PCTech Forums

Posted: **Wed Feb 09, 2005 2:30 am**

Hey everyone. I was wondering, my system is getting a bit full and I wanted to know if my PSU is struggling or not.

PSU: 420 Watt Thermaltake PSU, Dual Fan, Dual Ball Bearing, Ultra Quiet

Here is my system:
AMD Athlon XP 3000+
Asrock K7V88 Motherboard
1024MB PC3200 Dual Channel RAM
Nvidia GeForce 6800GT 256MB DDR3 Video Card
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Soundcard
52X32X52 CD-RW
16X DVD-ROM
Western Digital 160GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache Hard Drive
Cool Drive 4 controlling all case fans and itself
2 x Case Lights
2 x Lighted IDE Cables with EL Wire

I wanted to add another Hard Drive, either a 300GB SATA with 16MB Cache or a 200GB Western Digital 8MB Cache, the 200GB is IDE, not SATA. Think my PSU is ok?? Thanks!

Posted: **Wed Feb 09, 2005 9:30 am**

Posted: **Wed Feb 09, 2005 4:55 pm**

Posted: **Wed Feb 09, 2005 4:56 pm**

Posted: **Wed Feb 09, 2005 5:10 pm**

Posted: **Wed Feb 09, 2005 7:22 pm**

Your correct that both IDE and SATA offer large drives but its the speed that makes SATA worth while.I just built my wife a new gaming machine with a 80gb maxtor sata and trust me, theres a big difference.During the OS installation, it took less than 5 seconds to format 80 gigs of space where it takes 5-10 minuites on IDE.I loaded doom3 on it last night and the loading time between sections is twice as fast.Now her machine can eat mine alive

Anyway, i jump on and off to much lately to be on msn, i'll try to catch up to you soon. :cool:

Posted: **Wed Feb 09, 2005 8:24 pm**

.....That does it, I am ordering the 300GB SATA with 16MB Cache!! lol. Ok so the newest technology for Hard Drives is obviously SATA as you just stated. So tell me, are they making CD-RW's or DVD-ROM's or anything that use a SATA connection, or a type of something like that, for faster data transfer?? Someday soon, I bet this year, IDE will be worthless. Maybe I should buy 2 SATA's and sell my 160GB Western Digital?? Would I get faster loading times at the beginning?? Well I don't think I would sell my WD 160GB, I just bought it lol. I am going to get the 300GB SATA with 16MB Cache though!