Blast from the Past

I've also been working on my old handed-down-to-my-sister 2300 Dell Dimension Desktop. Well, it's hardly that anymore. Now, it's sporting these changes...

BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Athlon II x2 245 Regor 2.9GHz
2x2GB SDRAM-DDR3 1066MHz
ATI Radeon HD 4250 (integrated on mb)
& soon...
Newegg.com - SYBA SD-HUB20058 USB 3.0 4-port Hub (Can be Used Internally or Externally)
(Same price for 3.0 as 2.0, so why not? I'll add another PCI card to convert later on.)

PROBLEM:
The original HDD is still beasting along somehow! So are the original 2 DVD drives. But they've each got an IDE/PATA ribbon cable. The board only has 1 header for them. Would something like this Newegg.com - AMC 24" 3-Connector Teflon Coated IDE True ATA133/100 Flat Cable Model CATA100-243 - Cables work? I haven't been tech savvy for that long in my young life, and am unfamiliar with some older standards. Anyone know for sure? I'd like to at least get the HDD (of course) & 1 DVD drive working.

I need to have it in time for when I go home next weekend so I can finish the job. For some reason it's cheaper to ship to Pa than NJ. *shrug*

Thanks in advance. :)

Hi Denise, the 3 connector ribbon has one for the header and two for devices. I got confused when you said "Each has a ribbon cable..."
the ribbon will support 2 IDE devices per header, the outer one will be Master and the center one Slave. Should be jumpers on the HSS and DVD drive with a hard-to-see diagram of how to place them. some have a CS setting which will allow Master and Slave to be sellected by the cable. That is what ever is connnected to the end, Master, middle, Slave.
I've not used one for a HDD and a DVD drive, but I think it should work.

I asume the HD is IDE. Set the Jumper to Master. Set your best DVD drive (DVD R/W) to Slave. I would think your would already have one of these Flat IDE ribbons cables with 2 of your IDE attached ?

Yeah, it's strange. I know from when I've had my dad's 8400 Dimension open, (under the guide of a phone-tech back then) the ribbon cables were master-slave piggybacked as you described. But I don't remember if it was just the DVD drives or 2 DVD & 1 HDD. I don't even remember if he has 1 or 2 DVD drives come to think of it... These here, each device has it's own cable and they all have only 1 connector at their respective ends.

Anyway, I do understand that the ribbon I have linked to will support 2 devices and that the end one goes into the header. I just wanted to be certain this is IT, ya know. I got used to the separate cords in my rig for SATA & power.

I'm planning that when the HDD kicks it, I can move the 2nd DVD drive into it's place, as a modern HDD will connect via SATA III at least. Then again, it's 9 years old and going strong! I can't believe it, especially after all I've put that thing through when I was in high school!


Thanks so much! I'd rep but can't here. ^_^
Who knows, maybe it'll be fast enough to run 7? Then I wouldn't feel so sheepish posting about a half-ancient computer in the regular categories.

DocBrown said:

I asume the HD is IDE. Set the Jumper to Master. Set your best DVD drive (DVD R/W) to Slave. I would think your would already have one of these Flat IDE ribbons cables with 2 of your IDE attached ?

(Lol, I see the title is what enticed you to take a look very cool)

Yeah, IDE. I don't have one yet. I'm going to order the one I linked to.

Come to think of it, if I get 2, could I then piggyback both the DVD drives to the slave connector? If you could picture what I mean...

I'm confused, How did you have 3 IDE devices, on single cables, when old MB's only had 2 IDE headers. Max of 2 ide devices per header. Or was there a PCI add on card for IDE connections?

No, there wasn't a PCI add on. That would've been awesome to just move over. I don't know how they did it. I'll have to wait til I'm back in NJ again & open it back up. I'll let you know how it turns out.

How many available regular PCI slots on new MB ?


3 SATA Serial ATA+IDE Port PCI I/O PC Card Adapter VIA | eBay

DocBrown said:

How many available regular PCI slots on new MB ?


3 SATA Serial ATA+IDE Port PCI I/O PC Card Adapter VIA | eBay

Something like that would be a good way to go. :)

Something to keep in mind is that when there are two IDE devices on the same channel the faster device will drop down to the speed of the slower one. With a HD/DVD combo you could see a performance hit in the HD performance, not to mention that burning anything to the DVD from the HD would keep that poor little PATA IDE channel pretty busy.

For that matter, I would consider foregoing the add-in card and buying an SATA HD and/or DVD. Newegg has 1TB SATA HDs for around fifty bucks. An SATA DVD burner is not much over $20. Either one would be far more likely to be useful down the road, too. :)

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

2 PCI & a PCIE.
That's all not even counting the 4th IDE cable for the 3.5" floppy drive. Of course, that's not getting plugged back in.
I'll post a pic of the old motherboard this coming weekend.