ATA 66/100 controllers

[Kaladon]

Im in the process of building my own computer, and all im down to is the harddrive, and controller card. Excuse me for being an idiot, but im assuming you have to buy a controller card (66/100) when getting your harddrive. Or is the controller card only if you want to buy a harddrive that takes advantage of ata 66/100?

Ok scenerio... i buy a maxtor HD and plug it into the mainboard via the cable.... will the transfer rate be determined by the board directly, or what? because when im looking at the kt7- raid board it says ultra ata 100 primary and secondary sockets, does that mean its automaticlly set up for ata 100? or that it still needs a ata 100 controller plugged into it?

thank you to anyone responding to my question, and im really sorry for my lack of knowledge on the controllers.

 

[Guest]

First you need to check and see if your motherboard IDE controlers support ATA/66. If it does, then great, no card needed. Even if it only supports the ATA/33 transfer, then you are still in good shape. The ATA/66 HD and Cable will work fine on a ATA/33 controler/ Don't let the hype make you dizzy, an ATA/33 controler plus a nice Hard Drive will work great. No need for a PCI controler card.

 

[LTJLover]

With modern motherboards, there really isn't a need for a controller card because the IDE controller is part of the chipset. For instance, the KT7 RAID is an awesome board and comes with the standard ATA66 primary and secondary IDE ports as well as ATA100 primary and secondary RAID ports. This is nice cause you can hook up to 8 drives straight to the board. If your hard drive is ATA66 and your motherboard supports ATA66, then you can run the ATA66 mode. If the motherboard supports ATA100, and the drive is only ATA66 you can only run ATA66 mode.

Jon
"Water-Cooled CPU Runner"

 

[Kaladon]

thanks guys, im glad i found this site. Lots of helpful people willing to lend a hand... Thanks again...