Mobo question about fitting a HD

[RobUK]

I'm getting a new HD, but in my mobo manual it only says its supports UDMA33. I want an UltraATA or UDMA66 hd. So will my mobo support either of these two types of hd??
My mobo is a Jetway J-542b.
Will a bios update configure my mobo to support these types of hd???

Thanx - Rob

[FireWrks]

uhhh well, your mobo will only support up to UDMA33 and that is it. No bios update or anything will help. If you believe that something other than a controller change will make it work at UDMA66, I have a bridge I wanna sell to ya. LOL Check on the hdd maker's web page to see if you have to flash the firmware on the hdd or if it is automatically backwards compatible with your mobo. ... btw, don't forget to get the new type of 80 wire ribbon cabling for your new hdd. (blue, gray, black connectors on the ribbon cable)


party on

[This message has been edited by FireWrks (edited 09-01-2000).]

[This message has been edited by FireWrks (edited 09-01-2000).]

[NDC]

Just go out and buy a PCI interface UDMA66 card. They run for about $50 USD.

http://www.cdw.com/shop/search/results.asp?grp=INI

[This message has been edited by NDC (edited 09-02-2000).]

[scotter]

all udma 33/66 ata/100 drives are backward compatable with the older standards.
you will not see UDMA 66/100 speed connected to a UDMA 33 mobo, but the drive WILL work
so get what ever ya want and be happy http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[NDC]

But if you get a UDMA66 card like I said above, you will get UDMA66 conections. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[Fingers]

UDMA/33 is the same as ATA/33, they are just different names for the same thing. ATA/66 drives are backward compatible with your current ATA/33 IDE controller.

The relative speed of the drive is more dependant on the rotation speed of the drive than on its ATA/33/66/100 specification. A 7200 RPM ATA/33 Hdd will outperform a 5400 RPM ATA/66 drive. The 66MB/second transfer rate is only burst transfer speed from the HDD's cache to system memory, not sustained transfer speed. You're not likely to be able to see any difference between an ATA/33 and an ATA/66 drive.

[NDC]

Yeah, FINGERS is right. You won't notice a much of a difference, but 7,200rpm Vs. 5,400rpm, you will notice a BIG difference. Especially running programs that aceess alot of data and windows DEFRAG screams along also compared to 5,400rpm drives.