maa621
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Few questions about building a system ...
Hi, a friend of mine gave me an abit KT7 motherboard (no RAID) as a gift and I'm trying to put together a system for the first time but I have no idea what I'm doing here ...
The motherboard chipset is VIA Apollo KT133 (VT8363 and VT82C686A), and the manual says it supports Ultra DMA/66 IDE protocol. I'm wondering if I can use a ATA-100 hard drive if I buy a separate RAID card that supports ATA-100? The reason I'm thinking about buying a RAID card instead of a ATA-100 controller is because I'll buy another harddrive in the future (when I can afford it) and run RAID (if it's even possible with this motherboard?). Or is it not possible to run a single harddrive with a RAID card? Actually come to think of it, is it even possible to run a ATA-100 harddrive at all on this motherboard (eg. either using an ATA-100 controller card or RAID card)?
Also, I'm wondering what the difference is in RAM? I checked pricewatch.com and I see some really cheap 256 MB RAM ($29 or so? don't know the price off hand ...) My question is, are there any drawbacks for using cheap RAM instead of using, for example, Kingston value RAM (or is that bad too?). I heard that using cheap RAM might cause you to crash a lot so I thought I should check with you guys to make sure before I go and buy it.
Thanks for your help!
The motherboard chipset is VIA Apollo KT133 (VT8363 and VT82C686A), and the manual says it supports Ultra DMA/66 IDE protocol. I'm wondering if I can use a ATA-100 hard drive if I buy a separate RAID card that supports ATA-100? The reason I'm thinking about buying a RAID card instead of a ATA-100 controller is because I'll buy another harddrive in the future (when I can afford it) and run RAID (if it's even possible with this motherboard?). Or is it not possible to run a single harddrive with a RAID card? Actually come to think of it, is it even possible to run a ATA-100 harddrive at all on this motherboard (eg. either using an ATA-100 controller card or RAID card)?
Also, I'm wondering what the difference is in RAM? I checked pricewatch.com and I see some really cheap 256 MB RAM ($29 or so? don't know the price off hand ...) My question is, are there any drawbacks for using cheap RAM instead of using, for example, Kingston value RAM (or is that bad too?). I heard that using cheap RAM might cause you to crash a lot so I thought I should check with you guys to make sure before I go and buy it.
Thanks for your help!
I'm agree with jlauster's comment your can plug a ATA-100 hard disk to your the motherboard but only runs at ATA-66. For your information, ATA and DMA is the same. ATA-100 means that the transfer rate of your data from your hard disk to your RAM and other primary storage at 100MB per second. Some of the exmaples in the market are Seagate U5 Series and Seagate Baracudda ATA III, Quantum Fireball LD and AS Series; and etc. Baracudda ATA III and Fireball AS series is much more expensive because they're running at 7200rpm (revolution/rotation per minute). You can say that these series of hard disk is faster than the other two series physically.
For the RAM case, it's depends on someone's taste. For me, Kingston and Apacer RAM is better although they're quite expensive but they offers life time warranty, man! Instead like Hyundai, Samsung and other brand that you haven't hear before, they didn't offer life time warranty and can be considered as 'cheap' RAMs. If you but these type of RAMs, you just have to pray that it's just work when you slot them into your motherboard. If not, you have to go back to the shop and claim for exchange. Beside that, make sure you buy the correct type of RAMs for your motherboard and CPU such PC100 SDRAM, PC133 SDRAM, PC800 RDRAM, DDR RAM (266MHz) and etc.
For the RAM case, it's depends on someone's taste. For me, Kingston and Apacer RAM is better although they're quite expensive but they offers life time warranty, man! Instead like Hyundai, Samsung and other brand that you haven't hear before, they didn't offer life time warranty and can be considered as 'cheap' RAMs. If you but these type of RAMs, you just have to pray that it's just work when you slot them into your motherboard. If not, you have to go back to the shop and claim for exchange. Beside that, make sure you buy the correct type of RAMs for your motherboard and CPU such PC100 SDRAM, PC133 SDRAM, PC800 RDRAM, DDR RAM (266MHz) and etc.
The KT7 can't use new single bank 128Mb DIMMs that have the chips in a 4x16 configuration, get 8x or 16x DIMMs and you'll be fine.
Oh, that comment applies to 256Mb too, which may be two banks of 128Mb 4x16. 256Mb in a 4 bank config may only work on it's own, when another DIMM is present it's socket may lose control of 2 banks. Buy carefully.
As far as the RAID card goes, I am currently running a single 20 GB drive through a a Promise FastTrak 66. Every RAID card should do this or what would be the point of mirroring? I'm only running one drive because the other one failed. I have an Iwill card that does the same thing.
For RAM compatibilty, the best advice I can give is to check teh mother board manufacturer's web site, download the manual for your board and read it. The second best advice is to stick with good memory. Crucial Technologies (Micron) is an excellent choice.
Website:
http://www.abit-usa.com/english/index.htm
Good luck and have fun!
For RAM compatibilty, the best advice I can give is to check teh mother board manufacturer's web site, download the manual for your board and read it. The second best advice is to stick with good memory. Crucial Technologies (Micron) is an excellent choice.
Website:
http://www.abit-usa.com/english/index.htm
Good luck and have fun!
ooops, sorry, confused the KT7 for K7V, please ignore my comments.
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Thanks maa621 for "promoting" my comment to answer! If you should need any advice on other components, let me know.
I would alway recommend buying quality name brand memory, especially with the very low prices now available. I have used generic, but now buy only Crucial. I have yet to be shipped a bad stick, and their prices are very competitive. Lifetime warranty from a company that will probably be around if you ever need to exercise it.
http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?model=KT7&x=19&y=12