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NEED ADVICE ABOUT ADDING HARD DRIVES PLEASE

S

shaaregeulah

Junior Member
Hi all. I have a Dell Dimension 4550 (P4 3.06gHz/2GB DDR.) The specs are listed here I use the system for Pro Audio production and, unfortunately, I've been using it for personal home use as well. I've decided to get two additional hard drives and install a seperate operating system on one of them, dump all the audio files to that drive as well and have all the programs and plug-ins on the other hard drive. This way, I can use the same system for personal use and production without conflicts. I've learned that having the operating system and audio files on one hard drive and the programs and plug-ins that need to be running on another hard drive is best for optimal performance. So in total I'll have three hard drives:
1)Personal use(with OS)
2)Audio Production and files(with OS)
3)Programs & Plug-ins(slave to #2)
The problem is my system only supports 2 IDE hard drives, as you can see in the specs at the above link. I realize I can use an IDE controller card, but I've heard that I can have issues with that. Also I'm not sure if it's best to have the third hard drive just resting on the bottom of the PC's case as there are only two slots for drives in my case.
So to sum up:
1)Do you recommend an IDE controller card?
2)Do I get a new motherboard?
3)Any other solutions?

Also, my current power supply is only 250 watts. I have 2 CD drives and 3 PCI cards installed, so with 3 total hard drives, should I get a more powerful power supply? If so, how powerful?

I'm going to be starting a new project next week, so I really need to do this fast. I appreciate your advice. Thanks in advance.
 
I'm not sure wether or not your PSU will be good enough. In light of that uncertainty, and the fact that you'll need to add something to this configuration to get it to work, I'd suggest the following:

Add an eSATA card to your system. If you have extra SATA ports on the motherboard, you can get something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813997002

That added, just get your hard drive and an eSATA enclosure and away you go. Performance is just as good as an internal drive, you can easily boot off of it, it won't strain your system's power supply at all.

If you don't have spare SATA ports, you'll need a dedicated eSATA card. These are a trifle more expensive; but not much more so that IDE controller cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816132007

Note, all links are merely to representative products. They may not be the best deals or the best hardware; but they show the class of object you want. Others may have specific recommendations on that score.

Good luck.
 
Originally posted by: shaaregeulah
I use the system for Pro Audio production and, unfortunately, I've been using it for personal home use as well. I've decided to get two additional hard drives and install a seperate operating system on one of them, dump all the audio files to that drive as well and have all the programs and plug-ins on the other hard drive. This way, I can use the same system for personal use and production without conflicts.
Click to expand...

It depends what you mean by conflict!

Under normal circumstances, one OS can see the other and write into its hard drive by mistake. Viruses on one can disrupt the other.
So, what kind of conflict are you trying to get away from?
Depending on that, you may have different options.
 
Originally posted by: Trinitron
Yes get a better PSU with a greater output.
Click to expand...


I had that same computer, except I had 1gb ram and 2 hds. I was also using a BFG 6800oc and had it overclocked further with 2 extra case fans. I never had any problems with the 250w psu. Dell underrates their psus by a fair margin. I think he'd be alright with what he's got.
 
The e-SATA suggestion sounds very intriging (Sp?) to me. Here's a 2 e-SATA external 4 SATA internal version of the card for $25 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816132006 If you can get a powered enclosure with 1 or 2 standard SATA drives that could give you external drives at full speed.

After checking for e-SATA external drives a little, this look expensive ($300 for 300 Gb) for the moment. I know I'll be looking for the prices to come down some to have hot pluggable backup harddrives at full speed.


Jim
 
Originally posted by: xgsound
The e-SATA suggestion sounds very intriging (Sp?) to me. Here's a 2 e-SATA external 4 SATA internal version of the card for $25 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816132006 If you can get a powered enclosure with 1 or 2 standard SATA drives that could give you external drives at full speed.

After checking for e-SATA external drives a little, this look expensive ($300 for 300 Gb) for the moment. I know I'll be looking for the prices to come down some to have hot pluggable backup harddrives at full speed.


Jim
Click to expand...

For external SATA drives, you are much better off buying the enclosure and the drive individually. SATA enclosures run 20-50 dollars, which makes them more expensive than internal; but basically the same as USB or firewire(sometimes the SATA enclosure will also have USB or firewire for legacy compatibility). SATA drives to suit the enclosures cost, per gigabyte, basically the same as PATA drives.

Normally I would prefer internal drives; but with the size of OP's case, that isn't really a very good option. eSATA is the next best thing, in terms of speed, spindown, bootability, etc.
 
Well, I just realized I have 2 disc drives, one DVDRW and one Cd-Rom and I don't need both so I'm gonna get rid of the CD-rom and just run the third hard drive off that IDE. DUH!!! Can't believe I didnt think of that sooner. But thanks to all for the advice! I think I'll go with lxskllr's advice and stick to my PSU for now and give it a try, since he had the same computer. But here's the plan for the new set-up, tell me what you think. The whole point of this is both to seperate personal use and Pro Audio use hard drives(and have the personal use drive not recognize the other drives for virus protection, as well as disable the network connections on the Pro Audio use OS) and to have the Pro Audio OS, programs and wave files all on different drives so that one drive isn't overloaded.
This is the set-up:

IDE 1-
Hard Drive 1:
Partition 1- Personal use OS and files.
Partition 2- Pro Audio OS

IDE 2-
Hard Drive 2:
Pro Audio Programs & Plug-ins

Hard Drive 3:
Audio Data(wave)
 
Buy an internal SATA HD and get an external HD enclosure for eSATA like the Vantec NexStar 3 for $40.00.
 
I just wanted to find out if you could use a single hard drive and partition it and use it for the OS. One OS on each partition and hide one while you boot to the other. That way, you get complete isolation between the OS drives. You never need to access both at the same time. So, it seems like a waste to put each on a separate hard drive considering that you have a limited number of connectors on your motherboard. Remember that even though you can have a total of 4 drives, you still only have 2 connectors. Two drives that are on the same cable share the same connector and this could bottleneck speed.


How are you going to make the personal OS not recognize the other drives as you put it?
 
I AM going to put both OS's on the same drive and partition it like I mentioned(see above.) And as far as having the personal OS not recognize the other drives, thats done through the Device manager.
 
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