SATA and ATA slave?

[Bountyhunter]

ok here it is, i am new to building a comp and/or upgrading the syste
so plz be patience with me. Right now i have a Maxtor 2B020H1
(20 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100) HHD. It came with my Dell Dimensio
4400 and that was six years ago. now it is time to upgrade and
would like to get
Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/
Hard Drive - OEM

now i know a little about HDDs, but i do know the limits on what yo
can do depend on the type of HDD and the motherboard. Right now
have a Intel Pendleton D845PT for my motherboard. i am not real kee
on what cables and the compatiblilty if i am able to do this upgrad
and any help with be greatly help the omp newbie!! :

 

[Anna]

ok here it is, i am new to building a comp and/or upgrading the system
so plz be patience with me. Right now i have a Maxtor 2B020H1
(20 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100) HHD. It came with my Dell Dimension
4400 and that was six years ago. now it is time to upgrade and i
would like to get a
Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
Hard Drive - OEM

now i know a little about HDDs, but i do know the limits on what you
can do depend on the type of HDD and the motherboard. Right now i
have a Intel Pendleton D845PT for my motherboard. i am not real keen
on what cables and the compatiblilty if i am able to do this upgrade
and any help with be greatly help the omp newbie!!

Bountyhunter:
It's been a while since I worked with that Dell Dimension 4400 but I'm
virtually certain it does not contain SATA capability. Is my memory correct?

If it is, you would need to install a PCI SATA controller card in your
machine. Given that added cost (and a couple of $ for a SATA data cable) and
the fact that a SATA-capable HD would not really yield any performance
benefits in your machine in comparison to a PATA HD, I honestly think that
if you need the additional disk storage space you should go with a PATA HD.

Another potential negative re using a SATA HD, given your setup is that
we've encountered too many instances of problems getting a SATA HD to work
with a PCI SATA controller card in machines that didn't have integrated SATA
capability.

If you finally do decide to go the SATA route, I would advise you to first
check with Dell before doing so to determine if they envision any problems
with that hardware in that particular machine.
Anna