Fitting a hdd drive inside pc tower with a pci card?

Good day,I have a spare 320gb sata drive which I want to install it to my desktop running windows 7. The only hitch I got that all the sockets on the mother board are occupied.Is it possible to connect this drive internally with some other way,Have read somewhere on google that you can fit a pci card to overcome this matter. Would this be possible Please and if so what will I need to solve the issue.

PS.Yes I do have a spare slot in the motherboard for a pci card. Can anyone recommend a suitable one for my needs,Does this pci card cover the voltage input as well as the data cable or do I have to find another source for the power to the hdd??.Would this hdd be okay fitted to the bottom of the tower case as there are no hdd slots available as I have two hdd already fitted. Just thought that I would use this spare hdd as an internal backup.

Many Thanks.

It is possible but I would use the PCI slot for an eSata header and get an eSata enclosure like this one. That is a much more flexible solution and the speed is about the same. You can stick any bare bone Sata disk into it (HDD, SSHD or SSD).

The MOBO you're using appears to have one PCI-e and two PCI slots. The top slot is a PCI-e slot and the bottom two are PCI. We need to know which type you have available for a SATA card.

Also, be aware that adding a SATA card will slow boot times because the card will have to load its own BIOs in addition to the MOBO's BIOS.

Hi Many thanks for all the feedback on my question.
Looking at the results Maybe my other option would be to put the hdd into a caddy.Does that idea sound okay it would be a lot easier thing all round.
Any thoughts where to get a good caddy Please.
Many thanks.

TVeblen said:

whs suggestion in post #2 was a good one.

Whs' suggestion was for a dock. An enclosure, like this one, would be better for a drive that is going to connected permanently. Docks are better connecting multiple drives temporarily. The Rosewill enclosure can be connected by USB 2.0 or by e-SATA (both cables are included; use only one or the other). If you can deal with the slower speed, USB 2.0 will eliminate the need for a PCI or PCI-e card as long as you have an unused USB port on your computer, preferably on the back.

If you still want to go the e-SATA card route, we need to know if the free slot in your computer is PCI or PCI-e.

Many thanks to all,I've decided to go for the caddy method.It will be more easier for me as not very techy.
May I just ask a further point on this caddy system,Would it be okay to have this connected to the desktop and leave it running all the time or just when needed?.
Most grateful for all your advice.
Many Thanks.

USB2 caddies cost around $25 in the US - maybe 20 quid in the UK. That would work but does not give you the same speed as eSata. Then on the other hand, do you need that speed.

trendy said:

Many thanks to all,I've decided to go for the caddy method.It will be more easier for me as not very techy.
May I just ask a further point on this caddy system,Would it be okay to have this connected to the desktop and leave it running all the time or just when needed?.
Most grateful for all your advice.
Many Thanks.

As long as the HDD in an enclosure, such as the one I linked, doesn't run too hot, it will be fine running full time. If it does run hot, an open dock like the one whs linked would be better, mayhap with a fan blowing over it. If it still tends to run hot, then it would be better to run it only when needed. If the HDD is very old, running it only when needed would also be better.

Whatever you decide, make sure you have at least one backup (two would be better) of all your data on all your drives!