Upgrading from Socket A to a 939Dual-Sata2 MB

[crockman]

I'm finally Upgrading from my Old XP-2400+ Socket A Motherboard to an ASRock 939Dual-Sata2 MB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081

The processor I've chosen to use on this ASRock is an AMD64 3700 1-Meg L2 Cache San Diego.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539

I've also chosen to use a Western Digital 36.7-GB, 10k RPM, 16M Buffer, Sata 150 Raptor Hard Drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136054

All 3 of the above products were delivered to my Home this morning.

FYI--The Reason I chose this particular ASRock MB is that I have an Nvidia 6800-Vanilla AGP Video Card that I still plan to use for the Time Being. I'll Upgrade to a PCI-Express Video Card at a later time (To save money).

Now for the Questions if you woulld please

Im not familiar at all with Sata Hardrives, in fact this Raptor Sata-150 is my very first Sata I've ever bought.

1. For now I will Not be running Raid, it will be just this 1 Raptor-150. Do I need to have Sata Drivers on a Floppy when just using this 1 Drive not in Raid (I've read No, but I'm Double-Checking) ?

2. Does it matter where I plug this Drive into the Motherboard ?. I've heard that plugging it into the Lone SataII Port on the MB gives the Best Performance.


Question (Problem) 2

I have a 1 Meg Stick (1 x 1024) of DDR-400 High Density Memory that I plan to use on this ASRock. Will this 939Dual-Sata2 Motherboard accept High density memory ? If Not, any suggestions for some Good Quality Dual-Channel memory would be welcome.

I plan to use this 1-Meg stick of memory for the time being until I can afford some Good Quality Dual-Channel memory.

Also FYI, 95% of the Time this PC will be used to Play Games, In Particularly I play alot of Star Wars Galaxies Online.

Any & All of your Comments will certainly be Welcome. I've put together about 4 PC's so I do know abit about building PC's, so if you want to be specific, please do.

Thanks

 

[SynthDude2001]

1) No. Either put the Raptor on one of the SATA(I) ports (with them set to non-RAID mode in the BIOS), or on the SATAII port (with it set to IDE mode in the BIOS), and you will not need drivers to access the hard drives for the purpose of installing Windows.

2) I haven't been able to verify this, but I think I remember reading that NCQ is only available on the SATAII port, so you might get a small performance boost there. If that turns out not to be true, well, plug it in to whichever port makes you happy.


About the High Density memory, that's a good question. I've never used 1GB sticks myself (I'm running 4x512) so I wouldn't know for sure. A quick search of the OCW Forums (generally more active than this forum about this motherboard) didn't reveal any information one way or the other. I know I've seen posts about some people using 1GB sticks, but I don't know if they were high density. (I assume that not all 1GB sticks are high density?)

If I had to guess, I'd say it's likely your RAM will work. I'd be rather surprised if it didn't at all.

 

[Ike0069]

I use 2 1 GB sticks of Corsair VS RAM without issues, but I think they are low density (not really sure either way though).

I know that's not much help, but at least you know some 1GB sticks work.

 

[crockman]

1) No. Either put the Raptor on one of the SATA(I) ports (with them set to non-RAID mode in the BIOS), or on the SATAII port (with it set to IDE mode in the BIOS), and you will not need drivers to access the hard drives for the purpose of installing Windows.

Thanks SynthDude2001.

I'll plug the raptor into 1 of the Sata I Ports with it set at Non-Raid in BIOS. Question, will it automatically be set to Non-Raid in BIOS from the factory ?

2) I haven't been able to verify this, but I think I remember reading that NCQ is only available on the SATAII port, so you might get a small performance boost there.

Thanks

I always thought NCQ would give a Performance Boost, but according to a Review of this New 16MB Buffer raptor, having NCQ turned on actually gives a performance decrease. The Review is from right here at AT

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2690&p=3

So I'll leave NCQ Turned off, thus actually making this Raptor installation rather straight forward & simple.

And Thanks SynthDude2001 & Ike0069 for commenting on the High Density memory. I'll just simply try the MB with this High Density memory, if it doesnt work I'll buy some new memory

Thank You