buying a new system...keeping 2 HD's from old, adding them QUESTION

[lefty31199]

OK, heres my dilemma/question

I plan on buying a custom system from Cyberpower Systems


Its specs:

350 Watt Power supply

(800FSB) Intel Pentium 4 CPU @ 3.0GHZ 512K

*(DDR400-800MHz FSB)MSI 865PE NEO2-PS AGP8X Platform W/SATA, AUDIO, & LAN

1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY

Western Digital 160GB 7200RPM ATA 100 8MB Special Editon

nVidia GeForce FX 5700 256MB 8x AGP w/ TVO, & DVI

ARTEC 16X DVD ROM

NEC ND-2500A DUAL FORMAT 8X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE

Creative Labs SB AUDIGY 5.1 W/ 1394 IEEE




Ok... so theres a brief rundown. Now to the question

So this system comes with ONE hard drive and TWO optical drives.

I have an older (1.8ghz) system that I'm replacing. It has a WD 80gig and a WD 120gig drive in it, that are both in fine condition.

I want to keep both of these drives as well as this new drive that is with the system. The pre-installed drive will have Windows Media Center installed on it, and i would like to keep the other 2 drives as well for the recorded tv, video editing, mp3s etc.

I built computers a long time ago (95-96) and know of the whole basic innard of a computer IDE 1, IDE 2, master, slave...all that.

What are my options here, or should I say...RECOMMENDED options? I read people saying about PCI IDE cards...but I dont know much about that. I also know about EXTERNAL caddys for 3.5" drives. How are those recieved? Is the USB 2.0 decent for transfer speeds, or is this something (external drive) that should NOT be considered? As far as I know you cant have an IDE cable with 4 attachments on them correct (mobo, master, slave1, slave2)

Keeping both Optical drives is required as well, so ditching one is not an option either.

I dont know much about the motherboard...but that SATA...is that SERIAL ATA? Is this something completely different from an IDE drive which is an ATA drive? (i.e. a different cable to connect to a serial drive?, which would then leave an IDE free?) Does that make sense.

I have this mobo selected by default : *(DDR400-800MHz FSB)MSI 865PE NEO2-PS AGP8X Platform W/SATA, AUDIO, & LAN

But dont know much about it, other than a couple Yahoo searches.

The other mobo I could choose from is :*(DDR400-800MHz FSB)Gigabyte GA-8IPE/1000 I865PE 800MHz FSB AGP 8X AGP



So basically what I would LOVE help with is, how to resolve this 3HD issue, the best, most efficent, fastest way...and which motherboard would best accomplish this?


THank you whoever you are for your help/input.

[PresterJohn]

very simple:

the optical drives can be connected on 1 cable.

as for the hard drives: yes, sata is serial ata - different connector than ata.

the mobo has sata support but the hd you list there does not.

you can do one of the following:

a) buy a sata drive and connect the other two drives to the ata channel on the mobo

b) stick with the WD ata drive and purchase a pci ide card for the extra ide devices.

[john_phoenix]

The PCI IDE cards from Promise are dirt cheap and very reliable, and probably your easiest option