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Do I need a SATA control card???

Kitomaru

Member
May 1, 2005
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I'm not familiar with hard drive stuff, and I dont even know what SATA is exept it helps transfer rates (I think)

Do I need one?
 

ts3433

Platinum Member
Jun 29, 2004
2,731
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You shouldn't need a SATA card unless your motherboard doesn't support SATA by itself (you don't have a SATA controller or SATA ports on your board).
 

LASTGUY2GETPS2

Platinum Member
Mar 22, 2004
2,274
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76
Originally posted by: Kitomaru
I'm not familiar with hard drive stuff, and I dont even know what SATA is exept it helps transfer rates (I think)

Do I need one?

SATA is an interface format. If it's not built into your motherboard you can't.

Conventional hardrveis connect via an ide cable

SATA looks like This.

edit: forgot to say if you don't have SATA built in your motehrboard I think you do need to buy the card
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
45
91
If your motherboard doesn't have SATA, then yeah, you'd need a controller card.

SATA doesn't help standard drives much at all, but raptor is not your average drive. It's not really SATA that's making it faster, but its higher RPM etc.

A raptor is not a really good way to increase your computer performance in most cases (vs. adding more ram, upgrading videocard etc.). Are you sure you want one?
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
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91
Before we get into this, are you sure you want to build what would end up being about a $3000 computer probably?

You can get a very nice comptuer for about $1000.

Unless you're loaded, I really wouldn't recommend getting the latest and greatest.
 

Kitomaru

Member
May 1, 2005
121
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I'm not loaded, and i saved my little 14 year old a$$ off to drop $3000 on this. I'm tired of buying $hitty computers for cheap, and I spend more updating my $hitty computer than buying a good one in the first place.
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
45
91
Originally posted by: Kitomaru
I'm not loaded, and i saved my little 14 year old a$$ off to drop $3000 on this. I'm tired of buying $hitty computers for cheap, and I spend more updating my $hitty computer than buying a good one in the first place.

Alright then. Personally If I was tired of seeing my purchases losing value, spending 3 times as much to get a 25% to 50% performance increase would not be my first idea.

For $3000 I'd probably buy a $1500 system and spend $1500 on a HT speaker system to go with it (that would hold its value much better than spending it to get the latest computer parts).

Ok... my little speech is done about parts losing value quickly and not being worth it.

Are you planning on overclocking?

Do you need everything? (monitor, keyboard/mouse, speakers, windows)

Is $3000 really your budget?

What are you hoping to accomplish (strictly gaming, lots of storage, great monitor/speakers?)
 

Kitomaru

Member
May 1, 2005
121
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I want games with absolute 0 lag, great graphics.

No monitor/keboard/mouse.

SATA Everything, exept USB external floppy.
 

DerelictDev

Senior member
Feb 19, 2005
358
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0
Yea that may be a bit overkill. You can get a really good computer for 2k. Most of the ports on that mobo, youll never use.

Edit: Yea for my next build i also want SATA everything, the only problem with that is, only plextor seems to make SATA optical drives(dvd-rw. cd-roms, etc.) There a good company but there are drives that are better. Other than that, that mobo has 8 SATA connections. If your not loading you computer up with 6 hard drives then its a bit overkill. Youll probably buy 1 dvd-rw, and 1 top of the line cd-rw. Then possibly 2 hard drives. Thats only 4 ports your taking up. Everything else like graphics card, audio card, etc use pci-express, or regular pci slots

Edit 2: SLI, basically 2 cards running together. Performance leap is significant in many opengl and direct3d mode games. http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2258&p=5 If your budget is really 3k then you may want to look into it. If its lower than just 1 6800gt oc card will give you 0 lag, great graphics as long as you dont increase the resolution tremedously. (Using 1280 X 1024 and lower in every game currently youll have fluid gameplay)
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
45
91
Do you know what SLI is?

I don't think we're going to be able to manage a balanced $3000 system without it anyway :p, but I wanted to know if you've heard about it and if you want it.

EDIT: oooh, I'm backwards 1337... does that make me a noob?
 

bob4432

Lifer
Sep 6, 2003
11,727
46
91
don't spend more than ~$1000 on a machine, it can be done and you can make a killer machine. take the other $2000 and open some type of interest bearing account and make some money on your money. throwing $3000 into a computer is stupid, unless it is for a business and you need it and can write it off, or atleast need it to make yourself $$$, as that machine will be worth $1500 in 6-9 mos.

you say you want to game, what type of game? fps? also what do you need or should i say have - do you have a monitor? case? what resolutions do you play your games at?

lets get real here and down to business...
 

bob4432

Lifer
Sep 6, 2003
11,727
46
91
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
EDIT: oooh, I'm backwards 1337... does that make me a noob?

it makes you a nerd that spends too much time on anandtech, hehe:D

 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
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91
Originally posted by: bob4432
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
EDIT: oooh, I'm backwards 1337... does that make me a noob?

it makes you a nerd that spends too much time on anandtech, hehe:D

That sounds about right.
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
45
91
Originally posted by: DerwenArtos12
Here we go: $3000
Tyan dual 940 mobo w/ SLI $455
Dual core Opteron970 x 2=$1940
Rosewill 1GB(2x512mb) DDR320075 x 2 =$150
MSI 6800GT365 x 2=$730
74GB Raptor HDD 175 x 2=$350

Grand total for one of the fastest systems on the face of the earth:$3625

OK, so i went over the budget but this post was just to make a point, $3000 is a hell of a lot for a computer!

You didn't even include powersupply, case, or optical drives... probably making the total closer to $4000.