SATA card for older system.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mike Painter
  • Start date Start date
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Mike Painter

I have Dell 4400 which is several years old but fits my needs and I can't
afford a new system now.
I do want a new drive and am looking for suggestions on an inexpensive SATA
card so I can take the new drive with me to a new system.
After winning the lottery.
I never have bought a ticket but the difference between winning by finding
one and buying one does not seem to be worth spending the money.
 
Mike said:
I have Dell 4400 which is several years old but fits my needs and I
can't afford a new system now.
Click to expand...

That's fine.
I do want a new drive
Click to expand...

See if you can find a friend or a recycling shop to give/sell you an old
66-100 IDE drive.
and am looking for suggestions on an inexpensive
SATA card so I can take the new drive with me to a new system.
Click to expand...

Spending money on a sata card for your PCI 33 (forget about the 66 AGP)
would be a waste of money.

What do you need the drive for?

Even tho' the 4400 only has a USB1, you would be better off spending your
$20 on a USB/SATA enclosure than a sata PCI card.

You could buy a SATA/300 drive and put it into a USB2 enclosure which
would downgrade to your system. Later on you could build a new system for
the sata300 and save the enclosure for alternate usage.
 
Mike said:
That's fine.


See if you can find a friend or a recycling shop to give/sell you an
old 66-100 IDE drive.
Click to expand...
I have several IDE drives and don't want to add another old one to a system.
It is not likley that a new system will have IDE ability
Spending money on a sata card for your PCI 33 (forget about the 66
AGP) would be a waste of money.
Why?


What do you need the drive for?

Even tho' the 4400 only has a USB1, you would be better off spending
your $20 on a USB/SATA enclosure than a sata PCI card.
Click to expand...
Mine still has teh original but it also has several USB2 and firewire ports.
You could buy a SATA/300 drive and put it into a USB2 enclosure which
would downgrade to your system. Later on you could build a new
system for the sata300 and save the enclosure for alternate usage.
Click to expand...

USB2 is far to flakey on my system and USB1 is far to slow. Further I know I
can buy a card far cheaper than an enclosure.
 
I have several IDE drives and don't want to add another old one to a system.
It is not likley that a new system will have IDE ability
Click to expand...

That statement requires qualification but new systems do have some IDE
support and I expect they will for a while to come.
Why?
Click to expand...

Because the instant you have a motherboard with native SATA, the
adapter card is basically cruft. If anything it has a shorter lifespan
than an IDE drive. At this juncture it seems to me like you should buy
an IDE drive, and then an IDE adapter after your system upgrade, so
you can move all your IDE drives over if necessary. Either way it's
going to cost you the price of an adapter card, but supporting the
older drives in a new system results in less waste than supporting new
drives in an old system. Plus, I suspect that an IDE adapter will be
cheaper than one for SATA.
 
* Mike Painter:
I have Dell 4400 which is several years old but fits my needs and I can't
afford a new system now.
I do want a new drive and am looking for suggestions on an inexpensive SATA
card so I can take the new drive with me to a new system.
Click to expand...

Despite the other comments I don't think it is a waste of money, BTDT
many times. A dual port SATA PCI card can be had for less than 15USD
today, and lets you use any SATA hard drive you want. I just recommend
staying away from cards with VIA chipsets and go for one with Silicon
Image (SiL) chipsets. There should be plenty around.

Benjamin
 
* yaugin:
That statement requires qualification but new systems do have some IDE
support and I expect they will for a while to come.
Click to expand...

Not really. Parallel IDE is dead, most current chipset don't support IDE
at all (boards that still have IDE need an additional controller chip
for that which more and more now only support optical drives).
Because the instant you have a motherboard with native SATA, the
adapter card is basically cruft.
Click to expand...

Well, I can't see why the less than 15USD card can't stay with the
Dimension 4400 which after Mike has a new PC still can be used for other
things or just been given to a good home.

Benjamin
 
I have Dell 4400 which is several years old but fits my needs and I can't
afford a new system now.
I do want a new drive and am looking for suggestions on an inexpensive SATA
card so I can take the new drive with me to a new system.
After winning the lottery.
I never have bought a ticket but the difference between winning by finding
one and buying one does not seem to be worth spending the money.
Click to expand...

I bought IDE-to-SATA interfaces to keep old system storage capable of
running in a SATA config. I buy directly out from Hong Kong (which
probably translates indirectly from Cantonese Beijing), which is "OK"
to do these days. $6US for the adapter devices, maybe $10US for the
cards. I don't know, I'm going backasswards from you -- old stuff to
newer system, whereas you're going old system newer stuff. You'll
have to hit the direct marketing channels. All I can tell you is it's
cheap if you know what you're doing (ever heard of DealExtreme?).
 
Mike said:
I have Dell 4400 which is several years old but fits my needs and I can't
afford a new system now.
I do want a new drive and am looking for suggestions on an inexpensive SATA
card so I can take the new drive with me to a new system.
After winning the lottery.
I never have bought a ticket but the difference between winning by finding
one and buying one does not seem to be worth spending the money.
Click to expand...

My main concern with the suggests so far

PCI SATA card
SATA drive to IDE adapter dongle or board

is the quality control and problems people have with them.
Check the reviews on Newegg, before you buy one.

This one has no reviews on Newegg yet. It is actually
cheaper on the Startech site. The adapter may not include
a power cable. The adapter uses a floppy power connector,
so in a machine with no spare cables, you need a Molex to Y
cable, with Molex and floppy on the end. Chip is Marvell 88SA8040.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200156

Molex LP4 to floppy.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200151

Molex LP4 "Y" cable, to spawn a new connection.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200042

For a card, you can try SIL3114. I haven't heard of problems with
the BIOS getting stuck, if a 1TB SATA drive is connected. The
SIL3112 onboard BIOS has that problem. There is also the SIL3124,
but it appears to have problems with older motherboards keyed
for 5V I/O.

The quality control, by some of the remaining companies making these
cards, leaves a lot to be desired. Two activities carried out on
this card are - "flashing the onboard BIOS", and "sanding the
keying slot, so the card will fit". What fun.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16815280003

There are also cards with VIA VT6421, or JMB363. Those chips might
do two SATA and one PATA connector. Again, various experiences with
drivers and the like. So you don't have to buy a card with just a
SATA connector, you can also do it using a card with SATA/IDE and
just ignore the IDE connector.

Paul
 
Benjamin said:
* yaugin:

Not really. Parallel IDE is dead, most current chipset don't support
IDE at all (boards that still have IDE need an additional controller
chip for that which more and more now only support optical drives).


Well, I can't see why the less than 15USD card can't stay with the
Dimension 4400 which after Mike has a new PC still can be used for
other things or just been given to a good home.
Click to expand...

Pretty much my thoughts but I usually end up finding expensive cards and was
not aware they were this cheap. Thanks.
(Almost anything I look for comes up expensive. I wanted a new toaster a
while back and the first one that came up retaailed at close to $200.00)
 
Benjamin Gawert said:
Not really. Parallel IDE is dead, most current chipset don't support IDE
at all (boards that still have IDE need an additional controller chip for
that which more and more now only support optical drives).
Click to expand...

Nearly every discrete board on the market supports at least one IDE channel
(I've never seen one that was limited to optical drives--I didn't think
there was even such a distinction possible). Legacy connectors tend to stick
around for a long time, just look at LPT/COM and PS/2.
Well, I can't see why the less than 15USD card can't stay with the
Dimension 4400 which after Mike has a new PC still can be used for other
things or just been given to a good home.
Click to expand...

What's the point of having a SATA adapter in a system with no SATA drives?
Giving it away doesn't change the value proposition. It's still a waste of
money.
 
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