On Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:33:20 -0600, Joel <Joel@NoSpam.com> wrote:

>"Ned" <nedtrilby@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> It looks like my EIDE disk in my Dell 4300 is gone. I see the vendors
>> are selling SATA disks with 16mb cache - looks like good value. Will
>> they work OK in my Dell?
>
> I am very new to SATA myself (just got my very first 500GB SATA drive for
>around $160 after rebate) and haven't installed yet. Matter fact, just got
>the $50 enclosure (expensive one) and may try to install to this enclosure
>to be used as external hard drive.
>
> Back to the main question, I guess *if* your motherboard has SATA
>connector then no reason why it won't work. Also, when buying SATA hard
>drive you may wanna go for the RETAIL as the OEM may not come with cable
>that you will need.
>
> Again, like I said that I am so new to SATA and hanven't installed my yet
>to share my own experience, but I just happen to open the SATA HD earlier
>today and it came with the SATA cable/connector that different than the
>cable came with my motherboard (the cable came with mboard is SATA cable but
>not SATA cable for Hard Drive).


There are two different types of cables for Sata. There is the sata
cable which has an "L" connector on the end and then there is eSata
cable and there isn't any "L" connector. I have eSata on one end and
sata on the other end. In my computer I have a little sata connector
in one of my slots that make my motherboard sata an external
connection.

On my laptop I have a PCI express slot and a card that is a sata II
card. I have a W.D. 250 MB H.D. with 16mb cache. Its usb2 or sata
connected. I backed up my hard drive with the usb2 and it took 49
mins. I did it with the sata and then it took 12 mins. Believe me I
don't like usb2 anymore.

If you don't have sata on the motherboard you can add a sata card.