Computer Hard Drive Question

[Keebler Elf]

I currently have Maxtor 40 GB and Western Digital 40 GB hard drives. I have just purchased a Western Digital 140 GB hard drive. All drives are at 7200 rpm.

Obviously, I'm going to swap out one of the 40 GB drives for the 140 GB drive. My question is this: which drive should I switch? The Maxtor is newer but is there some kind of synergy that can be had by running both drives that are Western Digital?

My computer is a 600 MHz Celeron so I know that data retrieval may be slower than can be expected with a newer chip. Is it worth getting one of the cards that allows the full utilization of a hard drive's retrieval power?

Any insights would be appreciated...

 

[Garrett]

There should be no real synergy... other than something weird like noise effects.

Note you could also keep both your 40G drives and RAID stripe them... for the cost of a cheap RAID controller may be worth doing. You effectively stripe your data across both of them... and have both drives writing in parallel... better to do with SCSI drives though as some IDE drives have odd performance characteristics.

 

[traveler196]

You should probably change the hd that does NOT cotain your operating system and probably most of your programs. That way you won't have to reinstall your os and programs. I have a p3 933 with a 40gig hard drive. I added a 100 gig hd and use that for most of my data and mp3,movie etc files. My original 40g has my os and program files on it. I find this works well for me.

 

[Peeping Tom]

Cheap raid is not a desirable configuration. One might as well use windows to achieve the same and gain on the reliability end. A true raid controller has its own I/O processor and memory, leaving the system cpu free to do its business - cheap raid, as observed with those on-board solutions, can result in significant cpu use, one example drew 50% cpu from a fast P4 - not something one would want with a c600.

More importantly, cheap raid is a sure path to failure. Stick to SCSI for that and save the inevitable headache.

 

[Garrett]

Tom... cheap RAID controllers have their own IO processor and memory... there are a lot of bad RAID implementations, it does not obscure the ones that work. It is like anything... you just need the right config for the job (and, to be clear, RAID is not right for some configs... ).

I disagree on using the Windows support though... I do not like being bound to the OS and it is one config that I actually ditched.

I think a lot comes down to what Keebler is comfortable doing... for me the choice is if it comes down to putting the drive on the shelf or using it, I would attempt a config where I could use it (if only for paging). If he has an xbox, I would even mod it and throw it in there...

 

[pool]

Another option is, that if you are using one as a slave, it's also possible to add a second slave. Assuming you have a free IDE connector.

I've done this. I didn't know if it were possible so I just did it on the same IDE cable as my DVD/CD drive.

 

[hamermill]

I currently have Maxtor 40 GB and Western Digital 40 GB hard drives. I have just purchased a Western Digital 140 GB hard drive. All drives are at 7200 rpm.

Obviously, I'm going to swap out one of the 40 GB drives for the 140 GB drive. My question is this: which drive should I switch? The Maxtor is newer but is there some kind of synergy that can be had by running both drives that are Western Digital?

My computer is a 600 MHz Celeron so I know that data retrieval may be slower than can be expected with a newer chip. Is it worth getting one of the cards that allows the full utilization of a hard drive's retrieval power?

Any insights would be appreciated...

No offense but have a Celeron - why would you entertain spending extra cash for a EXPENSE RAID device???

Are you sure your mobo supports a larger drive - a bios update may or may not be available or required. If there is none available go the Promise ATA 133 controller (50-75) (pseudo SCSI) route.

Western Digital usually includes a ghosting program (creates a HDD image) which allows you to swap a new drive as the primary boot.

If your system supports the larger drive (sans RAID or controller) I would definitely swap the smaller one for larger one performance would be better.

Just my 0.02 cents worth.

P.S. I didn't know that WD makes a 140 GB drive I thought it was 160 GB?

 

[Peeping Tom]

Maybe I should have phrased that better. Many inexpensive IDE raid solutions just provide the emulation, relying on system resources to do the work. The case I stated was using one of the onboard varieties, while moving a large file taskmanager showed 50% cpu use. Not an ideal situation - having the system choke at the time you need it most, i.e., it could have been using the data, not merely moving it. The performance wasn't impressive at all - my SCSI box (not raided) can run circles around it. Purchasing IDE raid on a pci card might be a better solution, as that is more likely to come with I/O processing capability - caveat emptor. Of course, with SCSI raid one won't encounter these issues.

Agreed with the configuration issue, with most it causes problems like data loss. Those really needing raid probably know better themselves. I would trust striping a pair of X15's, IDE no way. Hmmm, four X15's striped and mirrored, now that's something else ...

Tom... cheap RAID controllers have their own IO processor and memory... there are a lot of bad RAID implementations, it does not obscure the ones that work. It is like anything... you just need the right config for the job (and, to be clear, RAID is not right for some configs... ).

 

[Keebler Elf]

Thanks for all the help!

You are correct Hamermill, it's 120 GB - my mistake.

I don't want to invest any more in terms of system support b/c I plan on replacing the Celeron 600 in the next couple months. As for the extra drive, I'm going to give it away so I don't really need it.

I thought I had heard something about old motherboards not supporting larger drives but I asked (silly me) a computer service guy and he said No. I'm going to try installing the drive in the next couple days and I'll see if it works or not. If not, it will gather dust for a month or two until I replace my motherboard...

 

[Peeping Tom]

If you plan on changing the mainboard, you might as well wait. Do fire it up and check in the bios to see that it's there and working, even if improperly detected.

Do you have any ideas for the new stuff? I'm having very good results using Asus P4P800 with 2.4C stepping P4's. Both drones are running smooth with 250 fsb, that's a handy 1200 MHz of free overclock.

I'm going to try installing the drive in the next couple days and I'll see if it works or not. If not, it will gather dust for a month or two until I replace my motherboard... [/B]

 

[CyberGoth]

quickie note:

stripesets [RAID-0] have no redundancy and tend to be somewhat unstable.

if one disk fails, the whole array fails.

and data recovery from stripe sets can be rather uhm. CHALLENGING.

good luck.
play nice.
merry holidays

 

[Keebler Elf]

OK. I just finished re-configuring everything. What a mess my computer's innards are. Two hard drives, cd-rom, and cd-burner makes connecting the cables quite, um, confusing (I could get rid of the cd-rom but since I've got the space, I'll keep it for now). Then there's the jumper switches. Fortunately, it seems that the jumpers will be a thing of the past once I get a new motherboard since both my drives have the cable select option (no more jumpers!).

End result, everything works fine. According to the manual (yes, I actually read it!!!), old processors run into problems when the hard drive gets beyond 137 GB. Since mine was only 120, all is well. The new drive detects and functions (at first it didn't detect, but that was just b/c I hadn't set it up with the installation cd).

*** New Question ***

When I do buy a new motherboard, does anyone have any suggestions? I'm looking for at least 2.0 GHz (not much more). I know I'd like to have 4 slots for DDR RAM (which I bought today, yeah!). I've already got the burner and hard drives so the only other thing I need is a video card (and I don't need a high end one at all). I'd like the motherboard to last 2-3 years so I can make slight upgrades over the years (basically, I don't want an end of the line motherboard that won't support shit). Budget-wise, I'm thinking $400-500 (including the video card).

Anyone have any suggestions?

p.s. do I need to be careful re: my new DDR RAM being compatible with the motherboard?

p.p.s how many USB ports come on computers these days? Mine has 2 and it would be nice to have more...

 

[Peeping Tom]

You do need to be very careful with that - best time to buy ram is with the new board, so that the place selling it to you knows that you expect it to work together.

Current specs: DDR able to run 200 MHz base clock, commonly referred to as pc3200. If your stuff is rated lower, take it back asap. When buying, you may hear mention of dual channel. This is what you want, basically it is a pair of identical DIMMS. Your chance of success is much higher with two sticks, four becomes dicey and overall performance will suffer.

If you go with Intel (recommended) the entry level cpu is 2.4 GHz - when buying, state specifically that you want the 800 MHz fsb C stepping - you don't want someone getting rid of old stock at your expense.

As I said before, the Asus P4P800 mainboard is an excellent choice.

You will also need a new power supply. Antec makes a decent one, go for a TruPower 330 or 380 watt model. Don't touch anything less than 300 watt.

If you're not planning to game, you might hang on to your old vidcard - a new one will have you paying for gaming capability.

Good luck with the build.

p.s. do I need to be careful re: my new DDR RAM being compatible with the motherboard?

 

[Keebler Elf]

The RAM I got was K-Byte 256 MB DDR 2100 (PC 266 184 Pin DIMM). I got two 256'ers so that's 512 (way more than I need). I plan on taking the RAM in with me when I buy the motherboard so the guy knows what to get. I bought two so I wouldn't have to worry about compatibility.

I'm not a top-of-the-line kind of guy. I'm perfectly happy with slightly older stuff that's cheaper cuz my PC is secondary to my laptop. As for games, that's what my Play Station is for so that's not a high priority either.

What's the price on the Asus main board and power supply?