PCI IDE expansion cards

i think thats wat u call them, i need some more ide chanels, wats the best way of going about it? purchasing one of these PCI IDE expansion cards?

anyone know where i can get them from?

thanks :)

scan do an ide controller card for about 32 quid but it's not raid

www.scan.co.uk

Look for the promise range They i reccon are the best and most stable i have tried. The ATA100 i think is 32 the ATA133 is 10 quid more! i have 2 ATA133 ones :)

thanks for ya input, im getting a promise ata100 card off some1 i know ;)

ATA100TX right? they are much better than the ATA100 one

im a bit of a newbie to pc mods and some hardwere ( not when i was a lad there was 1 thing and that did that LOL ) but am i right in thinking that this will allow more ide devices to be run instead of the normal 4 if so is it just hdds or can cdroms run off it?
wot sort of money am i looking to pay for 1 decant 1 but still cheap? ( explain wot they are in lamer proof )

Well... scan do a 1 channel IDE card for £23 but its 1 IDE channel meaning only 2 devices.

"Highpoint Rocket 133S 1Ch ATA133 Disk Accelerator w/o BIOS"

The next one up with 2 Channels and can support 4 extra device is £40

"Highpoint Rocket 133RE 2Ch ATA133 Disk Accelerator"

However i am sure many people agree that PROMISE are QUALITY and produce best results. They only sell one with 2 IDEs supporting 4 extra devices for the smae price as the highpoint.

cheers im looking for a 2 channel 1 then for 4 ide deives are they as reliable as normal 1s? and wot sort of cheap case can ur surject to buy if i wanted to run 3-5 hdds and maybe 2 or 3 dcroms and the floopy of cause?

I have seen a case at work with a blue LED on the front and it can hold i think up to 10 Hard drives and 4 CD-Rom drives. It isnt even a server case yet only £30. dont know what it is but i believe Chieftec Dragon, scorpio, lian li, coolmasters however these are the well known 'brand named' ones are can range from £75 - £300 depending on what u want etc. You can however buy a CHEAP full tower case use the 3 - 4 HD spaces then use the bays which u put CD-roms in etc to hold hard drives using hard drive mounting brackets. Personally i recommend using them because they allow heat to escape rather than the standard HD place where there is a 1 - 2mm gap.

300 quids for a case fook me thats a lot

all i got to do now is wait for the right time to buy then i will spead a bit on um

lol

Actually watch out for SATA/500 (serial ata) from seagate

new technology gonna be great, seen it work at a hardware conference here in toronto and speeds are crazy, expected release in march/april 2003

mapplins do a cmd ide ata 100 card, installs clean and easy in both 98 and xp, its slightly more flexable than the promise which can cause some instability problems if you use 2 IDENTICAL promise cards (+ they dont like mixed drives on the same ide line)

just stay clear of Extreme io cards as they just dont work (i know 3 who have had to return them)

have a look for an old sound card i know several of them that have an IDE channel on them. the only ones i know of are ISA cards which are gradually going out of date so u need to chekc compatibility if u want to do that. oh yeah old sound cards at computer fairs for £2 max i mean i used to have an old sound card somewhere that had IDE plug on it so if i can root it out wanna buy it? :D

Ah i remember them IDE ones on sound cards. Lol damn that brings back memories! Would recommend ditching the ISA cards as they will only hog and slow ur computer down. Just buy a cheap £20 card. You know Promise ATA 100 controller cards with 2 ports (4 devices) are only £25inc VAT