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IDE controller PCI card


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#1
liweilun

liweilun

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At the moment I have an onboard IDE controller on my old DELL PC. Both the primary and secondary are being used (4 IDE devices connected). I am looking at options for adding addition INTERNAL hard drives. Is it possible to install an IDE controller PCI card and be able to add an additional 4 IDE devices?

If this is possible, do I need to worry about overheating inside the PC?

If not possible, what other options do I have with installing additional internal IDE devices (e.g. hard drives).

Thanks!
Brian.
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#2
Neil Jones

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It's possible, but the other thing to consider is the size of the power supply. And as some older Dells have non-standard power supplies so far as the wiring goes, the last thing you want to do is to make that go pop.

The other thing to consider is space inside the case. These are issues to consider before overheating.

Another option is an external hard drive which plugs into the USB port and has its own power adaptor. Get a powered hub as well and enough plugs and one could run them all off of that. The option is available to daisy-chain the hubs so you can in theory have up to 127 USB devices.
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#3
liweilun

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Thanks for the tips. Yeah, I just checked the power supply and it does not have enough power connectors to power additional hard drives.

The issue is that I already have the extra hard drives. 3 extra ones as a matter of fact. I have also tried using the external enclosures with USB connections. However; based on my experience, they are a bit problematic and on several occasion I lost data.

Has anyone heard of an external hard drive case that can handle multiple hard drives? Anyone out there create a pc to act just as a network attached storage?

Thanks in advance!
Brian.
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#4
Neil Jones

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Thanks for the tips. Yeah, I just checked the power supply and it does not have enough power connectors to power additional hard drives.


It's not the number of connectors that's the problem (since you can get splitters), its the amount of power that the supply can generate. The amount of connectors in a branded system is usually limited anyway to have only one or two spare as that's all it'll be able to run.
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