SG Broadband Community

I currently have three hdd's and one cdrom hooked up to my motherboard's primary and secondary ide connectors. I want to add another hard drive and possibly another cdrom plus have room for future expansion. I'm pretty sure I need a pci controller card, but I have no knowledge on these. How exactly do they work? How many ide devices can I connect to one? Any suggestions for a reliable/cheap one (speed isn't as important as reliable data transfer). I've got a 266 FSB DFI motherboad with an Athlon 1 GHz and 256 DDR ram.

Thanks for your help,
-Brent_212

i would go with a Promise Ultra100 PCI controller card. they are consistant and reliable. not too expensive, either (roughly $25 to $40 or so depending on where you look). they provide you with another IDE controller (with 2 channels) just like your onboard controller. so in essence you could have 4 devices on that and 4 devices on the onboard controller.

and as far as how they work... they work exactly like the onboard unit. your onboard IDE controller is actually a PCI device, but since its an integrated unit, it doesnt look like it (doesnt actually plug into a PCI expansion slot).

here's a link to a Promise unit.... http://www.aberdeeninc.com/abcatg/control.htm . the Promise controllers are near the bottom.

if you going to get a controller card.....consider RAID

you got 3 drives.......are they all the same size and rpm?

if so you could get a mojor speed boost out of it.

And like Samir was saying about Promise.........

i have promise and love mine

2 40g 7200rpm drives in a stipped array

zoom zoom zoom

(i hate that mazda commercial)

AMP

What's RAID? It seems like I've heard that termed used when people are talking about SCSI devices. Are there IDE RAID controllers? If so, what's the difference between a RAID and non-RAID controller?

yes there are IDE RAID as well as SCSI RAID controllers. if you have 2 or more identical hard drives when i would also suggest looking into an IDE RAID controller. they are a little more expensive (~$70 to $90 for an ATA100 RAID controller), and can also be used as a regular IDE controller.

if you would like to read all about what RAID is and how it works, take a look at http://www.storagereview.com/welcome.pl ... index.html .

its got a lot of information and a good way of describing RAID and its different levels.

Thanks for the very prompt help, guys. I'll take a look at that RAID link.

Your responses are much appreciated.

-Brent_212

If you're simply looking to expand your system, the first card suggested by smaier69 is probably the most suitable.

Yep, if you've got the drives for it, RAID is the way to go. I love it.

Learn here.

Oh and they just put out the ATA133 card.

yay

I have the Promise Ultra 100 TX2. Got it for around $25, shipping included. It gives you a little extra performance and you can put different speed drives on the same cable (80 wire, ATA 100) and not be limited by the speed of the slowest drive.