ATA Controller Cards?

[cslord15]

I currently have both ATA channels full on my motherboard (DVD and a CD writer on one, plus my 40/80 gig HDs on another). If I buy a PCI controller card, will I still get ATA 100 transfer speeds, or are the transfer speeds limited to the speed of the PCI bus?

 

[RealBlackStuff]

The speed of the PCI IDE-controller decides how fast your HD's can run. With a 133-card you can run ATA-133/100/66/33 HD's.
Note that the lowest speed of a pair of HD's (say 133 and 100) is the one that will be maintained (in my example both HDs will run at 100).

Something to seriously consider is a more powerful Powersupply. Go for 430 or higher wattage and buy a brand-name like Enermax or Antec etc.

 

[Greeno]

He meant, will the speed of his PCI bus limit the max data transfer rate his PCI card will do..

 

[RealBlackStuff]

No, the extra card will let the HDs on it run at their own speed, independent of the mobo's PCI-bus speed.