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Forum: The Classroom Topic: I've had it! started by: Xenoflargactian Posted by Xenoflargactian on Apr. 29 2001,04:26
I've had it with my piece of crap computer!I'm a junior in highschool and i'm getting a computer NEXT summer right before i go to college, so i dont wanna spend alot on this. Here's my problem: I've decided to buy a new HD, but I dont know what i should get. My comp WAS a p-75, but then upgraded processor to 133 and bought an extra 64 ram (to total 80), then upgraded motherboard to k6-2 400, and i had to get all new ram with new motherboard, so i got 64 generic, but that wasnt enough so i got another 128, which works peachy. now i have 192. ANYWAY...i'm sick of all this BS. i want a new harddrive. i checked < http://www.pricewatch.com > and got this < http://www.pricewatch.com/1/26/2119-1.htm > I'm torn between the top two choices. my crappy ass motherboard only has 1 PCI and 1 ISA and i'm using the PCI for my voodoo3 cuz i dont trust the onboard video processor. my ISA is free, but i dont think that can handle harddrive-style traffic. One of the HD's is UDMA 66 and the other is ATA 100. i dont know if my motherboard can support either of them, or what. i dont know if i need a card for either of them, cuz if i do, i'm fukt. honestly, i'd be perfectly happy with a 20 gig....just something to hold me over for 14 months..... i can supply more info if you need it to help me PLEASE HELP Posted by Observer on Apr. 29 2001,10:59
What's even more important than whether or not your board supports the UDMA is whether or not your BIOS supports the size of the drive. Some of those older systems only recognized up to an 8-gig drive.You can get around that two ways:
------------------ Posted by askheaves on Apr. 29 2001,14:39
I can't confirm anything. My P166 was dead set against using anything bigger than 8Gig. Nothing Win2K could do about it... then again, I may not have tried very hard.
Posted by Blowgoats on Apr. 29 2001,16:34
The best advise I can give you is this: you're looking for free computer tech support? Here's mine. Get a new computer. Next.------------------ Posted by Xenoflargactian on Apr. 30 2001,00:28
actually i tried to upgrade my bios a while ago and i ended up nuking it, so now i have a new bios that can handle drives up to 137 gigs....so which of the two should i get? Posted by z3r0 c00l on Apr. 30 2001,00:39
i can totally relate to your crappy computer problem. I have a 4 year old IBM Aptiva. It's slower then hell. Anycommand i give it it takes the thing like 10 minutes to figured out what i just did. I blame this problem on my parents. They have very little intrest in computers so they don't understand how crappy ours is. oh well. maybe oneday i'll have enough $ to get my own. that'll be the day.------------------ Posted by ASCIIMan on Apr. 30 2001,00:44
Get the ATA/100... I have yet to see an ATA/33/66/100 drive that was not backwards compatible to plain vanilla IDE (except for the aformentioned size limitations in some BIOSes). The ATA/100 likely is a newer design, and I tend to trust Quantum more than some of the other brands listed there (Maxtor, Seagate, and IBM are also good). IBM=the sh*t
Posted by G-PRIME on Apr. 30 2001,00:52
don't we have a geek forum for cool stuff like this?------------------ The world is ours!! Posted by Xenoflargactian on May 01 2001,00:41
it says Fast-ATA Mode 4 on the bios features page i gave a link to up there, but it doesnt say ATA 100.....it does day UDMA 66, though...does mode 4 mean 100???? Posted by ASCIIMan on May 01 2001,01:06
Fast ATA Mode 4 (or more accurately, ATA/ATAPI-5 using Ultra DMA mode 4) runs at 66.6MB/s (with the special 80-conductor cable, of course).This message has been edited by ASCIIMan on May 01, 2001 at 08:17 PM Posted by Xenoflargactian on May 01 2001,01:11
so i cant use ATA 100, right?stats on bios: < http://www.unicore.com/biosupgrades/why.cfm > Posted by ASCIIMan on May 01 2001,01:16
Nothing you connect will be able to go faster than 66.6MB/s, but all ATA/ATAPI standards are *supposed* to be fully backwards compatible (note that since ATA/ATAPI-4 or so, the manufacturers have largely gotten their act together, so that drives *are* backwards compatible), so you shouldn't have any problems if you hook up an Ultra DMA mode 5 hard drive (100MB/s).
Posted by ASCIIMan on May 01 2001,01:20
I looked at the page for your BIOS. Note that no matter what your add-on BIOS supports, it will still be limited by the actual drive interface hardware built into your motherboard. This probably means you will be limited to using Ultra DMA mode 2 (33.3MB/s).
Posted by ASCIIMan on May 01 2001,01:38
One more thing...If you haven't bought that BIOS upgrade yet, don't. You don't need to and it probably costs 70 bucks or so. Get < one of these >. Fixes any issues with the hard drives (it takes over that stuff from the BIOS), fits in an ISA slot, uses the built-in ATA/ATAPI ports on your MB, and only costs ฤ (if you include shipping). You probably don't need one, though. You motherboard (should) do fine with the new drives as long as it supports Ultra DMA. This message has been edited by ASCIIMan on May 01, 2001 at 08:38 PM Posted by Xenoflargactian on May 03 2001,18:43
i bought that new bios because i fried my old one when i applied a bad update....so my comp was unbootable....
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