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Multiply Hard Drives

post #1 of 9
10/13/03 at 6:16pm
Thread Starter 
I was given an older P3 gateway PC that someone was done with.

I would like add to 2.....or.......3 more hard drives to it.

Can I add another IDE controller to a free PCI slot? and simply add more hard drives? Is it ok to have more thn one IDE controler? And where would the jumpers be set on the hard drives when I have more than 2 hard rdrives in the computer?

Also home many hard drives will the stock 200watt power supply handle? I'm looking at adding 7200rpm hard drives.


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post #2 of 9
10/13/03 at 9:06pm
Try using a RAID card. This will allow u to attach up to 4 drives and you can set them as ONE large drive or as multiple individual drives. Best cards are those made by Promise Technology.
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post #3 of 9
10/13/03 at 9:40pm
Thread Starter 
Can I do it w/o raid? I'm trying to keep the cost as low as possibe
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post #4 of 9
10/14/03 at 3:26am
Sure you can... don't think you will have any problem adding another IDE Controller PCI card.
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post #5 of 9
10/14/03 at 12:47pm
Quote:
Originally posted by kuiawa3
Can I do it w/o raid? I'm trying to keep the cost as low as possibe
Yes, you can pick up a nice SIIG or other brand PCI ATA-133 card and that adds (typically) two more channels (+4 drives total). So you could have 8 drives max.

However, do not put a NON-hard drive on the same channel as a Hard Drive. That is, keep ZIP's and CD/DVD's on their own channel (can mix ZIP and CD/DVD) but leave HD's to HD's otherwise performance will suffer.

The channel only goes as fast as the slowest device on it (rough rule of thumb)

-myrkat
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post #6 of 9
10/14/03 at 3:09pm
Quote:
Originally posted by myrkat
Yes, you can pick up a nice SIIG or other brand PCI ATA-133 card and that adds (typically) two more channels (+4 drives total). So you could have 8 drives max.

However, do not put a NON-hard drive on the same channel as a Hard Drive. That is, keep ZIP's and CD/DVD's on their own channel (can mix ZIP and CD/DVD) but leave HD's to HD's otherwise performance will suffer.

The channel only goes as fast as the slowest device on it (rough rule of thumb)

-myrkat
I've always done all HD's together and all CD/DVD's together.

Someone was trying to convince that it is better to have one CD\DVD and one HD together if you have two of both or multiple HD's or CD\DVD's.
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post #7 of 9
10/14/03 at 3:21pm
Why not go SCSI? You could get a dual channel card and put upwards of 10 drives or so.

SCSI drives are also cheaper (at least on eBay) because nobody uses SCSI much anymore except the server market (that or Fibre channel, plus they usually buy new drives, not used ones).

You can get a good power supply for $30 if the 200watt won't power the drives.

Otherwise, you can put as many IDE controller cards in as there are PCI slots.
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post #8 of 9
10/14/03 at 5:02pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for all of your input I got the answer I was looking for.

Now to go ahead and order the parts!
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post #9 of 9
10/14/03 at 5:11pm
Quote:
Originally posted by JeffL
Why not go SCSI? ...
He's probably just trying to make the most of what's on hand. A $50 ATA card isn't gonna be too much to add.

I agree that nothing does large amounts of HD's like SCSI, but SCSI drives are still expensive for those who don't need their accuracy and longer warranties (i.e. better quality).

-myrkat
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