[camosilver311]

I had my current desktop custom built way back in december 2002. It's given me many years of good service, but now I have a couple of faulty capacitors according to a computer repair specialist, and now my comp won't load anything past the "windows is loading" screen, it just goes blank after that.

So, I'd rather just build a new one than sink money into this old one. But, my main concern is my hard drives. I have 4, a 120GB, 200GB, 250GB, and 750GB. The 2 smaller ones are on IDE ports, the 2 larger ones on SATA. All the motherboards I have seen now only have one IDE port, and that's needed for the cd/dvd drives, right? Therefore, all the hard drives need to be on SATA ports right? Or am I missing something here? I'd really like to just be able to transfer all my hard drives to the new computer to make everything easier on me. Any thoughts on this?

[Yamikotai]

You could get a PCI/PCIe IDE controller.

[kmote]

You could also get a SATA optical drive.

[camosilver311]

would there be any advantage/disadvantage between those 2 options?

[95BlackGA]

The PCI controller will be anywhere from $5-$30, and the new optical drive will be around $30. You can sell your old optical drive(s), and make some of that money back. You would then be able to have a better (probably, but not certain) optical drive, and use the hard drives without the use of an adapter, freeing up some space.

The IDE on the motherboard will support both CD/DVD and Hard drives.

[camosilver311]

thanks, i think i'll go with the IDE controller.

but, that brings me to another question... my current motherboard has 6 PCI slots, and i'm using 5 of them now... most of the new motherboards i have been looking at have like 2 or 3. i'll be using a video card, sound card, and the IDE card on the new computer at the very least, and it would be nice to have extra slots. any thoughts?

[95BlackGA]

Will you be using an old PCI video card, or a new PCI-E card? Would you be willing to upgrade your sound card to a PCI-E compatible?

Intel Based has 4 PCI slots, a PCI-E x1, and a PCI-E x16.
Newegg.com - MSI P6NG Neo-Digital LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7100 / nForce 630i HDMI ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

AMD Based has 3 PCI slots, 2 PCI-E x1, and a PCI-E x16 2.0.
Newegg.com - ASUS M4A78 PRO AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

[camosilver311]

i am not re-using my old vid and sound cards, upgrading those as well. i am looking at buying the following:

video card - GeForce 9400GT 1GB PCI EXpress 16X dual head, tv out

sound card - Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio

do these connect to the MB via SATA now? it's been a while since i've had to open my computer and upgrade or replace anything, so forgive me if this is a stupid question. also, i am not sure what the difference is between the regular PCI slots, and PCI-E x1 and PCI-E x16 slots you mentioned.

[95BlackGA]

PCI Express - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PCI Local Bus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They are the 'connections' you use to connect video cards, sound cards, and other things.

Newegg.com - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Express Interface Sound Card - Sound Cards (PCI-E x1)

Newegg.com - Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card - Sound Cards (PCI)

As for the video card, I would suggest an ATI 3850 or a 4670.

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100248L Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100255L Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

[raykwok]

this exact thing happened to me, I'm debating on just rebuilding mine though