New harddrive (3TB) on old mainboard

[Medic-one]

I started having problems with my seagate 1.5 TB harddrive. It started clicking loud, spinning took longer, and every now and then it would just dissapear (quiting the games installed on it, i was playing at the time). And now it doesn’t work at all any more, i can hear it spin but it won’t show up on my desktop, only in the bios.

I looked up the model number (Seagate ST31500341as) and apperently louds of people have problems with that same drive. I looked if i could update the firmware but already have the latest version, so basically i’m looking at replacing that drive now.

At the moment i have this Asus P5b mainboard (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_775/P5B/#overview ) with a Quadcore intel 2.4 ghz, with 6 GB ram, and these drives :

- Sata 320 GB, split in 2 partitions, one running my win 7 OS.
- Sata 500 GB
- Sata 1.5 TB, which is the broken one i want to replace.

I want to replace that 1.5 TB one with a 3 TB one, and then install my OS on a partition on that drive, as the new harddrive will be faster then that 320 GB one.

However i’m now reading things about my mainboard not being able to recognise the full 3 TB, and also not being able to use it as a boot disk, only as a data disk ?

I am gonna get a new mainboard/cpu bundle at xmas, which is this one : “Intel i5 3570k @ 4.4GHz - Asus P8Z77-V LX - 16GB Corsair DDR3 Overclocked Gaming Bundle” so i will have a new mainboard in a 2 months.

Could i just install that new 3 TB drive, split it into partitions, use the data partition i want for data, and save the partition i want for my OS untill i get my new mainboard, and then install win 7 on it, or is there some trick i can do on my current mainboard so i can install an OS on it now and use it as a boot disk.

Also, if i want to do that (use 1 partition now, and keep the other one unused untill i get my new mainboard, and then install my OS on it), do i need to partition the disk as mrb or gtp ?

The seagate i'm replacing has got "7200rpm 32MB Cache" and the one i'm looking at WD Caviar Green has got "5900 64MB Cache", is there gonna be a lot of difference in speed, what's more important, the cache or the rpm ?

 

[Medic-one]

Cheers people.

Unfortunately i can't remember when i bought that 1.5 TB disk, or even in what country (moved a few times) so can't claim any warrenty.

I've just been reading up a bit on those SSD's, as to be honest i hadn't heard from them, and i see that they are much faster/quieter then normal HD's, but also more expensive if you compare what size HD drive you could get for the same money.
And apperently it's important to have a drive that can/has TRIM ?

So if i want one of those SSD for my OS (win 7 64bit), how big a drive should i get ?

On my current win 7 partition (on my 320GB drive) i'm currently using up 80 GB for vista and the program files for installed apps.

And would one of those SSD's work with my current mainboard, or shall i wait till i get my new one ?

And do most people here use an SSD just for their OS, or will games run faster of it as well ? Thing is i've currently got over 1 TB of just games, so guess i could only put a few on the SSD if i got one.

 

[Medic-one]

I'm not sure why I wrote vista as I've been using win 7 x64 for years now.

I shall get a ssd for my win7, and a separate hd for my games, and I'll look for one with high rmp then.

think I'll push the boat out and go for this Hitachi 4TB Deskstar 7K4000, for my games and music.

just trying to find if it'll be compatible with my current mainboard, which is sata2 and this hd is sata3.
I'm not fussed I can't use it for boot as I'll get an ssd for that, but would like to be able to use all 4tb straight away.

 

[Medic-one]

but that's 2 TB whilst the Hitachi is 4.

plus I've gone off seagate's after the issue's with mine and the complaints online.

 

[Medic-one]

but that's 2 TB whilst the Hitachi is 4.

plus I've gone off seagate's after the issue's with mine and the complaints online.

 

[Medic-one]

I was gonna split the 4 Tb one into two partitions anyway probably.

just read that article but its about a year old. I just didn't fancy another seagate.

 

[Medic-one]

cool

just noticed this deal so might be worth considering

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18453999

Not 3TB but pretty good value as you'd be paying £50 extra just for 1TB more storage. Ticks the boxes

I might be brave and go for seagate again.

Instead of paying £ 205, for 4 TB, i can just buy two of these, which also is 4 TB, but for £ 132,

And then i'll just get a SSD for my OS, and all should be good.

 

[Medic-one]

Ok, that is what i will do then. Get two of those seagate 2TB's, and an SSD for my OS.

Next problem/question. My current mainboard (P5b) states it has :


Southbridge
- 4 x SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports
JMicron® JMB363 PATA and SATA controller
- 1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 for up to 2 PATA devices
- 1 x Internal SATA 3.0 Gb/s port
- 1 x External SATA 3.0 Gb/s port (SATA On-the-Go)
- Support SATA RAID 0, 1 and JBOD (by 1x External SATA & 1x Internal SATA)


At present i have this plugged into the 4 Sata ports numbered 1 to 4 :

Sata1: 320 GB HD
Sata2 500 GB HD
Sata3 1.5 TB HD (the broken one)
Sata4 Dvd writer

And then i have 1 slow old 160 GB in my IDE port.

The IDE one is going, and ovbiously the broken 1.5 TB as well.

But in my new set up i will have this :

- SSD sata
- 320 GB sata
- 500 GB sata
- new 2 TB sata
- new 2 TB sata
- dvd writer sata

Close to my sata 1 to sata 4 ports, i have a single sata port labeled "SATA_RAID".

Now i don't want to set up anything in raid as i know nothing about it, but can i just attach one of the sata deviced to that port ?

I assume i can't use the port on the back (I/O) area, so i was hoping i could just attach the 5 sata drives to those ports (sata 1 to sata 4, and that sata_raid one), and then when i get my new mainboard (which has 6 sata ports) i can reattached my dvd writer (i barely use) up again.

 

[Medic-one]

excellent, cheers for that matey.

 

[Medic-one]

Think i'm going for the Crucial M4 SSD, the 256 GB sata3 version.

Though on here (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-010-CR&groupid=1657&catid=2101&subcat=2393) it states :

- Sequential Read (up to): 550MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s)
- Sequential Write (up to): 300MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s)

But found the same SSD a bit cheaper on ebay NO competitor links and that mentions write speeds of up to 260MB/sec.

They are the exact same SSD aren't they, or am i missing something ?