KVR Audio

jeffn1 · Post by **jeffn1** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 2:53 pm

I have a Dell 8300 with with Pentium 4 3.0 gh, and 3 mg ram with two internal IDE hard drives. It is pretty solid, though, of course, I have to bounce down and do submixes, as you would expect.

I want to add an external drive to accomodate EWQL Gold Bundle and some other libraries. I currently only have USB 1 ports. I think I have some PCI slots available.

So, I was thinking of purchasing either a Firewire Card or a USB 2 card to attach to one of my open PCI slots and purchase either a USB 2 drive or a Firewire drive (maybe 500 or possibly 750 gbs)

Can anyone give me advice on:

(1) whether to go the Firewire or USB 2 route?

(2) Any suggestions on particular cards?

(3) Any suggestions on particular USB/Firewire drives?

Of course, any thoughts on "what to avoid" or any other insights are always appreciated.

As always, thanks in advance.

jeffn1

UltraJv · Post by **UltraJv** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 3:28 pm

Dosnt the Dell have SATA internally? It would be better to use that.

jeffn1 · Post by **jeffn1** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 3:52 pm

UltraJv wrote:Dosnt the Dell have SATA internally? It would be better to use that.

No SATA I think, just IDE (PATA?), but the IDE ports are all filled up 2 hard drives a CD drive and a DVD drive.

The IDE drives seem two work ok (I know some people have had problems with SATA drives.

jeffn1

UltraJv · Post by **UltraJv** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 3:58 pm

A quick Google suggests it does have SATA connections. If your model does, its better than IDE.

jeffn1 · Post by **jeffn1** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:02 pm

UltraJv wrote:A quick Google suggests it does have SATA connections. If your model does, its better than IDE.

But, (forgive me if I am wrong--'cause i definitely appreciate your help), even if they are SATA, they are all used up by my two internal hard drives, my dvd drive and my CD drive burner (I sort of like having the separate dvd and cd drive to duplicate CDs.)

jeffn1

adydub · Post by **adydub** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:10 pm

I've never found any significant difference between USB2 and Firewire. FW is arguably a technically superior spec that should put less load on the CPU, but in reality it doesn't seem to make any difference.

There's a lot more USB2 compliant peripherals, so that may be something to consider if you ever plan to use something like a wifi adaptor. Conversely, there's a better choice of audio interfaces for firewire, so that could sway you.

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:13 pm

Or you could just get a SATA PCI card and mount the HD internally. That'll save you some money and space.

jeffn1 · Post by **jeffn1** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:23 pm

jupiter8 wrote:Or you could just get a SATA PCI card and mount the HD internally. That'll save you some money and space.

So that would convert the PCI slot to a SATA port?

But, is there an issue about how the hard drive would be installed in the case? (Sorry if these are stupid questions).

jeffn1

Dominus · Post by **Dominus** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:29 pm

Even without looking up that model I'm just about willing to put money on it not having room inside for more than two hard drives.

jeffn1 · Post by **jeffn1** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 10:28 pm

Dominus wrote:Even without looking up that model I'm just about willing to put money on it not having room inside for more than two hard drives.

Ok, so its looks like I am back to my options of firewire or USB 2.

I am pretty sure I have some open PCI slots in the backs of my computer, because I think it comes with 4 open ones and I think I used one with my Echo Mia card.

Any other thoughts?

This is what Belarc says about my computers and bus adapters:

Controllers Display
Standard floppy disk controller
Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers
Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller] NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 [Display adapter]
DELL E773c [Monitor] (15.7"vis, s/n 6418039G3D1X, September 2003)
Bus Adapters Multimedia
Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D2
Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D4
Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24D7
Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24DE
Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:27 pm

I'd seriously consider holding off until I could afford a new box, rather than spending money here and there to paper over the cracks. It's gotta be getting seriously past it, surely? My last two PC's have had SATA and a Core2Duo system is unbelievably cheap for what you get. You could spend a couple of hundred on this stuff now and get some extra performance or $800 or so on a whole new box with several times the grunt of your current one.

jeffn1 · Post by **jeffn1** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:43 pm

BONES wrote:I'd seriously consider holding off until I could afford a new box, rather than spending money here and there to paper over the cracks. It's gotta be getting seriously past it, surely? My last two PC's have had SATA and a Core2Duo system is unbelievably cheap for what you get. You could spend a couple of hundred on this stuff now and get some extra performance or $800 or so on a whole new box with several times the grunt of your current one.

Well, I understand you, but it depends how you look at it. If I get the new drive (the card itself is pretty cheap, I understand), I can pretty comfortably wait another 2 years or so. So, by waiting, I will likely be able to get a far more powerful computer for far cheaper (with many multiple cores and basically unlimited ram, etc). That should allow me to do everything I would ever need to do with one computer (I know, don't count on it).

Anyway, I looked in the computer case and I have two open PCI slots right next to each other.

It also looks like I have enough space for a 3rd hard drive (but not enough controller ports).

So, if I get a PCI/SATA adapter, should the cable allow me to reach over to where the hard drive is?

Thanks for everyone's help with this.

jeffn1

Dewaine · Post by **Dewaine** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:44 pm

I have a Firewire card in one of my PCI slots, and running two Firewire external drives from it. Been working two plus years without problems. One is for audio, and the other for various backups.

What Bones said is true, but if you don't want to spend the 800+ bucks and want to keep your current system, then a fireware card and 250 gig drive are pretty cheap right now. I have a refurb 250 gig I got as a refurb from LaCie for $95. I'm sure you can find them even cheaper now....

jeffn1 · Post by **jeffn1** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 12:21 am

Dewaine wrote:I have a Firewire card in one of my PCI slots, and running two Firewire external drives from it. Been working two plus years without problems. One is for audio, and the other for various backups.

What Bones said is true, but if you don't want to spend the 800+ bucks and want to keep your current system, then a fireware card and 250 gig drive are pretty cheap right now. I have a refurb 250 gig I got as a refurb from LaCie for $95. I'm sure you can find them even cheaper now....

Do you stream samples from the firewire drive?

Is it pretty much as toss up between a firewire drive and a USB 2 drive? (can PCI adapters be purchased for either USB 2 or Firewire at about the same price?).

Also, what about eSATA? Could I get a PCI/eSata adapter and then use an external SATA drive? (I have open internal SATA ports but I can not use them because my OS drive would have to be SATA, which it isn't).

jeffn1

jeffn1 · Post by **jeffn1** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 12:57 pm

Bump on the option of getting an PCI/eSATA adapter and attaching that to an external SATA drive.

jeffn1

External Usb or Firewire Card/Hard Drive Question