Booting From IDE

[hrm2001]

Hi

I’m building a new system and I have a question about PATA IDE. I want to know if I am able to use my existing IDE Hard Drives to boot the operating system with the newer motherboards without using SATA at all? I can’t seem to find a definite answer, even downloaded the manuals but no clear answer. I plan to use Quad core Q6600 and I will not be over clocking. I don’t care about SLI. Although If I do get the MSI motherboard I might mess with SLI, but it’s not important for the purchase.

I am looking at the MSI P6N SLI Platinum because it has 2 IDE ports so I can use my 2 120 gb hard drives and 2 DVD drives.

My other choice is to go with P35 chipset and use the GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R but I will not be able to use my own hard drives I will have to get SATA drives because even if you can, it would be hard to put 1 hdd and 1 dvd on the single IDE cable. Not to mention I lose my other 2 drives.

So my next question is, if I am able to boot from IDE with the MSI board, and I do not OC, will I see a difference in performance between the 650i and the P35 chipsets?

Thanks….

 

[jitpublisher]

Well, I can answer a couple of your questions.
Yes, if there is an IDE controller you can use for your boot drive.
You can put a hard drive and a CD-ROM or DVD drive on the same IDE cable, no problem.
Keeping in mind that if you upgrade the motherboard, you need to forget about trying to use your current OS install, you need to format the drive and completely reinstall Windows from scratch anyway. You CAN most likely make your current Windows installation work, but it is tricky, a pain the a**, and will usually give you long boot times and a buggy overall OS.
The performance of the 2 chipsets in relation to your Harddrive......you won't see any difference at all. The actual limiting performance factor will be your drives themselves, not the controllers, if that is what you are asking.
IMHO, it's really time to break down and just get an SATA drive, you can buy them on sale pretty reasonable.

 

[hrm2001]

Thanks for the fast reply...

yes I had planed to redo the OS...

Yes I plan to get SATA in the near future, But I cannot afford all the components at once. I plan on the mother board, Q6600 and PSU first then with what I have I can start using it. Then slowly upgrade. I assumed the IDE drives would be slower then SATA.

Thanks again..

 

[jitpublisher]

The IDE drives will be slower than the new SATA drives.
If you need do a little at a time, you can use 1 of your current IDE drives to load the OS and your programs until you can get your new SATA drives. Then you can just download the free version of Acronis True Image, and mirror your IDE drive to the new SATA drive when you are ready.

 

[hrm2001]

This is what I plan to get:

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard – Retail -$129.99

OR

MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard – Retail -$149.99


COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case – Retail - $49.99

Antec True Power Trio TP3-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply with Three 12V Rails -$99.99

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562Q6600 – Retail - $319.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - $79.99

Will use my current 2GB of DDR2 – 667 mgz Memory

Do you think it might be better to go for the P35 MB and just wait till I have all components?

 

[jitpublisher]

If I were building new right now, I think I would get the P35.
I have never seen a review of the 650i, or even 680i where anyone said amazing things about them, just kind of like "okay" or "nice", nothing special or outstanding.
I have never owned one of the boards, so I am just going by what I have read here and there.