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Question about SATA

#1
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9/8/08 at 8:20pm
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I just ordered a new DVD drive for my older (5-6 yr?) computer. Without much thought, I selected one with a SATA connection.

Now I'm wondering if I made a mistake.

Will I be able to make the connections, given the age of my PC? Is there some sort of special adapter/connector I should have ordered? Is it even possible to connect a SATA drive in an older machine?

Thanks,

Jon
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#2
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9/9/08 at 4:32am
  • Joined: January 2004
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Re: Question about SATA

You'll need an adapter. Given the age of your computer, I doubt there's any SATA ports, probably just IDE. You can probably return it if you don'y open the packaging and get yourself an IDE drive. I'm sure there are folks here who answer this question better than I can, though.
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#3
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9/9/08 at 5:41am
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Re: Question about SATA

Yeah, get a PCI controller card that adds ports. Those are kind of neat. I used one with my old PC to add a better HARD DRIVE with SATA and had no problems whatsoever with the SATA side (the additional ATA port couldn't handle a DVD drive though, not sure about a SATA DVD drive... ???). The faster speed and more efficiency of SATA is worth the slight extra $$$ if it will work for ya.

I used a promise card. They come in all kinds of configurations. Just get the one ya want... HERE IS NEWEGG'S LISTINGS

Good luck...

Real Name: Arthur Belling of "St. Looney Up-The-Cream-Bun-and-Jam"

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#4
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9/10/08 at 1:50am
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Re: Question about SATA

technically speaking there are no performance advantages using sata for optical drives. but as radioman stated, you can easily use a pci controller to add sata ports.

as for the advantage part you can research and google it yourself or check this out...

Is there is advantage to a Sata DVD....? - Tech Support Forums - TechIMO.com

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make your own decision.
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#5
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9/10/08 at 4:34am
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Re: Question about SATA

Quote:
Originally Posted by Diallo B
technically speaking there are no performance advantages using sata for optical drives. ...
That's something I didn't know. Now, hard drives are a different story...so much better with SATA. In fact, the OP would do good to buy a new hard drive too and take advantage of this. Heh heh! I love spending someone elses money!!

Real Name: Arthur Belling of "St. Looney Up-The-Cream-Bun-and-Jam"

BEAR: 1992?-2007.
GOLDIE: 1997-2008.
Still mourning my girls.

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#6
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9/11/08 at 2:54am
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Re: Question about SATA

i agree about using the money on a sata hard drive radioman. imo, performance wise it is like the difference between standard def and Hi-Def television. my computers are much faster using sata hard drives.

listen with your own ears...
watch with your own eyes...
make your own decision.
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#7
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9/11/08 at 4:47am
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Re: Question about SATA

Quote:
Originally Posted by Diallo B
i agree about using the money on a sata hard drive radioman. imo, performance wise it is like the difference between standard def and Hi-Def television. my computers are much faster using sata hard drives.
Absolutely! I had the SATA model, not SATA II. I think I spent $50 or so on it in 2005 or '06. Nice little device that offered a huge upgrade in the area of harddrives. Made me happy for a while. I don't know why it didn't like my Sony DVD burner though. I had to hook that on the mobo ATA. It also didn't like when I had a second DVD drive hooked up.

Real Name: Arthur Belling of "St. Looney Up-The-Cream-Bun-and-Jam"

BEAR: 1992?-2007.
GOLDIE: 1997-2008.
Still mourning my girls.

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#8
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9/11/08 at 7:33pm
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Re: Question about SATA

Something else to keep in mind is that you may not be able to boot from the SATA DVD drive during startup. My brother encountered this on his computer.
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#9
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9/12/08 at 2:39am
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Re: Question about SATA

interesting jeff....

did your brother change his boot settings in bios to boot from scsi and disable the other boot options?

i had the same problem on my hard drive (not optical drive) until i did that.

not sure what type of bios he is running but it is worth a shot.

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watch with your own eyes...
make your own decision.
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#10
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9/12/08 at 4:24am
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Re: Question about SATA

Yep, a simple boot setting change.

Sometimes a harrowing, but usually effective, BIOS flash update will make things nice and rosy too. Especially if it's an old PC.

Real Name: Arthur Belling of "St. Looney Up-The-Cream-Bun-and-Jam"

BEAR: 1992?-2007.
GOLDIE: 1997-2008.
Still mourning my girls.

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