asus p4c800-e dlx /160 gig western digital 7500 se/ connection

[builtospill]

I have just purchased a new p4c800-e motherboard from ASUS.

I am only installing One Hard Drive to this motherboard, the Western Digital 160 gig 7500 SE. Because this is my first Computer that I am building, I do not know which connector on the Motherboard I am suppose to attach the Hard Drive too.

In addition, will Windows XP read the full capacity of the hard drive, Western Digital offers a free Ultra/DMA controller, but I do not wish to use this card. Shouldn't the p4c800-e motherboard take care of this problem? Is the connector different for this application of the hard drive?

I need help Bad! I thank everybody who responds!

This is my basic setup!
Antec Sonata Mini Tower Case
Asus p4c800-e dlx
Intel 2.8c 800mhz system bus CPU
One stick of 512 3500 ddr memory
ATI Radeon 9800 pro Video Card
:disgust::sun:

 

[UncleMacro]

First of all you can find the answers to this sort of stuff with a little googling. But just to help you get started...

Assuming that you are connecting a parallel ATA (not serial ATA) and a CDRW and that you are new to this sort of thing:

There are other ways to do this but this is the "usual" way.

Normally the two main IDE channels are called the primary and secondary IDE channels. Sometimes they call them something different so you should check your motherboard manual. Your motherboard also has a RAID controller but you don't need to use that. The channels you want are hooked to the Intel ICH5 chip. The hard drive should be connected as the master on the "primary IDE channel". Make sure the jumper on the hard disk is set to master. There is usually a diagram on top of the drive that shows how to do it. Also make sure that you use the ATA66 IDE cable rather than the CDROM IDE cable. An ATA66 cable uses 80 smaller wires whereas the CDROM cable uses 40 wires but they both use the same kind of connectors. Plug the blue connector end of the cable into the primary IDE channel and plug the black connector end of the cable into the hard drive.

The CDRW should be the master on the secondary IDE channel. Make sure its jumper is set to master and then use the 40 wire CDROM cable to hook the secondary IDE channel to the CDRW. This cable isn't picky about which end goes where but if your cable has three connectors you get extra style points if the longer empty stretch in the cable is closer to the motherboard connector and the shorter empty stretch is nearer the CDROM. Make sure the CDROM is plugged into the end of the cable rather than the connector in the middle.

You should not need the separate disk controller. This is a new motherboard using Canterwood and the ICH5 chip so it should support full 48 bit addressing for the hard disk unless the BIOS was written by total pinheads. That means that it can handle 281474 GB hard disks without a separate controller. I don't run Windows XP so I'm not sure if it supports the whole 48 bits but it will handle your 160GB as long as the motherboard and BIOS do (which yours almost certainly does).

And in case that's not a typo you really should have two identical memory modules running in dual channel mode rather than one. A single stick works but it cuts the memory bandwidth in half.

 

[sillious]

You should not need the separate disk controller. This is a new motherboard using Canterwood and the ICH5 chip so it should support full 48 bit addressing for the hard disk unless the BIOS was written by total pinheads. That means that it can handle 281474 GB hard disks without a separate controller. I don't run Windows XP so I'm not sure if it supports the whole 48 bits but it will handle your 160GB as long as the motherboard and BIOS do (which yours almost certainly does).

Would you please make it a little clear for me when you said 281474 GB? I don't understand. I read that MSI 875P Neo supports upto 160GB. Since they are based on same chipset, isn't that also the highest for Asus P4C800e? That answer was found in the MSI official web site FAQ.

But here we are talking about 281474 GB w/o a separate controller! May I ask what OS are you using? I always thought the HD capacity is mostly based on motherboards and partially based on the kind of OS that you run on. I don't want to use an extra controller if I want 200GB or 250GB in a single drive.

Thank you in advance.

 

[bawaji]

The 28184874GB (vs your 160GB) is a theoretical maximum. Such disks are not available yet for consumers...

Your 160GB hard drive should work in your board as long as Windows is capable of handling hard drives larger than 137GB. Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 and 4, and Windows XP Service Pack 1 can handle drives larger than 137GB.

Hook up your CDRW and HD to the secondary and primary controllers, respectively, as the Master devices, as suggested by UncleMacro, make sure you update your Windows XP/2000 to the latest service pack and you should be OK.

 

[sillious]

Although I am still confused about why MSI Neo 875 supports upto 160GB when Win2000/XP with latest SP is suppose to handle >137GB, but thank you. I got some idea.