On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 15:37:50 +0000 (UTC), "K G Wood"
wrote:

Hi all.
I'm a total novice. Until now frustrated by unreliable and rapidly
out-of-date PCs and without the knowledge to cope
with disasters, I have decided to "build my own" using reputable
manufacturers with good back-up service; starting
small with potential to enlarge; building in a degree of future-proofing and
learning all about it on the way. I'm still
at the design stage and have (pretty well) decided on a mobo, an Intel
D875PBZ.

First problem:
The above mobo has 2 Serial ATA IDE interfaces with RAID 0 and RAID 1
support.
And also 2 Parallel ATA IDE interfaces with UDMA 33, ATA-66/100 support.

Am I thinking correctly here? (apologies if the vocab is inappropriate!):

A These 4 interfaces will altogether ultimately support up to 8 devices.
You can use 2 drives per cable on the PATA interfaces. SATA will only allow
1 per cable. Total: 6 drives.

B The SATA interfaces with increased bandwidth will be best as the primary
supporting the HDDs.
Normally that is the case. SATA would probably be the fastest.

C ATA interfaces require 80 conductor cable and devices using the Cable
Select position..
80 wire cable is required. You can still use jumpers, but make sure that
you have a drive at the end of the cable.

D SATA interfaces require the new thin flexible cable and also use Cable
Select..
SATA does require thinner cables. Haven't found them to be as flexible as
some of the older cables.

E It would in theory be possible to use the new flexible cable for all 4
interfaces and all 8 devices.
Not without adapters, which are not cheap.


F I can use one SATA interface solely for the OS and other software
progs, and the second SATA
for personal stuff. If so, would this involve changed settings in BIOS and
how?
Nothing different than any other multidrive setup.

L Purely theoretical this - could you in fact run RAID levels 0 + 1
simultaneously on three drives, using a single main HDD
for everything which is both striped and mirrored? Or would that then
automatically require four drives?

0+1 requires an even number of drives. If you get into the expensive
addon controllers, you can go raid 5, striped set with parity, which can
work with 3 drives, but normally is done with more.

Finally:
L Any reputable CD RW and DVD RW will work comfortably together each
sitting on the remaining two ADA interfaces.

All comments most gratefully received, particularly on anything obvious I
have overlooked.

I've already learnt lots from lurking. And for that too, many thanks.

Kevin



JT