[jigsawbill]

I have an old Dell Dimension 8250, Windows XP home sp3, pci board, ide connecters and I want to install a SATA hard drive. What is the best solution?

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Hello,
SATA implementations for old PCs are plentiful. The problem is getting one that works reliably.

Is there a reason you want to go to SATA? How large of a harddrive are you thinking of getting? Lastly, where are you located... USA, Europe, etc... in case I need to hunt online for something you can use.

[makai]

Hello,
SATA implementations for old PCs are plentiful. The problem is getting one that works reliably.

Is there a reason you want to go to SATA? How large of a harddrive are you thinking of getting? Lastly, where are you located... USA, Europe, etc... in case I need to hunt online for something you can use.

[jigsawbill]

This is an old machine, and I need the room, this ole 160 just won't hold what I need. Sata because of availability, and of course if I update machines, I will use them in it. I plan on a 500 internal and 500 external in an enclosure. My enclosure has sata and ide hook ups. I have gotten into creating family albums on DVD slideshow, using the photodex producer, and this all takes up tons of space. I have been reading around and only get more confused as I read what the sellers are saying, you know sata adapters, sata controll cards and what not, just wanted some solid advice on which way to go and with what. I live up here on top of Sand Mountain, Alabama, just south of the Tn. line. I have Acronis 2009 which I plan on cloning the hd and putting the new one in its place. My dc and dvd equipment are still ide so I need to leave that portion of ide alone at least for a while. Sorry about the delay, I am laying CVT tile here in my office, so its work awhile and rest awhile. Thanks a lot.

[makai]

As stated, the difficult part is finding a good SATA card that'll work. Some people have good experiences and some don't. That's the problem with this kind of tech upgrade for your machine. Basically, you buy something and take your chances. Not very promising!

I fully understand you wanting to forward-buy on SATA technology as I basically thought about going the same route, but then went with building a new computer instead.

What you might consider is just buying a SATA enclosure and drive, and using that until you do upgrade your computer. If ever you need more space, you can either buy more enclosures, or pull the current drive (if full) and drop another drive into the same enclosure. At the very least, you end up with some backup without going through the hassle of finding a controller card that works.

Nowadays, if you just want backup, there are a ton of offerings from major manufactures on External Hard drives (SAMPLE) for decent prices. Personally, I always go with separate drive and enclosure just in case the manufacture of an External has proprietary stuff in their enclosure limiting hard drive support.

I can't recommend a Sata controller, not just because I would never use one, but because of all the bad news I've read about them. Of course YMMV, so don't take my word for it!

Edited by makai, 22 August 2009 - 05:49 PM.

[jigsawbill]

Just as I suspected. I just learned that I have won a 500gig WD RE so I will install it in this enclosure which has a cooling fan, and simply move all my heavy stuff onto it, and let the internal hang in there with OS and other programs. If I remember right I only used about 30 gig of hdd before I got into this slide show thing. Its just that I have had this ole thing since it was new, and I have added a gig of Rambus 1033 ram to it, which is rather dear, but it has been a good machine, and still does what I demand of it. I agree with you about putting togather a new machine rather than buying off the market. What I don't know I can learn out here by reading! Oh yes I went to school in a one room up in northern Michigan and by george we learned to read. Christmas brought socks and books as I remember it. So Appreciate your advice and have yourself a good-un as we say up here in Alabamay.

[makai]

I edit video myself, and the stuff I do ranges around 30Gbs per video, so I know how much space can be eaten up by a passion! Yah, Rambus was very expensive in its time, but nowadays the ram manufactures have all lowered their prices to be competitive and 4Gigs of ram can run only about $50! Anyways, good luck to you and when you build your next computer, there is much help to be gotten from this site. Aloha... as we say in Hawaii (although I live in Califonia now... ~sigh~)