Adding drives on PC

[oldbuck]

Hi, I need to add a drive (or two) to my PC as my video's are consuming vast amounts of storage and I'm not sure of the best way to go about it.

I currently have two IDE drives - a 40G for the OS, and a WD 250G I added a while back that I capture, edit, and render all my video to. My PC is a dell 8300 running XP SP2on a P4 HT 2.8 CPU. I have a CD burner and a DVD burner connected so I believe I'm out of expansion capability.

Is an external USB drive my only choice? I want to be able to capture video to the drive so performance is important, but I'm not sure which way to go. I could replace my OS drive with a larger one, but I don't think I want to be writing to that drive during video capture...

thanks for your help,
-d

[redwudz]

If you have to go external, especially if you want to capture to the drive, I would go with Firewire. It has less problems than USB.

If you are expecting to capture uncompressed AVI or any video at a high data rate, I wouldn't recommend doing it to an external drive. You would be better off capturing to the internal drive and using the external for storage. If you are transferring DV or you have a external capture box that has a lower data rate, probably OK.

Another option is to drop your CD drive and use that slot for an additional hard drive. The DVD-RW can burn or read CDs also, though at a generally lower speed than a CD drive.

If you have room in the case you could also get a PCI ATA controller card and install another internal drive.

[oldbuck]

wow - thanks for the quick reply redwudz!

Yes, I'd be capturing DV/AVI to the drive.

I could drop the CD, but as you mention, my DVD drive is *much* slower. In the big scheme of things I'm not sure it matters much though - I burn CD's very infrequently. Although that gives me 1 additional drive - it'll buy me 3 months at my current rate of burn (@250G)...

Hadn't thought about the PCI ATA controller card - I do have a slot available - guess I need to start looking at power supply capacity and heat inside the box...

Maybe I should just roll the older projects off to a firewire drive and do all my capture & rendering on the existing internal drive...would give me the option to keep duplicate copies of projects as well...

thanks for all the suggestions!
-d

[redwudz]

Yes, the power supply could be an issue. I'm not sure if the Dell PS is stock and could be replaced with a off the shelf PS. A 400W or more PS would be good. If you have only a 250 or 300W presently, that's a little small.

PCI ATA controller cards are fairly inexpensive. If you use it only for hard drives, just about any will work. If you plan to hook up any slower devices such as CD or DVD drives, then you will need one that is compatible with 33 or 66Mhz devices.

You might also look at a SATA PCI controller. SATA hard drives use less power and generally run cooler. The drives are about the same price as PATA (IDE) drives and somewhat faster.

EDIT: Here's a newer option that may be better than Firewire for external drives. You use a SATA hard drive in a external enclosure. It should run just as fast as an internal drive and not have some of the issues of USB or Firewire. This is just one site that has them. I'm not necessarily recommending this site or product. It's just an example

http://www.xpcgear.com/sataenclosure.html

[oldbuck]

According to my manual I have a 250W PS, so I'm pushing things already I guess..

I have 2 SATA connectors on my motherboard, but I'm not familar with SATA. Can I use both SATA and the IDE interfaces on the motherboard? Can I just plug in a couple SATA drives - maybe using those external SATA boxes? Or internal SATA's with a PS upgrade?

thanks so much!
-d

[redwudz]

Generally you just plug in the SATA drive, then go to 'Administrative Tools' in Control Panel to partition and format it and you are done. No jumpers needed.

You shouldn't need any change to your BIOS, but it varies by motherboard. Check your MB manual. You could also use an external SATA enclosure as long as your SATA cable is long enough. They are usually 18" but you should be able to get a 24" or maybe a 30" maximum.

SATA has a separate controller from the PATA (IDE) drives, so they can both run at the same time.

If you try the external setup, let us know how it works. The SATA external enclosures are something fairly new and there seems to be a good variety of them on the market presently. They should achieve speeds as fast as any internal hard drive. Most are ATA 150 compared to the PATA ATA 133 drives. There is also SATA 2 which is ATA 300, but it would require a newer controller.

[oldbuck]

I think I'm going to try the external SATA path. I'll be happy to report back how it works out.

Is there a way to definitively tell if I have SATA 150 or 300?

My PC is 1998 vintage, so I'm guessing 150. The manual doesn't state - just says "Serial ATA drive - two 7-pin connectors". I didn't see anything in the device manager...

[Supreme2k]

It should state capacity directly on the drive's label.

[redwudz]

It would likely be SATA 1. SATA 2 is within the last couple of years. If you have a problem with the MB controller, get a PCI SATA1 controller card. SATA 2 controllers seem to be a little rare yet and fairly expensive, mostly for PCI-E interfaces, not much PCI. There are a bunch of SATA 2 drives out there, I have 2, but I run them as SATA 1 with no problems. SATA 2 is maybe too new to have inexpensive controllers.

[oldbuck]

I just added my external SATA drive and it couldn't have been easier.

I bought the WD2500JD Caviar SE (internal) drive, kingwin stackable enclosure (with cooling fan) and the kingwin external SATA port. Got it all from zipzoomfly.com (ex googlegear?) for $155 including 2 day air shipping. Compare this with the least expensive external SATA drive I could find (lacie) at $205, and that doesn't include the external port ($12).

After connecting everything up I enabled the SATA port in my setup/drive config and then ran the WD setup program. The drive was recognized and everthing works great.

The only nit I have is the fan in the enclosure runs 7x24, even when the SATA drive powers down with the PC.

Thanks again for your guidancer redwudz, again, I'm not a computer guy but this worked effortlessly!
-d

[redwudz]

Good to know. I was thinking if I need another external drive to go the SATA route instead of Firewire. I see they sell backplates for the computer PCI card slot that makes the setup fairly neat when you are going from an internal SATA connection. Also the SATA specs state you can use up to a 40" cable. That makes placement a lot easier.

Those little fans are always a irritation. SATA runs cooler, but the fan is still probably a good idea. Maybe a fan controller if it really bothers you.

[ROF]

According to my manual I have a 250W PS, so I'm pushing things already I guess..

I have 2 SATA connectors on my motherboard, but I'm not familar with SATA. Can I use both SATA and the IDE interfaces on the motherboard? Can I just plug in a couple SATA drives - maybe using those external SATA boxes? Or internal SATA's with a PS upgrade?

thanks so much!
-d

yes you are and unfortunately Dell chose to use a proprietary power supply and motherboard for the 8000 series so just buying a generic power supply isn't an option. Fortunately, there is a Dell Power Supply to Standard ATX Power Adapter for sale. They cost between $15-$20. Do not attempt to use a generic power supply. The ATX Connector will line up and will seat properly but it will cause irrepairable damage to your motherboard and CPU upon attempted boot up. Dell and Gateway both have a nasty habit of changing the pin out configuration of their ATX Motherboards. They do this so you have to buy from them. Fortunately, there is a solution so you don't have to pay their high prices for this replacement part and can use any power supply available. Do a search for Dell ATX Power Supply Converter to find one for use with your proprietary system.

You should be able to get by with an additional drive, but I'd definitely go external with it's own power supply just to be safe here.

[thevoelk]

Check a local computer shop. They usually have IDE to SATA power adapters. Even if you go to an overpriced one, a single IDE power adapter to a SATA should only run you $5 or so. You can usually fin one IDE to 2 SATA ones also.