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"Quick HDD question"

Building my pc has had to go on hold, but i'm still planning and budgetting, and i have one question that's come up.

Can i use any HDD with any motherboard et al?
And is SCSI... well, what's SCSI about? I've seen it written next to HDD

Cheers
DD

Also over 120gb windows will not be able to detect it all unless you get a patch or intel application accelerator software from intels site and also can only be used on intel chipsets, you will have to have a pretty old motherboard for it to only detect hard drive as 2gb.

c.b

AMD_MAN wrote:
> Most of the newer boards come with ATA133 controllers on them there is
> even ATA166 out now...

Don't forget that if you are going to use IDE drives above the ATA66 standard you *must* use the proper, higher-spec cables - if you don't you run the risk of data loss. Some BIOSes will not even allow the higher rates without the right cables.

Note also that the ATA standards are backward-compatable, so you can use modern ATA133 drives on old boards that only support the ATA33 standard BUT you will then probably encounter space limitations, ie: you might find you can only see 2Gb of your shiny new 120Gb drive!

Chris.

Thanks everyone.
Think i'll be going with an IDE then, especially if i'd be able to upgrade to SCSI if i did need to by getting a pci adaptor.

Cheers.

Most of the newer boards come with ATA133 controllers on them there is even ATA166 out now, but it is worth finding out what the motherboard takles and then buying the hard drive after that, or if you want to go SCSI (small computer system interface) then it will cost you as not only would you have to buy the hard drive and the larger size one's are very expensive you will need a SCSI adapter card, not really worth it though unless you are planning on throwing around large chuncks of data.
If you really want to show of then you can go for a SCSI RAID (redundant array of independent disks)I have normal RAID on my motherboard and striping (RAID 0) is great for performance and RAID 1 is pretty good for security, but for raid you will need 2 exactly the same hard drives, then again for the amount of 1 SCSI hdd and an adapter you could get 2 identical drives and raid 0 them, if you want more info then post and we will tell you what it means.

c.b.

erm, i found an 18.4Gb drive for just under £100 but you pay for quality.
You won't need a SCSI drive, they're mainly used for servers, but if you have to have the very best then thats probably what you should go for :p

'normal' hdd's with 7200rpm will be MORE than fine though.

Remember that SCSI drives are really expensive.

theres 2 types of IDE hdd, UDMA and ATA(UATA/133)

SCSI drives are just a lot faster, faster UDMA/ATA drives are 7,200rpm I think, SCSI drives go upto 20,000 rpm i think, not sure on that though.

Your best bet is to get the motherboard you want, then whatever hdd it supports, buy it, I don't think theres really too much difference between ATA & UDMA.

for reference:

UDMA = 80 pin socket
ATA = 39 pin socket
IDE (old) = 40 pin socket
no idea what SCSI is, and Firewire uses lil plugs like USB ones but smaller :)
Firewire drives can cost around £400+

Most HDDs you buy are IDE and will work with any motherboard. However, SCSI drives will only work with drives that have SCSI capability, or if you have a PCI SCSI adaptor card.

Building my pc has had to go on hold, but i'm still planning and budgetting, and i have one question that's come up.

Can i use any HDD with any motherboard et al?
And is SCSI... well, what's SCSI about? I've seen it written next to HDD

Cheers
DD