mp7120 CDRW
Secondary Slave - LG 8160B CDRW

Controller:
Primary Master - Seagate Baracudda 7200 ATA 100 20 gig
Primary Slave - Open
Secondary Master - Aopen 56x CD Rom (On the fly music Copy)
Secondary Slave - Sony CDU1211 DVD Rom

[HAL9000]

OK, but why wouldn't you put the CD devices on the motherboard and the drives on the controller card?

[casey]

HAL9000
On the one PC the controller is ATA 66 and all HDD are ATA 100.
It's also just that I have been using it like this for about 12 months, previous MOBO Gigabyte BX2000 ATA 33 / GA-6vxc7 ATA 66 and never realised that these controllers are/could be troublesome with CD Rom units.Mate of mine uses the Promise ATA 100 controller with a similar setup and has no probs either.
My other PC uses the Aopen Ho8 case 5x CD Bays, and seven internal 3.5 inch bays, the IDE cables (46cm)from controller card are to short to reach the upper Hard Drives (only reach the bottom 3 CD Rom bays.

[HAL9000]

From your previous post, I was under the impression that both the motherboard and the add on controller were both ATA100. Like I said, if it works for you fine, but it's something to be aware of that other devices can cause problems. If you run into a situation where where things are running flakey and anything other than a hard drive is connected to a controller card, it the ideal place to start troubleshooting.

[leepalao]

Thanks for all your help. I'm just gonna get a controller card ATA100 from newegg for around 30 bucks. I'm gonna connect to it 2 hard drives: 40 7200rpm for IDE1, and 60 5400rpm for IDE2. I'm gonna use the 40 gig for windows xp. I'm just wondering if it's gonna be a hassle when it come to format/install windows??? Would I have to reattach the hard drive to the Motherboard's IDE? Or can I just install it from the controller card? The reason I'm asking this is because the controller is a pci, therefore will require some sort of drivers first to make it work or something.. I'm not sure?

[morriswindgate]

Normally they will detect without the drivers installed since they have a boot capability. I usually go ahead and format with the drive on the motherboard and then move it to the controller to install the OS.

[Genuine_Mind]

I just build my new computer, and I put the new hard drive on the ATA 100 card, Windows Xp did the rest, very easy, just read the screen and you should have no problems.

[HAL9000]

With the exception of Windows NT and Windows 2000, I connect everything they way it's going to be and load it. The Win9x series and WinXP handle it fine.