Old HDD / Newer PC?

[gamer128]

Hello everyone! So first off I'm going to list my specs before I ask my question.

Motherboard: AsRock Extreme 3 Gen 3
Case: HAF 912
GPU: GTX 560ti
CPU: 2500k

That's all the needed info for the question I believe. Anyway, today I got a 500gb 7200rpm 16mb cache Seagate HDD from a family member that bought it brand new, and happened to never use it. It was still in the packaging and all. I noticed it was produced and sold during the Vista era as it says it was sold in 2007. I know this is a pretty decent HDD to just get for free, however I have some questions about it.

It seems to have the old fashioned gray wired thing for it, which I have no clue the name, but it is the thing that goes from the optical drive, to the HDD, and finally to the motherboard in it's sata spot. I was wondering if I could use this with my motherboard or if I even needed this wierd thingy. Couldn't I just connect it directly to the motherboard through a sata connecter? I'm going to be using it just for recording videos and such, so I won't need it hooked up to the optical drive.

Thanks!

 

[MidnightDistort]

Do you know if it's a SATA or IDE?

IDE:

SATA:

If it's SATA simply hook up the connections but if it's IDE, if you want to keep the drive you'll need an external IDE hard drive enclosure.

 

[gamer128]

Here is the exact HDD on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-ST3500641A-RK-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal/dp/B000F3XHLG

However, I think it is an IDE.

 

[runswindows95]

That hard drive is IDE. To hook it up, you'll need an IDE to SATA converter, which from my experience, are not worth it. The best thing would be to save up, and get a SATA drive.

 

[JKatwyopc]

That Drive is listed as an UltraATA/100 drive also known as IDE. You're going to need to get an external IDE drive enclosure. One of these should do it. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007705+600006268+600006254&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=92&description=&hisInDesc=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=

 

[MidnightDistort]

You can get an IDE external hard drive enclosure. That is your best bet. You won't be able to use the drive as the primary.

You can also get a PCI controller IDE. I'm not positive on whether or not you can use an OS this way either.

 

[gamer128]

Ok thanks guys! I'll look into getting a IDE drive encclosure, but I have a couple of questions.

1. Does it act like an external hard drive I just plug into a USB port?
2. Will it be suitable for recording videos on? Just leaving the drive completely blank and writing my fraps files to it? I know the HDD itself is actually pretty fast for its time.

 

[MidnightDistort]

Getting the enclosure is pretty much the same as getting an external hard drive that has a USB connection.

I don't know how fast the hard drive needs to be in order to record videos efficiently, but most likely it'll be a 2.0 USB hookup and im not 100% sure whether the 2.0 will still be slower then the hard drive itself. That's something worth trying a benchmark with HD Tune to see how well it would run there. Depending on the speed your SATA motherboard has you might get better speed out of that, especially if you had a SSD.