P6DGU - Hard disk and Graphics card upgrade suggestions pl..

External Since: Aug 28, 2004 Posts: 3

Please can anyone advise me on what'd be best for my requirements to
upgrade this system in terms of Hard Disk and Graphics cards.

It is a dual 1000mhs, 1gb machine with 2 very small and noisy scsi
hard disks. We are currently not using this machine at all simply
because we've become accustomed to something quieter (albeit slower)
and these disks are just too noisy !!

So, we want to take out the small scsi hard disks and replace with one
large IDE disk (something like 250gb).

I have Maxtors in another machine (completely different spec all
together), and am happy with the Maxtor make. For a not very logical
reason (ie PCWorld in the UK sells them by the bucket load) I'm not
very fond of Western Digital.

What model should I go for and why ?? Basically I'm wondering
(guessing because I am no expert) that it would be pointless to go for
SATA150 technology (I know nothing about this technology) as I guess
that it'd be wasted on this 1999 spec'd machine as my motherboard can
probably only max out with something less ??

So basically I don't want to waste money on something that won't get
used to it's fullest.

Same goes for the Graphic's Card - what should I get ?? I currently
have in it a Matrox Millenium G450 (32mb) - what card should I go for
without it being wasted on this machine ??

Basically I want the best but not something that's too good for this
machine.

Many thanks (and I know I've been very longwinded in explaining
something very basic !!)

Thanks in anticipation.

Best regards,

External Since: Mar 16, 2004 Posts: 19

Your motherboard most likely (I'm not sure, quoting from memory) will
not support drives over 137 GB. In addition, the onboard IDE controller
is only DMA 33. So, I'd recommend getting an IDE PCI controller card,
and yes, a Maxtor 250 GB IDE drive to attach to it. That situation
should work very well for you, and will eliminate your noisy old SCSI
drives.
As for video, what are your requirements? If the Matrox is still
working, and you don't need anything fancier, just keep it....

Ed Jamison
MBX - <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.mbx.com/" target="_blank">http://www.mbx.com/</a>
888-440-1414 X307
ed.jamison-at-mbx-dot-com
AIM - MBXEdJamison

A_Newsreader wrote:
> Please can anyone advise me on what'd be best for my requirements to
> upgrade this system in terms of Hard Disk and Graphics cards.
>
> It is a dual 1000mhs, 1gb machine with 2 very small and noisy scsi
> hard disks. We are currently not using this machine at all simply
> because we've become accustomed to something quieter (albeit slower)
> and these disks are just too noisy !!
>
> So, we want to take out the small scsi hard disks and replace with one
> large IDE disk (something like 250gb).
>
> I have Maxtors in another machine (completely different spec all
> together), and am happy with the Maxtor make. For a not very logical
> reason (ie PCWorld in the UK sells them by the bucket load) I'm not
> very fond of Western Digital.
>
> What model should I go for and why ?? Basically I'm wondering
> (guessing because I am no expert) that it would be pointless to go for
> SATA150 technology (I know nothing about this technology) as I guess
> that it'd be wasted on this 1999 spec'd machine as my motherboard can
> probably only max out with something less ??
>
> So basically I don't want to waste money on something that won't get
> used to it's fullest.
>
> Same goes for the Graphic's Card - what should I get ?? I currently
> have in it a Matrox Millenium G450 (32mb) - what card should I go for
> without it being wasted on this machine ??
>
> Basically I want the best but not something that's too good for this
> machine.
>
> Many thanks (and I know I've been very longwinded in explaining
> something very basic !!)
>
> Thanks in anticipation.
>
> Best regards,