dinosaur pc: external or update internal hd?

[Rod Speed]

Agreed,

Maybe not if paulm is right and it doesnt even have any pci slots.

In that case it would still be better to get a decent sized drive
and use a bios overlay to fix the 32G problem if it has one.

though one can get a 120+GB internal drive for about $30-40
AR these days, it could almost double the cost for a decent
eSATA, and a USB2 will still be significantly slower than an internal.

Yeah, internal would normally be better value for a dinosaur,
particularly if you arent running one of the NT/2K/XP family
and can use a bios overlay if its got a 32G drive size
problem and the bios cant be flashed to fix that.

By smallish I meant 250GB or less, not some teeny 20GB thing.

OK, I assumed you meant as small as is buyable new now.
Guess thats still 40G.

The idea here was that there's not a lot of useful return
spending a lot of money to keep a system that old running.

Sure, just wouldnt call 250G smallish. And there is no good reason
not to buy what is best value and reuse it in the replacement.

Of course not, but it doesn't cost much to upgrade the
memory over 256MB (if it'll support more, which practically
everything P3 era did), or several other areas when talking
about a machine that old... but these parts may be money
down the drain that could be put towards something else.

Sure, but USB2 costs peanuts to add if its got a pci slot.

I'd get the eSATA card before a USB2 if either, since
it'll be more useful on the next new(er) system.

I'd do it because eSATA is much more viable than USB2,
much better speed, which matters if its the main data
drive, and you can monitor the drive temp etc trivially
which is important with an external drive used full time.

There are smellier things... plenty of people use them fine,

Only those that dont use them fulltime. Thats not what he plans to do.

regardless of how trendy it is to bash Maxtor.

Nothing to do with trendy, everything to do with the
shit house thermal design of maxtor external enclosures.
In spades when their drives dont like running hot.

Regardless, an external drive enclosure and USB2 card is more $ than I'd
spend just to get more storage on a modestly endowed P3 era system.

Maybe, depends on what he wants to do for backup on the replacement system.

The USB2 card costs peanuts if its got a pci slot.

 

[Rod Speed]

The most common BIOS limitations are 8 GB and 128 GB
(for internal drives that the BIOS must recognize, not for USB).

Nope, the 32G limit is just as common.

Since your hard drive is just under 8 GB it is possible
that the BIOS has a 8 GB limit, but since it is a
Pentium 3 I think the limit is probably 128 GB.

Could be 32G.

 

[kony]

Nope, the 32G limit is just as common.

Fortunately most drives even have a 32GB capacity limitation
jumper so one doesn't have to buy a much slower,
older/smaller drive to deal with the situation, and such
drives can be just as cheap too... seems like it was about
$30 after rebate for the last 160GB drive I bought for an
older system.

 

[Rod Speed]

Fortunately most drives even have a 32GB capacity limitation jumper

Yep, because that was so common.

so one doesn't have to buy a much slower,
older/smaller drive to deal with the situation,
and such drives can be just as cheap too...
seems like it was about $30 after rebate for the
last 160GB drive I bought for an older system.

Yep, those drives are dirt cheap.