Posted on 02/25/2009 10:52:30 PM PST by djf
I need some additional hard drive capacity, so am looking for some place I can get a 250-500 gig ATA drive.
Went to Wally world and all they have is SATA, my board isn't set up for it.
Any ideas/suggestions of who might have AT drives?
www.newegg.com
Can you get a sata expansion card?
Steal one from work. They’ll never miss it.
Probably could.
But I was in part hoping that with the switch towards SATA, I could find some good, dependable, LARGE AT drives on the cheap!
I’m not sure how well they work but there are converters:
http://www.addonics.com/products/io/adsaide.asp
> Can you get a sata expansion card?
Yes, I would recommend getting a SATA adapter. They have them in PCI and PCI express.
I think you can only get SATA-I (150 Gb) in PCI, because PCI doesn’t have the bandwidth for SATA-II (300 Gb).
For SATA-II, you will need a PCI express card, but, seeing as you are looking for ATA, you probably don’t have a PCI express slot in your system.
I bought a 250 gig external hard drive from Lacie online two years ago and it’s been great.
I don’t know that much about computers. I just plugged it in my usb port, put in the software and suddenly I not only had a c drive but I also had an e drive.
I need a lot of space because I write and record music. And it’s been great. Quick as a flash too. I lucked out in that respect. Cause I can move files from my c drive to the e drive with no slow down at all.
Do you need to walk into a store? Should be plenty of online sources that will ship quickly.
You can still go with SATA if you want:
Is it to be your primary drive? If not, you can get a $25 SATA external drive enclosure which connects over USB 2.0.
If it has to be internal, you can still buy a SATA with a SATA to IDE adapter.
About an hour ago Live.com had 25% off through Ebay again(it had been awhile). Guys on Slickdeals.net are saying it’s down to 8% now....MSLive, they like playing that game. Some stimulus funds probably made it to Bill and he’s passing “some” to consumers. Keep an eye on it next couple of days...may get up to 35% off.
If your motherboard doesn’t have SATA connectors then you will need an IDE drive.
Here’s a candidate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136111
NewEgg.com is a good company to buy from. So is ZipZoomFly.com.
Go to Newegg.com and get the ATA hard drive and forget all the expansion card/converter stuff you have read here. It will just be a waste of money to put a SATA in your computer with an converter card for all the return you arte going to get in performance.
www.newegg.com
I've ordered some stuff from them before. No problems.
Large PATA/ATA drives were around cheap last year, but they’re now on the other side of the curve; the biggest I’ve seen commonly available is 500gb on store shelves.
If you’re looking for more storage, you’re better off with an external usb drive. You can get a 500GB Seagate Freeagent Pro for around the $100 mark at Newegg, and when you repair, upgrade, or replace your computer, just plug the HD back into the usb port on your repaired or new computer and you’re good to go.
Newegg.com... unless you live in CA. In that case, stick it to the state government and buy out of state from inferior TigerDirect.com. That way the libs don’t get your sales tax.
Newegg computers has a western digital IDE ATA100 hard drive 320 gig 7200 rpm for 59.99 or a seagate baracuda 7200 320 gig for 39.99
I ripped a 250 gig out of a $10 DVR from dish. The guy cut it off and kept the DVR so I offered, he accepted. I think many have 120-160 gigs, but this one was deluxe. I also got a USB 2.0 500 gig from Wally World for under $100, but it’s slow. If you just need storage, they’re are fine. If you get tired of the slowness, rip it out of the case and get a SATA adapter card. Most today use SATA drives.
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