hey, i'm getting ready to build my new pc (in the next week or so) and i noticed in the article (on this website) that talks about the mobo's with the KT333 chipset that they are all only ATA133 compliant (err... something like that). so does this mean i cannot use a western digital HD (ata 100) with the 8mb cache, and can only use a maxtor ata 133 HD?  
i know i almost answered my question in stating the question itself, but i wanted to know from someone who does know for sure. i'd really like to get the WD 8mb HD, instead of the Maxtor ata 133.
am i stuck with maxtor no matter what?
help!
 
Wait a minute... Hold on... I'm supposed to do what?!

bump.
someone please reply
 
Wait a minute... Hold on... I'm supposed to do what?!

ATA 133 is backward compatible.  It will work with ATA 33, ATA 66, and ATA 100 device.

but will it be able to take advantage of the 8mb cache on the western digitals that have that feature? the reason i ask is here ---->http://www6.tomshardware.com/mainboard/02q2/020509/kt333-26.html#ultradma133_currently_supported_only_by_maxtor
 
so maybe i'm a little slow, or the details given are a little to vague. either way, i don't understand what the writer is actually saying about the 4mb on the ata133 drives.
 
Wait a minute... Hold on... I'm supposed to do what?!

He's merely saying that only Maxtor has ATA133 drives out. It's rather confusing, but it doesn't really have anything to do with whether it'll work or not.
 
<font color=blue>Hi mom!</font color=blue>

ok, so which do you think i should go with, the 8mb cache WD, or a maxtor ata133?
my pc is going to be used mostly for gaming, and i want the fastest in-game performance. i saw someone else asking something like this on these forums and most people recommended the wd with the 8mb cache.
WD 80GB 8mb cache... yay or nay, what do you say?

 
Wait a minute... Hold on... I'm supposed to do what?!

*sighs*
ata133 compliant means it can use ata133 and is also backwards compatible with ata100/66/33 and probably even lower.
 
and yes. i would go with the W.D. drive with 8Mb cache. trying to find one for myself.
 
the 8Mb of cache has a far greater effect than having a maxtor drive with the ata133 interface.
 
short explination:
ata133 means the MAX transfer rate has increased from 100Mb/sec to 133.  however, current IDE drives can only provide a sustained transfer rate of around 50Mb/sec tops.  so the greater bandwidth with ata133 is essentially unused.  
 
<font color=green>Hamsters</font color=green> <font color=red>don't</font color=red> <font color=green>play</font color=green> <font color=red>Soccer.</font color=red>

I don't trust WD as a brand (just my personal preference), but the 8MB cache would help much more than the ATA133 interface.
 
<font color=blue>Hi mom!</font color=blue>

oh, ok. now i understand... (yeah, i'm a little slow )
 
thank you VERY much for the help. i'm definatly going to get the wd80gig 8mb hard drive (i've read everywhere that the maxtors make noise and crash) and i'm also going to get windows 2000pro, as i hear it's the most uncrashable M$ os/s eva! heh, i've been running windows ME... if you feel compassionate after reading this, feel free to bless me.
i've had many heartbeaking Win ME problems, psu probs (solved with my new antec 430w truepower psu , and some issues with my crappy 27 gig fujutsu hd that is slower than my 5 year old compaq "whatever/generic" 3.5 gig (VERY FAST) hd that's in it.
*SCRATCHES HEAD*
and... thanks agian
 
Wait a minute... Hold on... I'm supposed to do what?!

ditto.
ive finally found a place locally that sells them... and the 80Gb JB is only 15 auzzie bucks more expensive than the 80Gb IBM 120GXP.
 
i use win2k as well.  its a very stable OS, once you learn some of its ideosyncricies.
just make sure u have the latest drivers for everything. And personally i reccomend creating a 5 to 8 Gb partition just for the  OS/swapfile/programfiles.
 
and yes... i feel for you having to put up with winME. its a crime.
 
 
<font color=purple>All advice I offer has been  
Audited by Arthur Anderson.</font color=purple>

thanks for the win me compasion. haha.
"partitionend hd"... this will be a new adventure in headaches as i still don't know much about pc's and dos anyways (but learning!). oh boy here we go!
thanks again everyone.

 
Wait a minute... Hold on... I'm supposed to do what?!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by WolfenGamer on 06/13/02 11:43 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

lol
partitioning isnt hard, its just messing around with fdisk.
 
if your scared to do that, create a bootable floppy, copy fdisk accross to it, dissconnect all your other drives and bootup using the floppy then fdisk away without worrying about accidentally nuking your other drives    
 
 
<font color=purple>All advice I offer has been  
Audited by Arthur Anderson.</font color=purple>