Solved New internal hard drive compatibility

vvs

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Member
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Location
India
Hi..I want to buy a new internal hard drive. The PC is quite old and custom made. The details of the motherboard and the current hard drive as per "Speccy" is given below. Kindly inform if there are any technicalities that need to be taken care of while buying the new drive to ensure compatibility. Thank you.

Motherboard
Intel Corporation DG31PR (J3E1)
Hard Drives
149GB Seagate ST3160215AS ATA Device (SATA)
Form Factor 3.5"
Heads 16
Cylinders 16383
SATA type SATA-II 3.0Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA/ATAPI-7
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Features S.M.A.R.T., NCQ
Transfer Mode SATA II
Interface SATA
Capacity 149GB
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 64-bit
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Assembled desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 @ 2.40GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel Corporation DG31PR
    Memory
    3.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz (5-5-5-15)
    Graphics Card(s)
    DELL IN2020M (1600x900@60Hz) Intel G33/G31 Express Chipset Family (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM 1
    Hard Drives
    149GB Seagate ST3160215AS ATA Device (SATA)
Hi vvs,

there are some things to check out before buying a new internal HDD.

1. Decide of you want to buy a SSD or HDD drive. A SSD is fast and expensive and very good as an OS drive. A HDD drive is cheap with lots of digital space and perfect for storing files (like movies).
2. Decide the size of the HDD you will need. A common SSD file size is mostly 120 - 256 GB. A common HDD file size is 2 TB (2000 GB).
3. Since you have an older motherboard you should check if you have the latest BIOS drivers. You will need them to connect large HDD's (2 TB up).
4. Decide your budget and buy a new HDD. If you stick to the 'big names' you are always ok. A good SSD is the "Samsung 830/840 series" and the "Crucial M4". Good HDD's are the ones from "Western Digital" and "Seagate".


Good luck with it!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64 Media Center Edition
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom Made
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 750
    Memory
    6 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD HD 7750
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Iiyama ProLite B2481HS-B1
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1x 120 GB SSD Samsung 830;
    1x 1.5 TB HDD Seagate;
    1x 2 TB HDD Western Digital;
    1x 3 TB HDD Seagate
    1x 80 GB SSD Vertex 2
    PSU
    Corsair CX 600
    Case
    Corsair Carbide 300R with Side Window
    Cooling
    Intel RTS2011 LC
    Keyboard
    DasKeyboard (blue switches)
    Mouse
    Wacom Baboo Tablet Pen & Touch
    Internet Speed
    50 Mbit FullDuplex Fiberglass
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    I also own the following Microsoft devices:
    * Surface Pro 2 128 GB
    * Windows Phone HTC 8X
Depending your budget, you have a few options. Personally if you can swing it, I'd go for an SSD, nothing less than a 256 GB. That would put a lot of zip and pep into you old system. The second thing I would add would be some faster RAM, being DDR2 it's going to cost more than DDR3.

After looking at your specs you might want to consider doing a complete rebuild since that system is getting quite old. IMO, I think a complete rebuild would be better than upgrading a few internal hardware.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom build
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X 4 965 BE
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4
    Memory
    G-Skill 8 GB PC 8500
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD XFX HD Radeon 6790D
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2l Samsung SyncMaster S20B300
    Screen Resolution
    1600 X 900
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Barracuda 320 GB w/OS
    Seagate Barracuda 1 TB data storage
    PSU
    Ultra X4 750 watt fully modular
    Case
    Thermaltake OverSeer RX 1 fulltower
    Cooling
    Cooler Master Hyper212 120mm
    Keyboard
    Logitech G510
    Mouse
    Razor DeathAdder 3.5
Thank you Der Snoober and bassfisher6522 for your valuable comments. As the system is quite old as I mentioned, I would just like to keep it running somehow rather than make it super efficient. So I think a HDD of about 1 TB would suffice. I actually wanted to know if there are some specifications that need to be ensured while buying the HDD to make it compatible with my old motherboard. Thanks.

 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 64-bit
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Assembled desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 @ 2.40GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel Corporation DG31PR
    Memory
    3.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz (5-5-5-15)
    Graphics Card(s)
    DELL IN2020M (1600x900@60Hz) Intel G33/G31 Express Chipset Family (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM 1
    Hard Drives
    149GB Seagate ST3160215AS ATA Device (SATA)
Just make sure what type of connection you HDD makes to your mobo, that you get the same type...IDE, PATA or SATA. Also check to see if the HDD controller can accept a HDD of that size. Some older mobo's have limits to the size of HDD's you can install.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom build
    CPU
    AMD Phenom II X 4 965 BE
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4
    Memory
    G-Skill 8 GB PC 8500
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD XFX HD Radeon 6790D
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2l Samsung SyncMaster S20B300
    Screen Resolution
    1600 X 900
    Hard Drives
    Seagate Barracuda 320 GB w/OS
    Seagate Barracuda 1 TB data storage
    PSU
    Ultra X4 750 watt fully modular
    Case
    Thermaltake OverSeer RX 1 fulltower
    Cooling
    Cooler Master Hyper212 120mm
    Keyboard
    Logitech G510
    Mouse
    Razor DeathAdder 3.5
From your first post:
SATA type SATA-II 3.0Gb/s
Just make sure you get a 'SATA II' hard drive, an IDE hard drive has a different connector and won't work.
Those are the two choices you will find. IDE are getting hard to find these days, but they are still available.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro x64/ Windows 7 Ult x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    76~2.0
    CPU
    Intel Core i5-3570K 4.6GHz
    Motherboard
    GIGABYTE GA-Z77X UD3H f18
    Memory
    8GB (2X4GB) DDR3 1600 CORSAIR Vengeance CL8 1.5v
    Graphics Card(s)
    Sapphire HD 7770 Vapor-X 1GB DDR5
    Sound Card
    Onboard VIA VT2021
    Monitor(s) Displays
    22" LCD Dell SP2208WFP
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    Samaung 840Pro 128GB, Seagate 500GB SATA2 7200rpm 32mb, Seagate 1TB SATA2 7200rpm 32mb,
    PSU
    Corsair HX650W
    Case
    Cooler Master Storm Scout
    Cooling
    Corsair H80 w/Noctua NF P12 12cm fan, case fans 2X14cm
    Keyboard
    Logitech Wave
    Mouse
    CM Sentinel
    Internet Speed
    Abysmal
    Browser
    Opera Next
    Other Info
    Dell Venue 8Pro: Baytrail Z3740D, 2GB Ram, 64GB HDD, 8" IPS Display 1280 x 800, Active Stylus.
    Haswell laptop: HP Envy 17t-j, i7-4700MQ, GeForce 740M 2GB DDR3, 17.3" Full HD 1920x1080, 16GB RAM, Samsung 840 Pro 128GB, 1TB Hitachi 7200 HDD,
    Desktop: eSATA ports,
    External eSATA Seagate 500GB SATA2 7200rpm,
Thank you Dave76 and bassfisher6522.:thumbsup:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 64-bit
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Assembled desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 @ 2.40GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel Corporation DG31PR
    Memory
    3.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz (5-5-5-15)
    Graphics Card(s)
    DELL IN2020M (1600x900@60Hz) Intel G33/G31 Express Chipset Family (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM 1
    Hard Drives
    149GB Seagate ST3160215AS ATA Device (SATA)
From your first post:
SATA type SATA-II 3.0Gb/s
Just make sure you get a 'SATA II' hard drive, an IDE hard drive has a different connector and won't work.
Those are the two choices you will find. IDE are getting hard to find these days, but they are still available.

Hi there
you can get IDE===>SATA adapters so you can use an IDE connector for your SATA drive. (Or the other way around SATA===>IDE).

The issue you'll probably come up against with your older Mobo and PSU is that all (or most of) the power connectors will be the 4 pin type which is different from the SATA power connector.

Here again cheap adapters come to the rescue -- shown below in screen shot.

Finally on these older Mobos you don't really want to try using 3TB and larger disks -- it can be a dog to get these to work.

What I've done is to group several 500 GB HDD's together and set them up as 2 TB "Spanned drives". -- This works fine for my file server -- the system simply treats the 4 physical drives as ONE big disk drive - so you don't need any fiddling around in the BIOS -- the OS takes care of the "Spanning" and 500GB drives are a doddle for even quite old computers to handle.

Here's a screen shot of spanning on another computer -- two physical drives that Windows treats as a Single entity -- great for large multi-media libraries so you aren't limited to the size of one volume --most of the music type of libraries tend to restrict you to a single volume. - Back up regularly though as the DISADVANTAGE of spanning is that if one volume fails then the whole group fails -- but IMO HDD's are fairly robust and very rarely fail on computers that are left on continuous running most of the time


Nothing wrong in keeping an older computer running if it's cost effective to do so -- I'm using a really old machine where I've added a load of HDD's as a file / printer / multi-media server. It doesn't need a huge amount of memory or even a particularly fast CPU -- it's just a bog standard FILE server. It doesn't even have a screen connected - and has been running for ages now -- the only time it gets booted up is when I've changed the hardware by swapping for larger capacity disks.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Centos 7, W8.1, W7, W2K3 Server W10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Monitor(s) Displays
    1 X LG 40 inch TV
    Hard Drives
    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
    2 X 3 TB sata
    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
Thanks Jimbo45 for the information on the adapters and how to add multiple HDD's together, though in my case just one 1TB HDD would be sufficient. :D
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 64-bit
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Assembled desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 @ 2.40GHz
    Motherboard
    Intel Corporation DG31PR
    Memory
    3.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz (5-5-5-15)
    Graphics Card(s)
    DELL IN2020M (1600x900@60Hz) Intel G33/G31 Express Chipset Family (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM 1
    Hard Drives
    149GB Seagate ST3160215AS ATA Device (SATA)
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