[klogg]

I've been looking around Tiger, Newegg, and Zipzoomfly, mostly price shopping, but I've been having a hard time figuring out what mobo I need.

I found a case I want, I'm purchasing the Core 2 Duo E6600, a Thermaltake HSF, but I'm stuck when it comes to mobos. I know I need a Socket 775 1066mhz compatible mobo, but when it comes to IDE/SATA HD issues, I get extremely lost.

I have in my Dell a 70 gig Seagate IDE Ultra-ATA 100 and a DVD-burner/ROM. I'd like to buy a new, larger HD (I'm thinking a Maxtor 250gig), but I was interested in SATA HD's. I'd like to install these 2 HD's (the new one my primary and the smaller Dell one my secondary) and my DVD-burner/rom, but I don't know what to look for in a mobo. I get lost with all the IDE ATA SATA junk that floats around on the mobo spec list. =( If someone could be nice enought to explain this, that would be awesome. I tried Googling for answers, but nothing really helped in figuring out the difference, and/or solving my problem. I think once I figure this out, It's go time on the purchase, but I think I'll follow up with another post to get some input on what I'm purchasing.

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It seems the hardware makers are really pushing SATA drives. I have noticed a lot of the motherboards have only one IDE connector. This will limit you, if you like running 2 optical drives, to having no PATA drives in the computer. I think you will need to discard the IDE pata drives in the near future so i would not use your old drive at all. I can see where there will be no IDE connectors on motherboards if the manufacturers start making SATA optical drives cheap enough. Just like the floppy connector on motherboards has almost disappeared the ide connectors may soon disappear also.

If you insist on runing a PATA drive i would look for a motherboard that still has 2 IDE connectors. This may limit you to what chipsets you may be able to get with the motherboard.

SRX660

[SRX660]

It seems the hardware makers are really pushing SATA drives. I have noticed a lot of the motherboards have only one IDE connector. This will limit you, if you like running 2 optical drives, to having no PATA drives in the computer. I think you will need to discard the IDE pata drives in the near future so i would not use your old drive at all. I can see where there will be no IDE connectors on motherboards if the manufacturers start making SATA optical drives cheap enough. Just like the floppy connector on motherboards has almost disappeared the ide connectors may soon disappear also.

If you insist on runing a PATA drive i would look for a motherboard that still has 2 IDE connectors. This may limit you to what chipsets you may be able to get with the motherboard.

SRX660

[MNOB07]

Intel is the one that's actually pushing to get rid of PATA. No support for it is given with their P965 C2D compatible chipset. However the motherboard manufacturers have been installing third party controllers for IDE/PATA drives, but only one slot. Use that slot for an optical drive or two because SATA CD/DVD drives are taking much longer to be adapted (very expensive, not getting very good reviews) than harddrives have been adapted (for whatever reason.)

I don't see any reason to upgrade your dell's harddrive, but if you do make sure it actually has SATA ports or purchase an IDE/PATA drive.

For your new build, I recommend a new Seagate or Western Digital SATA drive.

As for motherboard, find one that's affordable (look at the P965 boards) that has positive reviews, and one important thing is to get the right memory because they tend to be picky.

Edited by MNOB07, 07 August 2006 - 01:16 PM.

[apritske]

I am also going with the E6600, and I purchased the following mobo [I hope it's as good as it seems]: ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe Socket T (LGA 775) NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX Intel Motherboard.

It's about $200 on MWave and it's def conroe compatible

[apritske]

sorry, that's bad info, the one on mwave, and other sites, is the P5N32-SLI Deluxe - not conroe compatible and top mem speed of 667.

the SE is sold out EVERYWHERE, and is about 80 bucks more, this is the one that's conroe OK