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Thinking of buying an PCI to ATA controller card...

T

TechnoPro

Golden Member
It was suggested to me that I buy one of these cards to overcome the 137 GB limitation on an older computer I want to upgrade.

My objective is to have 1 large hard drive in the system, which means the system has to boot from the HDD connected to the controller card. I'm pretty sure this is possible.

Before I invest in any of this, what do I need to check to see if my system can boot from that HDD? A setting in the BIOS, I assume? Anyone with experience, please chime in.

Also, any recomendations on brands/models are appreciated.
 
If you're not concerned about performance, go ahead and get one. You just have to install the drivers for the card before installing Windows by pressing F6 when it asks you to.
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7181
If you're not concerned about performance, go ahead and get one. You just have to install the drivers for the card before installing Windows by pressing F6 when it asks you to.
Click to expand...

From your experience, how much of a performance hit would I be looking at? The system in question is an HTPC for the most part, so performance isn't crucial. However, a system that crawled would not be good either.
 
I don't think you'd notice the difference with a HTPC. Even realtime recording of HDTV isn't enough to stress a 7200 RPM drive or the PCI bus.

I put a 250 GB Western Digital in my uncle's computer and used a PCI controller card. I didn't benchmark it, but it did seem noticeably slower when installing and booting Windows even compared to an old 40 GB Maxtor I have. Once in Windows though, I didn't see much difference except when loading MS Flight 2004.
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7181
I don't think you'd notice the difference with a HTPC. Even realtime recording of HDTV isn't enough to stress a 7200 RPM drive or the PCI bus.

I put a 250 GB Western Digital in my uncle's computer and used a PCI controller card. I didn't benchmark it, but it did seem noticeably slower when installing and booting Windows even compared to an old 40 GB Maxtor I have. Once in Windows though, I didn't see much difference except when loading MS Flight 2004.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the answer! Thank you.
 
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