Sata drives and sata cards

I need to purchase a new hdd and im tempted to get a sata one so i can use it in the future. is it worth buying a sata pci card or just getting a new motherboard with sata on it...


suggestions

also - personal preference to any particular brand of card / hdd?

western digital.

seagate



and, get a new motherboard... 800mhz and prescott CPUs are going to be around for a while, as is PCI-X

yeah but ive got a 2400xp atm so new motherboard = new cpu too and while im at it ram.

dammit! i was hoping someone else would make this easy for me.

Recommendations for a MB?

i was considering getting a dell as i like the quiet cases but to get a decent mb you need to spend more $$ than you would otherwise and they make a killing on the extras

Gigabyte

A new motherboard with all the CPU+RAM will cost a bomb, and with your current system you don't really need an upgrade yet, unless you're a hard core gamer.

I don't know if there's any advantage in using serial ATA yet - what i've read so far doesn't seem to indicate that there's any speed increase. It's probably unlikely that you'll want to take your HDD when you eventually upgrade to whatever new machine you get in a few years, so having an SATA drive probably isn't a big deal.

Short answer: go for what does the job now.

either a gigabyte or a asus p4p800 deluxe

prescott cpus?

why not a northwood?

Or i could sell my car and get a p4 3.4 EE

Prescott vs. Northwood:

Prescott is the new one which will take intel to at least 5GHZ but there are more umm... thingees per pipe.. (mental block) So at comparable speeds (ie. the existing 3.2GHZ processors..) the northwood is still actually quicker...

so the northwood is better and i should buy a prescott later?

actually... looks like 3.2 is the turning point... anything thereafter prescott will be quicker...

but 3.4 in 1 or 2MB cache is over $1500 *IF* you can get your hands on them...

the 1mb caches arent that expensive but the EE versions which are 2mb cache are about 2x the price.

I think im just going to have to wait for things to settle down - are prescotts cooled by normal heat sinks or are they getting into condensors/vapour traps?

pretty sure its still normal...

Currently considering...

Intel Pentium 4, 3.2 GHz CPU, 800 Mhz FSB, Northwood Socket 478, Retail pack with fan $569.52 $569.52

Kingston Dual Channel Memory Kit, 2x512MB, DDR-SDRAM, DIMM, DDR400 $447.18 $447.18

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3120026AS, 120 GB, 7,200rpm, 8192K cache, SATA-150, IDE, Fluid Bearing $222.73 $445.46

Asus P4P800 Deluxe motherboard, Socket 478, 800MHz FSB, 4xDIMM, DDR, 8XAGP, 5xPCI, 8xUSB 2, Firewire, Audio, SATA-150, ATA-100, RAID, LAN, ATX $365.50 $365.50

$1,827.65

Ascent isnt the cheapest place tho.

What places are cheaper?

I reckon fair prices for those are as follows (wholesale + 15%)

3.2 northwood 512: $557
1GB Crucial DDR400: $460
Seagate SATA 120GB: $192

dunno about the motherboard

which we just did for n|ck I think... almost exactly that with 2 hard drives as I think you're doing??

and an intel motherboard

is that gst inc?

when does the computer industry ever include GST?

ascent and price spy do.

Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz $464.00 StylesPC $495.00 SkyPC
Asustek P4P800 Deluxe Intel 865PE SATA RAID ATX $292.50 Ezone $316.13 NFC technology
2x512Mb Dual Channel DDR SDRAM $341.26 Zylex $344.25 TL Systems
Seagate 120Gb 7200rpm Serial ATA Hard Drive $187.87 LAN Gear $190.13 Expert Infotech

Which is around 1470 (assuming you go to each of those places and they have stock) Which is a lot better but still slightly expensive and id perfer to get kingston ram.

Ive got a Gigabyte MB with SATA built in. Ive noticed if you combine SATA with IDE drives and want to work with both (as most ppl would) then the SATA drive takes up a whole IDE channel, so you can only have a max of 2 IDE devices.

Well i just found an excuse to buy a sata card and 160 gig drive for work so ill have a play with it first

Im going to wait till the prices of the 3.2 or the faster prescotts come out before i buy a new mb / ram / cpu

Meh

Computer Dynamics in Albany: SATA controller with Raid et all for about $60

BDT in Wellington (www.bdt.co.nz) - you need a reseller account
WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar Special Edition Serial ATA *200GB SATA Hard Disk Drive *8.9m/s *7200 RPM *8MB cache *** 3 year warranty ***
$300

Or go to Dove who are slightly cheaper but suck at processing returns

For comparison, the 120Gb version of the same drive is $189