OT: I need a new motherboard. - Page 3

Suicide Junkie · #21 January 23rd, 2008, 07:40 PM

Look for a baby-sized IDE connector:
http://www.pcguide.com/byop/diagrams/figure91.jpg

Fyron · #22 January 23rd, 2008, 07:50 PM

That motherboard has a floppy connector on it. One accessory is:

1 x FDD cable

Kinda silly to put it in the box if there is no port to use it in.

The thing about floppy is that they can't really get rid of it... One of the advertised features of SATA hdd chipsets is the ability to do software RAID. This RAID has to be configured before the OS is installed. Windows will ask during setup if you want to load 3rd party RAID drivers... from a floppy! So, they can't advertise the RAID capabilities of their motherboard unless they include a floppy connector.

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Motherboards are all standardized in size (or at worst, a smaller mobo will fit in the standard format for that size class, with the screw holes placed at the correct place). A microATX motherboard will fit in regular sized computer cases, as well as mid-towers and full-towers. If you feel you will need more expansion slots than are provided by the motherboard you linked to, you will probably need to get a full-sized ATX motherboard. With an ATX motherboard, you have to pay more attention to case size, since there are small cases that cannot hold ATX motherboards. Larger cases will hold them without problem though.

If you want to make sure, open up your case and measure the physical dimensions of your current motherboard. If it is around 244 mm � 244 mm, to a minimum of 171.45 mm x 171.45 mm in some cases, it is microATX. Full sized ATX is 305 mm � 244 mm.

narf poit chez BOOM · #23 January 24th, 2008, 06:34 PM

Would that have two connectors?

(I'd post more, but my brain is fried. Wonky sleep schedule)

Fyron · #24 January 24th, 2008, 10:58 PM

I'm not sure what your latest question is referring to. Floppy connectors? ATX motherboard?

Xrati · #25 January 25th, 2008, 12:23 PM

Most older boards have two IDE connectors (floppy and HD). The new ones only have one.

I'm pretty sure that's what your question was referring to)

Fyron · #26 January 25th, 2008, 02:42 PM

Most older boards had two IDE connectors and a floppy connector. Newer ones tend to have one IDE connector and one floppy connector, and a slew of SATA connectors.

narf poit chez BOOM · #27 January 25th, 2008, 04:28 PM

Sorry, that was kinda vague.

The floppy connector - Would it have two plug-ins for two floppy drives?

Looks like this motherboard will work good. Have to take a look at my old one, though - Think I may have an AGP card.

Suicide Junkie · #28 January 25th, 2008, 06:33 PM

No, there will be one connector on the motherboard, and the cable itself will have three ends. (Two at the ends of the cable and one in the middle)

One floppy drive per computer is usually enough though.

narf poit chez BOOM · #29 January 25th, 2008, 07:57 PM

Uh...So, no, the cable will only have one plug-in for a floppy drive, but it has three ends to it?

There's a program that can read amiga disks in an ibm floppy drive, but it requires two floppy drives.

The Catweasel can do the same with one drive and more accuratly, but it doesn't have the iterative ability of the program to build on previous success.

Oh, you mean there's one connector on the motherboard and the cable has two connections. Yeah, that's pretty much what I wanted to know, thanks.

Xrati · #30 January 26th, 2008, 02:01 PM

Narf, think of the cable as a sort of splitter. You had to desiginate "master" and "slave" drives when using those cables. So one end went into the mobo and the other two went into the drives.

Old mobos had two types. The standard or desktop had one IDE floppy and one IDE controller and the "tower" had an enhanced IDE (not sure about the name) which gave you a floppy and two HD IDE connectors. With the standard you could hook up one floppy and one HD or two using the splitter.
The enhanced wouls allow you a floppy and up to 4 HD's.