2 X ATA MOBO?

[jw]

What is a good motherboard that has 2 IDE headers (for four PATA
drives) and uses DDR2 memory?

Thanks

Duke

 

[Paul]

What is a good motherboard that has 2 IDE headers (for four PATA
drives) and uses DDR2 memory?

Thanks

Duke

Boards for Intel, with two IDE headers.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200280+1297219547&Subcategory=280

Looks like the options for AMD are more limited.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200022+1297219547&Subcategory=22

You can use the Newegg motherboard "advanced search" and specify two IDE
headers in there. That is what the two lists above are derived from.

You can also purchase a PCI IDE card and connect the disks to that.
That will make it possible to use some of the motherboards that
only have one IDE header on them.

If you want more help selecting a board, state which exact
processor you plan to buy. Each motherboard will have
some kind of list, as to what processors are supported,
and some motherboards may be eliminated from your potential
list because they don't support your processor. For
example, if you're looking at high end AMD, you may
want a motherboard with a 140W rating (so you'll know
it can take anything dished out in terms of power
consumption).

Paul

 

[Paul]

Boards for Intel, with two IDE headers.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200280+1297219547&Subcategory=280


Looks like the options for AMD are more limited.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200022+1297219547&Subcategory=22


You can use the Newegg motherboard "advanced search" and specify two IDE
headers in there. That is what the two lists above are derived from.

You can also purchase a PCI IDE card and connect the disks to that.
That will make it possible to use some of the motherboards that
only have one IDE header on them.

If you want more help selecting a board, state which exact
processor you plan to buy. Each motherboard will have
some kind of list, as to what processors are supported,
and some motherboards may be eliminated from your potential
list because they don't support your processor. For
example, if you're looking at high end AMD, you may
want a motherboard with a 140W rating (so you'll know
it can take anything dished out in terms of power
consumption).

Paul

Looking back through Google, your system was using the
Jetway/Machspeed S754 K8M8MSR2-VC 2 SATA, 2 IDE, 2 DDR RAM slots, AGP.
It is going to be tough to find a decent S754 motherboard
now, if that is your intention. Might be time for an upgrade.

What you upgrade to, may depend as well, on what you were
using for video. The Machspeed board had a built-in VGA,
but you could also have been using a separate AGP video card.
Finding another motherboard with an AGP slot might be tough
to do as well. (I did manage to find a board with AGP, for
my current Core2 build. But there aren't many to choose from.)

This Biostar board would be a partial bridge between generations.
It is currently out of stock. It has DDR2 memory slots (but
DDR2 memory is dirt cheap, so that is not an impediment).
The processor socket is AM2, so you'd need a different processor.
Otherwise, the board has some similarities to your old one
(two IDE).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138038

There are certainly better boards than that, but then you might
need a different video solution, depending on what you're
using currently.

Your current motherboard is a microATX (9.6" x 9.6"). Some
of the motherboards for sale are ATX (12.0" x 9.6"), and you'd
have to check your computer case carefully to see whether the
bigger board would fit or not. Chances are, you're stuck with
microATX, so that restricts the number of boards that would
fit.

Many of the newer motherboards have PCI Express video slots.
They can also have a built-in video connector (VGA or even
DVI) on the I/O area of the motherboard. So there
are plenty of choices - just a matter of deciding what
the upgrade budget is, and what hardware you have that
can be reused, to decide what is feasible.

Paul

 

[jw]

Paul wrote:

Paul

Thanks Paul - I get conflicting answers as to whether hard drives
connected to a PCI IDE card are bootable. I would want that.
Do you know?

Regards
Duke

 

[Mike Walsh]

Thanks Paul - I get conflicting answers as to whether hard drives
connected to a PCI IDE card are bootable. I would want that.
Do you know?

All of the old Promise cards (also sold under other names) are bootable. They appear in the BIOS as SCSI adapters.

 

[Paul]

Thanks Paul - I get conflicting answers as to whether hard drives
connected to a PCI IDE card are bootable. I would want that.
Do you know?

Regards
Duke

Yes, they're bootable. I've done it.

The PCI IDE card has a BIOS chip on it. That BIOS contains the
code needed to access the card. During PCI bus enumeration,
the motherboard BIOS loads any "helper" BIOS code modules
as part of the process. An "extended INT 0x13" routine loaded
from the helper BIOS, is what makes booting possible. The motherboard
should have "INT19 capture" enabled, in order for those helper BIOS
to be loaded. The boot order may mention the new disks
explicitly, or may cover them as "SCSI" devices.

I have several Promise cards and have booted from them.
I used one recently, to transfer a boot drive from one
computer to another. The Promise are unique, in that
it would appear that a single chip on the board
functions as the IDE controller and also has the
BIOS held internally.

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/16-102-007-04.JPG

In other cases, the BIOS chip is separate. Chip with the blue
dot here, is the BIOS.

http://c1.neweggimages.com/NeweggImage/productimage/16-124-001-03.jpg

Usually, if a card is not bootable, the advertising copy
will warn of that fact. The vast majority will be
bootable and won't need to mention it. You expect them
to boot, unless told otherwise.

Paul