6 replies to this topic

[Dan Wask]

Well my old computor died last year, and I decided to make it live again. (note easter reference and move on) Me and my brother decided to work on it by replacing the hard drive (video card was already replaced).

Heres what my bro told me:

The type of mother board and hard drive connections that are in that computer are the old IDE type which involves a 40 pin connection. The hard drive we bought is very new and uses a new technology and is called SATA....sata does not plug into ide.It has a 7 pin data connector, and both use a 4 pin power thing.

What do we need ?

Is installing a new motherboard that hard ?

Would it make more sense just to get this: http://www.newegg.co...-144-102&depa=1

Will this "bolt" right up ?

Edited by Dan Wask, 27 March 2005 - 08:48 PM.

[Dan Wask]

Thanks for the help guys, youve been great.

[kingofnerf]

I've never had a problem with installing the hard-drives. Just about all of them are the same. Do you have the right threads?
Switching the motherboard is not all that easy. You gotta make sure all processors are fast enough for motherboard, and all hardware. Then you gotta get all the right threads. Its a difficult task, to people who don't know about computers.

[The Large Moose]

I beileve there are IDE to SATA converters, but I don't think they will have them at Best Buy, or Circuit City. Best bet is to check online. Also, if you have the cash, it would be easier just to buy a new HDD.

Edited by The Large Moose, 29 March 2005 - 10:58 PM.

[okto]

You should get an IDE hard drive, or a SATA driver PCI card. I'd go with the right card drive, rather than fuss with an add-on drive controller, unless you really need the speed of SATA.

[boltsniper]

Yes, there are SATA to IDE converters. They usually plug into the back of the SATA hardrive. They don`t cost that much. But they also don`t make a lot of sense. By using it you will not get the speed benefit of a Serial drive. If you can, I would return the drive you bought and purchase a Ultra ATA drive. It doesn`t make much sense to buy the drive you linked to, but yes, it will "bolt" right up to your MB. As long as its not serial it will work with your MB. You can get a 200GB drive for $80 if you look around and watch for sales. An 80 GB for $56 is not that good of a deal....

Edited by boltsniper, 29 March 2005 - 11:13 PM.

[cxwq]

I'm a little late on this one, but I'd either:

a) return the drive (if possible) and exchange for a UATA drive. Probably cheaper as well.

b) keep the drive (if not returnable due to opened package, whatever) and get one of these or something similar

http://www.newegg.co...-150-015&depa=1

The SATA controller and SATA drive will be a higher performance disk subsystem than you had before, but depending on the specs of the rest of your system, you might not be able to take full advantage of it.

Alternately, it's not that hard to install a new mobo but that doesn't usually make sense unless it's at least 4 or 5 years old. When I have a 4-5 year old system, I buy a new mobo, proc, and RAM for ~$250 and it's essentially a whole new system.