I dont want to waste my money on old technology and replace with another IDE, but I dont want to spend loads of money on pieces of a new computer when im not sure when i can afford the whole thing.
I am looking to build pretty similar to this guy's setup:
http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/Build-Opinions-ftopict218823.html
OK, OTOH, you're not sure you can afford it. But OTOH, you indicate you're considering getting a ~$2,200 system. Hard to tell from these two conflicting extremes just what sort of solutions are appropriate to suggest for you at this time.
My primary (IDE) recently crashed, and I need to buy a new one. If I must do that, I would like to start purchasing towards my new computer (SATA drives).
If you want to use a SATA drive on a PATA only system then I'd suggest adding a SATA controller PCI card. My recommendation would be to get one of the basic (non-RAID) Promise controller cards from ebay. Alternately you could get one from an on-line retailer like newegg.com.
Here's a link to a newegg.com search.
You'll notice the Promise cards are expensive (which is why I suggested ebay
). Can't tell you whether they are worth it or not and there are certainly other SATA PCI cards available for less. I recommend the Promise cards for these reasons. I've used them myself. I know they come with a BIOS so you should be able to boot Windows from a drive attached to one of these cards. Finally, it's relatively easy to get driver and BIOS updates for their cards from the Promise website.
If you get a SATA drive one other thing to consider is how to power it. SATA drives use a power connector which your older system probably doesn't supply. You can get an adapter which converts a 4 pin Molex power connector to a SATA connector. If you want to look/buy forward, you could also update your power supply at this time. Any new PSU worth getting would include SATA power connectors.
-john, the essentially clueless redundant legacy dinosaur