Three harddisk in one system

[THOA]

currently, i have a pentium 4 2.66GHz system that is running two separate 80 gigs harddisks.

I am looking into upgrading my pc (mainboard and ram are definites. CPU maybe, harddisk not so urgent) and am looking at the possible novelty of having three harddisks in one system (one as the main, one for design stuff and other junk, and one exclusively for music)

my questions:

- would you be able to do that with a basic but good mainboard from any computer hardware store?

- what are the mainboard specifications that I need to look at?

- is my CPU good enough or should i look into upgrading as well?

- anything else i need to consider?

I'm not much of a tech person, just very basic knowledge on computer hardware so hope to get some dumbed down answers please, heh.

 

[blueprintstudios]

your situation : CPU 2.66ghz .
2 x 80 gb hard disk (i'm assuming using the old Parellel ATA connection)

there's 2 kinds of data cable connectors nowadays. PATA and SATA (Serial ATA, faster.)

I'll try to make this as simple to understand as possible.

the connection chain goes like this :

Hard Disk/CDrom > PATA (or SATA) cable > Mainboard.

Generally, Mainboards (a.k.a motherboards a.k.a mobo for the geeks) can support 4 "IDE" devices.

IDE = CDrom/DVDrom/Hard Disks etc. (so you often hear IDE hard disk etc)

CDRoms/DVDRoms/Writers and older hard disks use PATA cables.

new faster hard disks, use SATA cables. they're usually a few dollars more expensive compared to PATA, but speed difference can be benchmarked.

you have to take note , 4 IDE devices only unless it's a good mainboard that supports more!

so if you already have 2 hard disks (assuming they use PATA) , and you have one CDrom(dvd,writer etc) . total 3 devices which leaves you one more slot left.

since you mention you're new to these, it's best you play it safe and bring your whole CPU and let the guy there take a look inside to determine what fits your system the best.

so now to answer your questions :

- would you be able to do that with a basic but good mainboard from any computer hardware store?

bring your CPU to simlim etc. get the guys to take a look and consult. I believe you need to topup $20 to get them to assemble.

- what are the mainboard specifications that I need to look at?
478 pin, DDR1 ram, AGP slot ? PATA ports instead of SATA? depends what your 2 harddisk is using.

- is my CPU good enough or should i look into upgrading as well?
if it works for you now, should be okay la.. if you need more power then you probably gotta "overhaul" . cos now rams use DDR2 , LGA775 Core2Duo , PCI-E graphics card. etc.

- anything else i need to consider?
as mentioned.

90¢ worth

 

[THOA]

Woah! That is in depth. Thank you!

 

[blueprintstudios]

cheers, hope you understand whatever I typed hehe

 

[THOA]

I do. Thank you