installing serial ATA to IDEconverters in Dell dimension 8400

[Dan]

Hello all,
A friend recently tried to help me install a Western Digital 80 GB,
10,000 RPM hard drive from my old PC into my new Dimension 8400.
After mounting it in the chassis he said there was nowhere to hook it
up, that there was no IDE controller. He searched around quite a bit
and couldn't find a place to hook up the drive, apparently there are
only serial ATA controllers in the chassis. We searched the Internet
for some kind of adapter and did find a SATA converter from a company
called Newelldirect.com. The adapter came in a package with no
manufactures name on it, it only says that it was made in China. I'm
just curious if there will be any performance degradation once we get
the hard drive hooked up using this adapter. I searched a bit more
about SATA converters and that some work well and others don't,
sometimes it depends on the model of drive its being used on. Sorry,
I don't have the model number for the Western Digital drive as it's
already in my machine and I can't get to it. According to device
manager, the model number of the drive already installed on my PC is
ST 3800 1 3AS. Any help in getting this drive installed and running
at optimal performance is greatly appreciated!

Dan
(e-mail address removed)
Remove NOSPAM from address when replying

 

[Pen]

There is one IDE controller in the 8400, used for
any optical drives. So if you have 2 CDs and/or DVDs
then it's correct about no where to hook it up.
Any converter will have some performance hit, but it's
unlikely to be noticeable. Just remember to strap the
WD as "single drive" or "cableselect" not master or slave.

 

[Jim Marlin]

Pen wrote:
Any help in getting this drive installed and runningNew Egg.com has a PCI to ide converter for $17