Hardware Config

[Lazarus]

Guys,

need some hardware "wiring" advice.

Due to get ADSL within the next 10 days and thought I would do a wipe on my PC (reinstalling Windows and cleaning up the crap. However, I have more hardware I want to add to my machine and not sure of the best way of doing this.

Hardware :

HDD
Seagate Barraccuda 60GB
WD 20GB
SCSI 9 GB

Media Drives
DVD
CDRW
PD (bit like a floppy but with a CD style media - holds 650 MB)
3.5 FDD

I have plenty bays available on the machine to hold the 3 media drives, but am unsure of the "wiring". I have 2 IDE cables which are wired like :

IDE Cable 1 :
Seagate HDD (Master) - DVD (Slave)

IDE Cable 2
WD HDD (Master) - PD (Slave)

I would like to keep all the drives, but am not sure if this is possible.

Any ideas how to go about this ?

would I keep the arrangement as above, or combine the HDD on 1 IDE drive?

any suggestions welcome

 

[sibanac]

you can only have 2 drives/channel, so you will either have to lose a drive or get an extra controller pci controller

or put one of the drives in a firewire/usb2 case and use it as an external drive

 

[Trem]

You won't get adsl Laz, I am quite sure that some terrible thing will happen to stop you getting it. Failing that I am going to shoot the engineer.

 

[Lazarus]

You won't get adsl Laz, I am quite sure that some terrible thing will happen to stop you getting it. Failing that I am going to shoot the engineer.

You would deny my this???!!!!

When I get it, im gone hunting Trems!!!!

 

[Lazarus]

another question Id forgotten to ask above.
If I am adding new hardware to the inside of the PC

Scsi HDD,
NIC card

would I need a new system fan in addition to the ONE i have already?

Currently this is set to the back, drawing air OUT of the system. Would it be advisable to stick one in the FRONT of the box, pulling cooler air IN over the HDD's ?

If thats the case, how do you wire up 2 fans to the ONE socket on the mobo?

 

[sibanac]

If you dont mind the extra noise then i would add a fan.
If the scsi disk is 10k RPM then you have to cool the drive


http://www.caseoutlet.com/common/products/Accessory/Cables/Cables-Images/3pin-connector.jpe
thats how you connect it

NIC doesnt add any real heat

 

[Lazarus]

cheers sib

 

[Tom]

I wouldn't worry about an extra fan, so long as your case has a few vents/holes near the bottom, the laws of physics will do the rest.

With regard to the devices, put the two IDE drives on the primary channel, and the two cdroms on the secondary channel (I read somewhere that accessing the cdrom stops the computer accessing other devices on that bus for the duration). The SCSI will plug onto its own controller (what kind of scsi device is it? 2, uw, uw2?), and will be assigned a drive letter automatically.

As for the PD drive, I'd give serious consideration to putting it in an external case, and connecting it with a firewire cable. Not sure how you do this, but I'm certain its not too difficult to achieve.

 

[sibanac]

As for the PD drive, I'd give serious consideration to putting it in an external case, and connecting it with a firewire cable. Not sure how you do this, but I'm certain its not too difficult to achieve.

Its dead easy, but a bit expensive.
The cases go for about 100€ over here.
Inside is a circuit board with an IDE connector, and a power connector. just hook em up to the drive and close the case.
At the back you will have a Firewire and/or usb2 connector and an external psu.
just power it up and plug the USB2/firewire into your pc.
Win xp/2000 hot plugs these just fine

You can connect these to a usb1 port aswell but it wont be as fast ofc

 

[gunner440]

with that kind of money i think you're better off scrapping the 2 x hdd drives and buying a single 80 or 120gb disk

that'll allow you to have all 4 connected without the hassle

personally i'd recommend you getting a 120-160hb hard drive (very cheap nowadays) and as you're about to get adsl, you'll be in need of space