HD Maxtor 160Gb/8Mb on 440bx2

  • Thread starter Thread starter Boris
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Boris

I want to buy HD Maxtor 160Gb/8Mb and my MB is Intel/440bx2 (i already have
WD 80Gb)
Is this HD capacity compatible with 440bx2 chipset?
 
I want to buy HD Maxtor 160Gb/8Mb and my MB is Intel/440bx2 (i already have
WD 80Gb)
Is this HD capacity compatible with 440bx2 chipset?
Click to expand...

Check Intel's (if it's an Intel board,not just an intel chipset) to see
if they have a bios that supports 48bit LBA, that is, HDDs bigger than
128/137GB size.

That chipset only supports ATA33, so it will be a great performance
penalty to use the motherboard's IDE controller. It would be better to
just buy a PCI IDE controller card, which will improve performance and
support the size.... something like a PCI Promise Ultra 133 TX2.
http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?productId=87&familyId=3
 
kony said:
Check Intel's (if it's an Intel board,not just an intel chipset) to see
if they have a bios that supports 48bit LBA, that is, HDDs bigger than
128/137GB size.

That chipset only supports ATA33, so it will be a great performance
penalty to use the motherboard's IDE controller. It would be better to
just buy a PCI IDE controller card, which will improve performance and
support the size.... something like a PCI Promise Ultra 133 TX2.
http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?productId=87&familyId=3
Click to expand...

Or, you can use the included MaxBlast 3 software. I have the same
harddrive and nearly the same motherboard (Intel PD440FX) and it worked
like a charm. I was almost disappointed that I didn't get to solve any
problems. :)

Aaron
 
Or, you can use the included MaxBlast 3 software. I have the same
harddrive and nearly the same motherboard (Intel PD440FX) and it worked
like a charm. I was almost disappointed that I didn't get to solve any
problems. :)

Aaron
Click to expand...

That won't address the ATA33 performance limit though, the drive will be
running at barely over half-speed, performancewise.
 
Boris said:
I want to buy HD Maxtor 160Gb/8Mb and my MB is Intel/440bx2
(i already have WD 80Gb)
Is this HD capacity compatible with 440bx2 chipset?
Click to expand...

The chipset isn't the limiting factor but the BIOS probably is (it
probably has a limit of 137GB), and if you're using Windows ME or
older the easiest solution may be a PCI IDE HD controller card, like
the ones sold by Promise and SIIG, because they include a driver that
adds 48-bit LBA support to those older versions of Windows, and
Intel's Applications Accelerator driver, which adds 48-bit LBA to
older Windows, doesn't work with the 440BX. An ATA100 PCI controller
will be virtually as fast as an ATA133 controller, and you may be able
to find one on close-out (I got mine from Staples, Maxtor brand
Promise cards), and Promise still supports them (but I wasn't able to
get their 2.2.0.15 flash to take). Watch out when buying PCI IDE
controllers because some have a 137GB limit.
 
Thanks for the info...If i use WinXP - does it matter?
And if i use that 160Gb HD without any card, in the way that i'll be
recognized as 137Gb, can i damage it?
 
WinXP does not have the same size limitations as older OSs and will not have any problems with 160 GB drive.
You can partition and format a 160 GB drive as 137 GB without any damage.
Thanks for the info...If i use WinXP - does it matter?
And if i use that 160Gb HD without any card, in the way that i'll be
recognized as 137Gb, can i damage it?
Click to expand...

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Mike Walsh
West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.
 
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