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Noob questions about building a pc

  • 23-08-2002 8:23pm
    #1
    /|/)etal)-|ead
    Closed Accounts Posts: 90 ✭✭


    Hi, after getting some experience installing hard disks/ graphics cards etc. i'm going to try to build my first pc, PLZ can you brainy ppl answer these questions, sorry if they're dumb, ok?

    1. If there are two drives sharing an ide channel, say a fast hard disk and a crappy cd-rom, is the hard disks transfer speed limited to the cd-rom speed?

    2. I'll probably get the asus a7v333 motherboard and an athlon xp 2200, and will it be possible to replace the cpu with faster ones that come out as long as they stay at a 266 mhz fsb?

    3. I'll mainly be using it for games/video editing, is Win2k ok for this or should i stick with win98se? Do older games work in win2k?

    Thx VERY much :p


Comments

  • #2
    BKtje
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,059 ✭✭✭BKtje


    to answer your questions.

    1: No it doesnt make a difference. Always put your harddrive at the end of the cable however.

    2:I'm not the greatest when it comes to cpu questions but im pretty sure that your right. A 'brainy' person will answer that better im sure ;)

    3:I use w2k and all i do is play games and listen to mp3's. Its fine for any modernish games. Old ones i've tried havent always worked properly tho im not sure wether thats caused by w2k or the drivers that ig to for w2k.
    Win98se is no longer supported by MS so any new games will not have support for w98se. That doesnt mean they wont always work however.


  • #3
    Winters
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,761 ✭✭✭✭Winters


    2. I'll probably get the asus a7v333 motherboard and an athlon xp 2200, and will it be possible to replace the cpu with faster ones that come out as long as they stay at a 266 mhz fsb?

    The Motherboard cannot take any cpu. It can only take certain speeds that it can handle. You will need to visit the motherboard manufactors site for more info on what the board can handle.

    (Nice choice of board btw)

    3. Win2k is pritty good for games but it doesnt run ALL games. Its a LOT more stable then 98 .. and i like it :)


  • #4
    STaN
    Registered Users Posts: 2,127 ✭✭✭STaN


    Win XP will run most games but your hardware and drivers will determine whether or not some gaming features such as Voice Comms in Half-Life for example. Make your sound card is up to the task if thats something u may want to use. Other programs such as Roger Wilco have been known to just give up and not work in Win XP.

    Does any1 know which version of Direct X your ment to use with Win XP? I know that it comes in 2 version, win NT version (i think fopr NT4 & Win 2k, not sure about Win XP) and the win 9x version. I've always wondered which was used for Win XP.

    Also is it the same for drivers, do u use the Win NT or 9x drivers when it comes to installation?

    ============

    On a hardware note, i was always told that an ide cable only goes as fast as the slowest drive on the cable and that one of the great advantages of scsi was that you could have multiple drives of different speeds and have them all work optimaly.

    I wasnt aware that ide had over come this?

    Every PC ive seen had the dvd/cd drives on the secondary cable and the harddrives on the primary cable, so transfer is optimised for cd to hd transfers.


  • #5
    /|/)etal)-|ead
    Closed Accounts Posts: 90 ✭✭/|/)etal)-|ead


    thanks very much for the advice guys, heh some conflicting info there about the ide channel sharing ;) I searched the web for ages looking for some info on this, but every second site always says different lol.


  • #6
    longword
    Closed Accounts Posts: 741 ✭✭✭longword


    Originally posted by /|/)etal)-|ead
    thanks very much for the advice guys, heh some conflicting info there about the ide channel sharing ;) I searched the web for ages looking for some info on this, but every second site always says different lol.
    The real answer is "It Depends". However you can be certain that only one device on an IDE cable will be active at any given moment - if the CDROM drive is busy reading stuff, you can't access the hard disk at all. Common sense should tell you that this factor alone will sometimes slow down your hard disk, quite apart from any interface settings like UDMA/PIO modes. This is most of the reason why the serious IDE RAID boards all demand only one hard disk per interface.

    Damnit where's that SerialATA they promised us years ago...


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  • #7
    Gerry
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,457 ✭✭✭Gerry


    Yes longword is completely right here. If your cd drive isn't doing anything, the hard drive won't be affected speed - wise, but if you put in a cd, some cd drives hog the ide bus while they are recognising it, and this stops your hdd transferring at all. Very annoying. Also if your cd drive comes across a scratch, it can hog the ide bus also then while trying to read the bad sectors.


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