Motherboard question

[=JHF= UsualSuspect]

Ok so on a motherboard does anyone know what the slots that the harddrives/dvd drives connect into are called, and how many items can be connected into them before the comptuer explodes.  Cause on my current mother board there are two and with the 40 pin harddrive cables that I have I can have 1 Dvd, 1 dvd burner and 2 harddrives.  But Im going to buy a new computer and want to have the two dvd drives and at least 3 harddrives.  So in short I need to know what the connector on the motherboard is called so I can find one that will allow for my necessities. 

Help appreciated. 

UsualSuspect

[Currahee]

the newer drives use SATA cables & connects ont the mobo, the older  -slower- technology is ATA.  and some mobo's offer connections for both.  so... are you gonna use the drives you currently have, or are you gunna buy new drives?  the ata cables allow for a master & a slave hardddrive on a cable which would occupy 1 slot on the mobo, I *think* an SATA slot only accepts 1 drive, not sure though.

hope that helps some

[=JHF= UsualSuspect]

Well I dunno yet, I plan on keeping the two hard drives and at least the dvd burner, which use the 40 pin connectors. And when I get my new comptuer I guess ill get whatever hardrive comes with it.  I plan on buying new computer with good mother board, (hopefully can find one that will support my needs) good ram, and good prossessor. I already have Nvida Gforce 440 128mg graphics card so that should last me for few years still, top of the line soundcard, surround sound speakres.  Probaly need a new monitor, the flat panel I have now causes cancer I think.  So Im just going to spend all my money on those parts that I dont have, just need to know about a motherboard that will support the "old" harddrives.

UsualSuspect

[Currahee]

hmmm, ok.  why do you want 3 harddrives? most pc's have a minimum of 40gb nowdays if you buy a system, so you should prolly just get a pc with a big hdd and add the largest of your other 2 to it.  how big are the each of the harddrives you already have? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128241#DetailSpecs   that link is to a mobo with 2 extra ata slots, so it will support up to 8 devices, im sure there are many other mobo's that have that feature as well, just browse newegg.

dunno whut your budget is US, I'm guessing this is primarily for gaming? spend your $ on RAM, & CPU. if you want to keep your current videocard, upgrade to the point that it is the weakest link in a system that will handle a fast card easily later on, when you are ready to replace the card.

btw, I bought my mobo here:  http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv    and have been very pleased
   

[<g4J><Warrior4J -AKA-BigMark]

Hmm.... Let me see.....Currahee Has mentioned a very good board Lots of features and the Nforce chipset is the one to get. Most boards today have the standard ATA IDE connectons for the CD and DVD Drives and I dont believe they will stop those for awhile. If you are still using the older 40 pin IDE cables you might get an increase in proformance by moving to the 80 pin style.(52 pin??)not sure on that. The newer boards are comming out with the SATA running at 150 Mb a sec and the newer SATAII running at 300Mb a sec also as Hee has said RAM is the best way to get better preformance the newer boards are also moving to the newer DDR2 Ram that is running faster than DDR1. If your current system is doing ok for you and you are just looking for speed than as Hee has said I too say go for The Faster CPU and more RAM at least a GigByte of Quality ram Mushkin or Corsiar. But if you are looking at a new board the one Hee mentioned is a great board, But also get more and good quality RAM. Just my $0.02

Mark

[=JHF= UsualSuspect]

Thanks guys for the info.  LOL when I said 52 pin connector I was thinking about the old NES system, meant 40 pin.  Please dont throw too many rocks at me.  But I think Ill do what Hee said and transfer all the info from one drive to another that seems to take the least work.  Hey hee is that there motherboard one of those gaming boards that Ive heard about.  One of my friends was telling me about a new board thats made specifically for gaming, and it started me salivating.

Also would yall recomend that I construct my own pc or get one from dealer, Ive always liked Dell, due mainly the the durablitiy of their pc's and waranty deal.  Liked what I saw in this computer http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/dimen_xps5?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn&~tab=specstab#tabtop  has a Gforce video card, (Im a gforce guy) 
Let me know what yall think.

UsualSuspect

[Widowmaker]

Anyone know of a motherboard that allows sata to be the main hard drive?

[<g4J><Warrior4J -AKA-BigMark]

Anyone know of a motherboard that allows sata to be the main hard drive?

Hiya Widow!! This is the board I am running and it uses SATA and IDE and I have a SATA as the main with no problems.http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-7VT600%201394.htm but any with SATA should alow them to be main.

BM

[=JHF= Veritas]

i have encountered a few that don't BM not many though. not any of them were particularly new they were like the first ones with SATA connectors.

[Widowmaker]

I'm still a little confused....

So what BM and Veritas are saying is that any mobo with sata connecters will allow the hard drive connected with the sata to be the main drive? 

I am currently running a Asus A7N8X - Deluxe Mobo with an AMD 2500 (1.84 Mhz).  I have the main drive with the operating system  running with the ide ribbon and have another drive that is connected to the mobo with sata.  The second one does not have the operating system on it.  I use it just for storage and I also have CoD on it.

Any thoughts would be most welcome as I am trying to upgrade my system with as little out of pocket as possible.

[=JHF= Veritas]

yes sir you are correct. mine and bones machines both use a serial ata drive as the boot drive.

[Currahee]

US, I'd bet you could build a similar sytem for less, after all you are paying for them to assemble it as well. Do you need the MS media canter software for instance? you may be getting a lot of stuff you will never use, which adds to the cost.

as far as a ' gaming board ' is concerned, I dunno.  that sounds like one of those loosly defined terms that changes depending on whom you are dealing with. I suggest browsing these forums, http://www.computerpoweruser.com/idealbb/default.asp?sessionID=4328E30ABD4E4A8996BD1A2195EE0258and looking for similar q&a that you have. You will learn a lot and be better able to make a good decision when you buy.  http://www.anandtech.com/

[=JHF= Veritas]

as far as building it for less goes it would be close i looked around at some of the regulars and that processor is pricey still. big folks like dell get sweet deals on em. but i would have to say it didn't look like a bad deal by any means.

[Currahee]

I agree with Veritas, I see now that it includes a geforce 6800 pciX VGA    ....those aint cheap

if you stayed with your existing drives, and VGA, you could build the rest, nicely for around 1K I'm guessing

$400 for that particular cpu, $200 for a matching mobo, $125 for 512mb of ram, apx 150$ for a compatable power supply. theres a plethora of options for NICE cases-even in the $50 range

the other thing is warranty...........

fun ain't it

[<g4J><Warrior4J -AKA-BigMark]

Well not to knock Dell buttttt. Working in the computer field I see at least 2 if not 3 Dell computers a day come in to the store for repair. Most have motherboard and powersupply problems. Keep in mind when Dell and Gateway and the big manufactures get there parts they put out bids and the one they get that is the lowest is the one they take. Which unfortunatly makes for some less than quality parts. There cases are quality and nicely done and there drives are ok but Motherboards and power supplys are less than quality. If you can biuld one you know the parts are going to be good and usually the retail versions have great warrentys.

My $0.02
Sorry if anyone is offended.
Ok I will step off my box now.

BM