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[tigers_gonads]

The motherboard on this media centre takes IDE drives but the largest IDE drive I can get my hands on is a 160Gb which won't be nowhere big enough.
Sata drives go all the way upto 6Gb and I've seen adaptors which seen to convert IDE into Sata 

Can I purchase one of these adaptors and then plug a terabyte size hard drive into the board ?

[Gaffers]

You can but I would be concerned about the transfer rate of the IDE drive and your media.  The drive will be the choke point regardless of the converter.

Maybe better to use an IDE drive for the OS and use a USB 3 hard drive  of whatever size you need for the media?

[tigers_gonads]

Thanks for replying Guffer 

This is the mother board fitted 

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=130929.0    Post 20 

No Usb 3 port on it 

The space for the hard drive is only large enough for 1 drive too 

[Gaffers]

The spec says SATA on the interface?

[Kevin Wood]

An IDE to SATA converter (i.e. not via USB) shouldn't be too much of a bottle neck. The other option would be to pick up a SATA controller card that plugs into a PCI / PCIe slot on the motherboard, if you have a spare slot available.

If the motherboard doesn't support SATA it's likely quite old. Might be time to upgrade that too, perhaps? It'll probably mean upgrading CPU and memory while you're at it. Depends what demands you're placing on the machine, really.

[tigers_gonads]

The spec says SATA on the interface?

The socket on board is a 39 pin blue one 20 on the bottom / 19 on the top
The kit came with a lead marked ODD IDE Cable (blue plug / Black plug) 

[tigers_gonads]

An IDE to SATA converter (i.e. not via USB) shouldn't be too much of a bottle neck. The other option would be to pick up a SATA controller card that plugs into a PCI / PCIe slot on the motherboard, if you have a spare slot available.

If the motherboard doesn't support SATA it's likely quite old. Might be time to upgrade that too, perhaps? It'll probably mean upgrading CPU and memory while you're at it. Depends what demands you're placing on the machine, really.

Appreciate what your saying Kev and agree bud.

The media case was built up in 2006

Basically, i'm trying to build a media player with as little initial outlay as possible 
Not a lot of funds and lots to spend it on so i'm scavenging various old pc's and software discs which are scattered around the house and trying to make good 
Call it "gonads media player junkyard challenge" 

As said on the other post with TB, I know it isn't going to blow anybody's socks off or break any records but if I can get it working reasonably well so that it does a job then i'll rebuild it properly when fund allow 

[Kevin Wood]

Does the motherboard have a SATA connector? I.e. one of these:



If so, sounds like you just need a SATA cable to put it to use, as it sounds like it came with just the IDE cable, which is the 39 pin cable you refer to.

SATA drives also have a different power connector, so you might need an adaptor if the PSU doesn't already have SATA power connectors. None of this should cost more than a couple of quid. A photo of the internals of the machine would help at this point.

[omega2018]

you can pick up 400GB IDE ide drives second hand, some even claim to be new.

i agree 160GB is very small (having just installed a superb 8TB drive ) however 160 will give you about 40 recorded films (not HDTV)

it might be worth you getting a second hand desktop and stripping out the components.  then you could be sure they and the OS are all compatible with each other.

[TheBoy]

As I said at beginning, the supplied board is old and poor. Ideally a decent, modern mATX replacement.

I doubt the BIOS on that board could cope with >2Tb.  But just use SATA?

ODD = Optical Disk Drive, ie, DVD.  Not tried, but guess board would cope with SATA DVD.

[tigers_gonads]

As I said at beginning, the supplied board is old and poor. Ideally a decent, modern mATX replacement.

I doubt the BIOS on that board could cope with >2Tb.  But just use SATA?

ODD = Optical Disk Drive, ie, DVD.  Not tried, but guess board would cope with SATA DVD.

I'll go for a 1 Gb sata drive then and anything I want to keep permanently, i'll back up to a separate caddy.

I've got 5 old IDE dvd drives here so will pick out the best and try that first before shelling out more money 

Thanks lads 

[tigers_gonads]

Does the motherboard have a SATA connector? I.e. one of these:



If so, sounds like you just need a SATA cable to put it to use, as it sounds like it came with just the IDE cable, which is the 39 pin cable you refer to.

SATA drives also have a different power connector, so you might need an adaptor if the PSU doesn't already have SATA power connectors. None of this should cost more than a couple of quid. A photo of the internals of the machine would help at this point.

Just had another look Kev and the board looks like it does indeed have 4 black sata sockets 
Everything i've used in the past was IDE so i've never seen one before 

I can't see any sockets for power on the board.
I'll do a Google and get back on this.
Pickys to follow if needed

[Broomies Mate]

The power plugs will be coming from the PSU and not on the Mobo. 

[tigers_gonads]

The power plugs will be coming from the PSU and not on the Mobo. 

That's what I meant 
Honest 

[tigers_gonads]

Okay, found one I think ............
Small flattish black plug on the end of the power loom coming out of the power supply 

If i'm going for sata on both the optical and hard drive, i'll need some sort of adaptor for the end