What HD is good for this situation?

[plaidfro]

I need to get a new HD for my father-in-laws older computer. It will run win98. IDE connection. I don't fully understand the difference between Ultra ATA 100 vs. Ultra ATA 133, and 2MB vs. 8MB cache.

Here are the 3 drives I think can work from newegg:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST340014A 40GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 =$54
Western Digital Caviar WD400BB 40GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 =$51
SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series SP0411N 40GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 =$48

Also I just put in 512MB "Old" RAM and changed his jumper to 133Mhz, if it matters.

What is your opinion? Thanks in advance.

 

[Bozono]

I wouldn't sweat ATA100 vs. ATA133. No difference. 2mb or 8mb?...I'd go for 8mb unless it's more than $10 more than the 2mb.

What are the mobo and CPU specs of the PC because there are more than likely going to be BIOS limitations that prevent a drive either larger than 8Gb or 30some Gb from being installed without having to do some modifications?

 

[plaidfro]

I haven't been able to find out what type of MoBo it has... seriously. As for the CPU I am pretty sure its around a Pentium 650Mhz

If I could find out what type of Mobo it is... I would definately need to update the Bios

 

[Bozono]

Originally posted by: plaidfro
I haven't been able to find out what type of MoBo it has... seriously. As for the CPU I am pretty sure its around a Pentium 650Mhz

Any should work(might need a BIOS update). I'd go for the Samsung.

If you install WinXP any size should work without any BIOS update. My P2, which doesn't accept hard drives larger than 8GB. installs on and recognizes the full capacity of an 80 GB drive. I guess it has built in Drive Overlay or something.

 

[DaveSimmons]

> 850 mhz

It's probably fine then, for drives up to 60 or 80 GB (I forget which Win98 has for a fdisk/format size limit).

If I'm wrong and you don't want to mess with a BIOS update, the hard drive should have a jumper setting on it to make it act as a 32 GB drive, which definitely will work (but you lose 8 GB).

 

[plaidfro]

Is there a function in Win 98 where I could identify the MoBo? I haven't seen a brand or model listed on the actual board

 

[Bozono]

cpu-z

 

[plaidfro]

CPU-z sweet program.

Its a P3 Coppermine 650 Mhz.

MoBo has no manufacturing name but model 694x-686A. Last Bios update was 9/6/00

Should I still go with teh samsung

 

[sniperruff]

grab any seagate on sale from the hotdeals forum/fatwallet. 5 year warranty.