about haddrive/heat/connectors etc...

[Guest]

Does bigger Harddrive (200-250 GB) size means more heat and use more power?

I got a 2 year old motherboard, harddrive is connected to primary ide(blue),
dvd-rw drive and cd-rom drive connected to secondary ide(black) set to
master/slave.
I notice that i got a 2 serial ata connector available, if for instance i
try to upgrade to a new harddrive should i stay with the current
configuration or should i make a transition to serial ata since its faster
and improve airflow. will it be hard to make the transition to Serial ata
since this is somewhat a old motherboard? Will it make difference on speed or
will i see no difference at all?

 

[Guest]

With 2 SATA drives you can create a RAID array if the board is compatable,
then the drives access time is min. 150 mbs transfer rate compared to 100mbs
with IDE,SCSI drives are at 320mbs.SATA requires more work to get it going
but the performance is worth it.

 

[peterk]

SATA drives are faster that IDE drives but they also require SATA power
connectors as well as special SATA drive connectors.Quite a few SATA drives
use the normal Molex connectors..you need to check your power supply to see
if you have room. I really dont think you will see or feel the speed
improvement ...or maybe I've used SATA for so long I dont see it anymore.
Only by reading your MOBO manual will you be able to decide if it will be
hard.You most likely will need to load the SATA drivers as well as adjust
some jumpers on your board or setting in the BIOS if you wish to boot from
the SATA.If you are aiming to just use it as a 2nd/3rd drive you'll just
need the drivers which are usually found on the CD that came with your mobo
as well as the instructions for installing the drivers into an exsisting
operating system.If you are aiming to boot with the SATA install the SATA
drivers first before cloning your present XP onto the SATA.
If you are worried about airflow in your machine buy the round ATA
cables...a good set can be had for about $10 to $15
peterk

 

[Richard Urban]

Does bigger Harddrive (200-250 GB) size means more heat and use more
power?

Generally - YES

I got a 2 year old motherboard, harddrive is connected to primary
ide(blue),
dvd-rw drive and cd-rom drive connected to secondary ide(black) set to
master/slave.
I notice that i got a 2 serial ata connector available, if for instance i
try to upgrade to a new harddrive should i stay with the current
configuration or should i make a transition to serial ata since its faster
and improve airflow.

A SATA hard drive will not increase air flow. Where did you hear that?


will it be hard to make the transition to Serial ata

since this is somewhat a old motherboard?

Check dedicated web forums for the manufacturer of your M/B. Ask the
question there.


Will it make difference on speed or

will i see no difference at all?

You "may" see a difference in speed as in accessing your hard drive. Nothing
else.



--
Regards,

Richard Urban

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

 

[Damo]

Go for it, upgrade to SATA. I'm sure you'll get (even a small) speed boost.
Damo