Hard drive upgrade questions?

rvcmike · 03-22-2009, 11:31 AM

I am new to this. I wanted to upgrade to a larger hard drive and have some questions.
I have Dell Dimension XPS T550. Motherboard is SE440BX-3.
Chipset i440BX/2x.
Hard Drive is 6.4GB. I upgraded the system from W98Se to XP pro.

I believe the current motherboard is ATA66.

What are my hard drive upgrade options? Am I limited to an IDE/ATA66 drive or can I purchase a controller card and install an ATA100 or ATA133 hard drive?

**raptor_pa** · 03-22-2009, 02:46 PM

ATA 100/133 should run fine at 66 that speed is just the speed of the commuications bus the faster drives can talk at the slower speed no problem.

rvcmike · 03-22-2009, 02:55 PM

Would I also need a ATA controller card or would I only need a controller card if I had more than 1 hard drive?

**raptor_pa** · 03-22-2009, 06:17 PM

Each IDE cable can support two devices. So if you currently have a hard drive and a CD/DVD then you could add two more devices as slaves probably one on each channel. Make sure you set the jumpers correctly for the new drive as well as the existing drive. If the original is Western Digital it has two master settings.. one is master-single drive ( no jumper ) and then master-slave present ( jumper in place ) the new drive if on that cable should be jumpered as slave.

rvcmike · 03-24-2009, 09:50 AM

raptor pa,

Thanks. I have another question?

I found the pdf manual for my motherboard SE440BX-3 and it says the following under "IDE Cofiguration Submenus":

Standard
Fast PIO 1
Fast PIO 2
Fast PIO 3
Fast PIO 4
FPIO 3/ DMA 1
FPIO 4/ DMA 2

Ultra DMA
Disabled
Mode 0
Mode 1
Mode 2

After doing some google searches it would appear that the motherboard is limited to Ultra DMA 2 which would be ATA 33 speed. Is this correct?

Question:
If I purchased a larger hard drive that was ATA100 would the addition of a controller card allow the hard drive to operate at a higher transfer rate?

Or because the motherboard bios only supports UltraMode 2 the new hard drive would still only operate at ATA33 speeds but would still work in my computer.

Thanks,
Mike

03-22-2009, 11:31 AM	#1 (permalink)
rvcmike Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 3 OS: XP pro	Hard drive upgrade questions? I am new to this. I wanted to upgrade to a larger hard drive and have some questions. I have Dell Dimension XPS T550. Motherboard is SE440BX-3. Chipset i440BX/2x. Hard Drive is 6.4GB. I upgraded the system from W98Se to XP pro. I believe the current motherboard is ATA66. What are my hard drive upgrade options? Am I limited to an IDE/ATA66 drive or can I purchase a controller card and install an ATA100 or ATA133 hard drive?

03-22-2009, 02:46 PM	#2 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,874 OS: XP	Re: Hard drive upgrade questions? ATA 100/133 should run fine at 66 that speed is just the speed of the commuications bus the faster drives can talk at the slower speed no problem. __________________

03-22-2009, 02:55 PM	#3 (permalink)
rvcmike Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 3 OS: XP pro	Re: Hard drive upgrade questions? Would I also need a ATA controller card or would I only need a controller card if I had more than 1 hard drive?

03-22-2009, 06:17 PM	#4 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,874 OS: XP	Re: Hard drive upgrade questions? Each IDE cable can support two devices. So if you currently have a hard drive and a CD/DVD then you could add two more devices as slaves probably one on each channel. Make sure you set the jumpers correctly for the new drive as well as the existing drive. If the original is Western Digital it has two master settings.. one is master-single drive ( no jumper ) and then master-slave present ( jumper in place ) the new drive if on that cable should be jumpered as slave. __________________

03-24-2009, 09:50 AM	#5 (permalink)
rvcmike Registered User Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 3 OS: XP pro	Re: Hard drive upgrade questions? raptor pa, Thanks. I have another question? I found the pdf manual for my motherboard SE440BX-3 and it says the following under "IDE Cofiguration Submenus": Standard Fast PIO 1 Fast PIO 2 Fast PIO 3 Fast PIO 4 FPIO 3/ DMA 1 FPIO 4/ DMA 2 Ultra DMA Disabled Mode 0 Mode 1 Mode 2 After doing some google searches it would appear that the motherboard is limited to Ultra DMA 2 which would be ATA 33 speed. Is this correct? Question: If I purchased a larger hard drive that was ATA100 would the addition of a controller card allow the hard drive to operate at a higher transfer rate? Or because the motherboard bios only supports UltraMode 2 the new hard drive would still only operate at ATA33 speeds but would still work in my computer. Thanks, Mike