Can I add IDE Drive to New Dell w/SATA drive factory installed?

[poorkapoor]

I just bought a new Dell Dimension 8400 with an 80gb SATA pre-installed (with XP home) and I have a Seagate 160gb IDE drive which I would like to add to this system. I currently have a Benq DVD-RW and Samsung CD-RW already installed as well. What are my options?

I have heard there is some kind of adapter I can plug into the back of the IDE drive that will make it capable to be plugged into SATA slot on motherboard? Is this true and if so what and where do I buy? Please be very descriptive, I am a somewhat experienced user.

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated...

 

[micker377]

Are the "Benq DVD-RW and Samsung CD-RW" drives on the new setup or the old setup?

 

[poorkapoor]

The Benq DVD-RW and the Samsung CD-RW are both concurrently installed as well as the factory 80gb SATA drive.

I would like to use a Seagate 160gb IDE drive which is currently not installed in any system (bought it cheap from Outpost.com)as a secondary drive in the Dell (scan alot of paintings at very high resolution - file sizes near 250mb each file). Is this adapter from IDE drive to SATA interface a reality and will it sacrifice any speed or require any serious fiddling with the PC? I am experienced at basics (memory, hard drives & installing optical drives...but that's about it....never changed a cpu or anything as daunting as that)

thanks again for all your help.

 

[Frank4d]

Google for "IDE to SATA adapter". Here is one:

http://www.crazypc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=120199&Product_Code=9210

Since the Dimension 8400 only has one IDE connector, your other option would be to get an IDE controller card.

 

[poorkapoor]

Thanks for your help, one more questionif you don't mind...with the IDE controller card which I believe sells for about $12 according to pricewatch, will I be able to connect 4 more hard drives in addition to the original SATA drive? I suppose I will need to upgrade the power supply for all this added burden?

Thanks again for all your help...

By the way would you recommend an IDE controller or the SATA adapter in terms of speed? Thanks.

 

[cdogg]

For others following this thread, here are some quick specs for the Dell Dimension 8400:

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8400/SM/specs.htm#wp1052308

poorkapoor,
A PCI IDE controller card can come with one or two IDE channels, giving you the option to add as many as 4 IDE devices. However, keep in mind that a regular 33MHz PCI slot is limited to 133MB/s and must share bus time with other devices. Therefore, it's not ideal to overload an add-in card. Either one hard drive or two optical drives would work fine. I haven't seen any PCI-Express controller cards around yet, but they would easily get around the bandwidth problem.

I recommend you find yourself a decent SATA-to-IDE converter for best performance...


~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[Frank4d]

You didn't say which IDE controller so I can't agree or disagree that it will handle four drives. But yes, it will handle SATA plus however many IDE drives the card is good for.

Power? My guess is that unless you have added a very power hungry video card, the Dell power supply will be fine. Hard drives don't use that much power.

IDE vs. SATA? In terms of noticable speed (normal use, not running benchmarking software)... if your IDE drive is ATA-100 or ATA-133 you probably won't notice a difference.

 

[micker377]

Question (since I haven't fooled with SATA yet), when adding a slow IDE drive to a fast IDE drive (on same IDE cable), will slow down the whole system a little: will installing an IDE drive (with adapter) to SATA, have any effect on the other SATA drive? I understand that the purpose of SATA is that the drives are "independant", but is that just for two SATA drives - or for everything?

 

[cdogg]

micker377,
Just to answer your question, it does not matter whether you have multiple IDE or SATA drives on the same channel. One doesn't necessarily slow the other one down. Of course, the IDE controller can only access one device at a time, but that doesn't have anything to do with the speed of the drives.

There's an old myth that putting a slow drive (such as ATA/33) on the same IDE channel as a faster one (like ATA/100) will slow both down. Fortunately, this is not true. When ATA/66 first hit the market, a new feature at the time called IDT (Independent Device Timing) was introduced. It allowed for different UDMA modes to run on the same channel (something that Microsoft finally allowed you to control with Windows XP).

See this old thread on the subject:
thread751-437954



~cdogg
[tab]"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind";
[tab][tab]- Aristotle
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[bjdobs]

Just did this on a Dell Optiplex ... the Dell Mother boards now have both a SATA and IDE interface ... the IDE is used for the DVD Drive ... You will possibly have to find a 5 1/4 to 3.5 "" adapter to allow you to mount the drive below the existing CD or DVD drive ... set your jumpers on each drive appropriatly to MASTER and Slave and you whould be in business.

One note is the IDE Cables supplied with the DELL are very precise in that you may have to play with the mechanics (position of the harddrive) in order to get both the CD/DVD drive and the Harddrive connections lined up so the cable can plug into both drives.

 

[micker377]

Thanks cdogg, fortunately I just have to fix the *&%things - I don't have to design them! <grin>

 

[wgrimsley]

Forget all you have been told. Here’s what you can do. Remove one of the optical drives from the IDE cable and install your Seagate hard drive. Set the jumpers to cable select and you should be in business.
How do I know this? I have done this and it works just fine on my Dell computer with a SATA hard drive.
Probably most of the people advising you have not even tried this, but they can still ADVISE. I ran some unscientific tests and found no loss of speed or anything else. As for mounting the hard drive, I took the guts out of an old CD-Rom and made a bracket to hold the hard drive and fill up the hole where the optical drive use to be. This WORKS. Good Luck.

 

[cdogg]

wgrimsley,

Forget "[blue]all[/blue]" that you've been told, eh? Are you sure about that?
[LOL]

If you re-read the suggestions in this thread, you'll see that what you've suggested isn't far off from what's already been discussed. Perhaps you've just put it in simpler terms...[tab]

~cdogg

[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[mjcflex]

I have a Dell XPS G4 PC. It only has SATA power connectors. I have a IDE hard drive that I want to use in it. I bought an adapter... but the power cable is still for IDE drive to IDE power. I need a power cable to plug in the IDE drive to SATA power. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[loscajn]

I don't know if you folks have resolved this yet but here is what I did. Bought a Dell Demension 4700 with SATA 40Gb drive. It came with DVD and DVDRW drives and only 1 IDE connector on the MB. Although it did have 2 SATA connector on the MB. I bought an adapter at

http://www.cwol.com/serial-ata/serial-ata-ide-converter.htm

that allowed me to plug my 160GB IDE drive into the second SATA connector. I did have to put the jumper on the IDE drive to make it a master. From what I read SATA drives are all masters. I am able to boot from the 40 GB SATA drive and have the 160GB IDE drive for storage.

 

[garebo]

to wgrimsley: I would be careful telling someone to
" forget all they have been told."
Some of these people here know more than we have forgotten!
Not only that, what you had to say isnt any different from what others had to say, yet you acted like you knew something we didnt know. Not at all!
Fact is, porkapoor has a few different ways to go about this relatively simple matter. Simple to some of us, but not so simple to others. However, in the realm of computer knowledge, yes, this is fairly simple stuff.
So i just wouldnt be so quick to tell someone to ignore the advice of the likes of micker and cdogg, among others,lol.
Rather, you could simply give the person your take on the matter. People around here just dont act like that, which is why i love it here. I didnt say like, i said love!! No rude people, no filthy language, no fighting, and so on.
Hang around and see what i mean. I am happy we have such a place as this and that's why i am defending it.
thank you



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[jurgen36]

:garebo
I could only fully agree with what you said, never say "forget all they have been told". There is always something new to learn. Im am with computers since the early 60th "as big as a small house" and even today I find that I actually know very little about them. Regards

Jurgen

 

[wgrimsley]

To All Concerned:

Sorry, I did not mean to offend anyone. As I read the original question I thought the purpose was to use a hard drive ‘poorkapoor” had on hand. Some of the suggestions were to purchase additional equipment. I realize that a lot of people have more knowledge than I have. My method is based on actual experience and did not require any additional expense.

Yes, that's my real name

 

[garebo]

Well, you said this:

"Probably most of the people advising you have not even tried this, but they can still ADVISE. "

Considering what the person was asking was a very very small, mundane matter, i can safely say that one wouldnt have to have been there to do that.

Even i could give him several different solutions!

It was the whole attitude i noticed.
You have made your apology and i am not trying to stir up manure either, just making a point.
Again, this is not like other fora, and i guess i am quick to defend this place, but its only because i dont ever want to see this place spiral downhill like some other forums.
You have apologized, at least i think you have, and its case closed.
Just remember that this place is better than all the others!! We arent rude here and thats one of the things that makes this place so terrific, notwithstanding the fact that some of the people here could build a gaming system with their eyes closed and still know each part they put in, lol!! And troubleshoot it too!





Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[crazycatlady]

I added a maxtor ata133 80gb to my dell 8400 with a 160 sata, I went to the bios to let it know it was there, but the computer/bios won't recognize the new hard drve. Yes I have converter on the ide drive. Please help.
Thank you,
OCCL