will a 200gb hd work in Compaq S4020WM ?

If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a
separate
controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive.

I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them
mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail
suppliers?
-E

Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
ink.net...

If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a
separate
controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive.

I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them
mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to
retail suppliers?
-E

Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and
calls them Raptors...
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM
Drive Only
Specifications:
Capacity: 74GB
Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms
Buffer: 8MB
Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM
Interface: Serial ATA
Features: High Performance SATA Interface
Packaging: OEM Drive Only

Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For
example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it
will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle
connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about
needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some
motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big
research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or
interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical
uncertainties out of the gate...
-E


"HH" wrote in message
...
Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
ink.net...

If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a
separate
controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive.

I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them
mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to
retail suppliers?
-E

You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your Presario
onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round and uses a
much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and cables, too.
Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
nk.net...
Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and
calls them Raptors...
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM
Drive Only
Specifications:
Capacity: 74GB
Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms
Buffer: 8MB
Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM
Interface: Serial ATA
Features: High Performance SATA Interface
Packaging: OEM Drive Only

Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For
example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how
it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle
connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk
about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with
some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big
research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or
interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical
uncertainties out of the gate...
-E


"HH" wrote in message
...
Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
ink.net...

If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a
separate
controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive.

I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them
mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to
retail suppliers?
-E

I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for
confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card and
cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After doing
some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in SCSI. Of
course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I suppose.
(I'm not.)
-E

"HH" wrote in message
...
You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your
Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round
and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and
cables, too. Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
nk.net...
Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and
calls them Raptors...
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM
Drive Only
Specifications:
Capacity: 74GB
Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms
Buffer: 8MB
Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM
Interface: Serial ATA
Features: High Performance SATA Interface
Packaging: OEM Drive Only

Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For
example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how
it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle
connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk
about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with
some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another
big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or
interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many
technical uncertainties out of the gate...
-E


"HH" wrote in message
...
Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
ink.net...

If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a
separate
controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive.

I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them
mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to
retail suppliers?
-E

Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot
handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced itself
right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got faster and
more reliable.
HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
nk.net...
I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for
confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card
and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After
doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in
SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I
suppose. (I'm not.)
-E

"HH" wrote in message
...
You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your
Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round
and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and
cables, too. Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
nk.net...
Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and
calls them Raptors...
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD,
OEM Drive Only
Specifications:
Capacity: 74GB
Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms
Buffer: 8MB
Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM
Interface: Serial ATA
Features: High Performance SATA Interface
Packaging: OEM Drive Only

Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For
example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor
how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a
middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also
talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work
with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates
another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my
capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach
too many technical uncertainties out of the gate...
-E


"HH" wrote in message
...
Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
ink.net...

If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a
separate
controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive.

I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see
them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any
links to retail suppliers?
-E

Well, I have a "home use" that my 7200rpm drive can't handle properly...
It's a 7GB chess endgame database of 290 files ranging up in size to about
150kb. The drive can't keep up with the software as this database is
accessed, so it slows down things greatly. So the hard drive light remains
on constantly, while the processor is running at 100% capacity constantly -
for many hours, constantly.

As a little background...
The game of chess has now been solved for all combinations of 5 pieces
remaining on the chessboard. These perfect & complete solutions go into the
7GB database in a format known as Nalimov EGTB Tablebases. As the end of a
game of chess approaches, chess analysis engines will begin to access these
Tablebases, which is a lot faster and more reliable than the engine
calculating all of those possibilities again. That would be wasted effort,
because they have already been calculated - i.e. they constitute the
Tablebase data.

How many Tablebase accesses are involved per second? A lot! A lot more than
7,200 rpm IDE drives can handle. The experts say that 15,000 rpm SCSI drives
can keep up with the access demand OK, but nothing else can.

Now, the 6-piece chess endgames are in process of being solved completely
too, so the chess endgame Tablebases are increasing towards the order of a
terrabyte of data when that task is completed (probably within a year or
two). That makes the little 7GB Tablebases look puny by comparison, and the
problems involved in accessing them will be correspondingly enormous.
-E

"HH" wrote in message
...
Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot
handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced itself
right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got faster
and more reliable.
HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
nk.net...
I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for
confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card
and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After
doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in
SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I
suppose. (I'm not.)
-E

"HH" wrote in message
...
You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your
Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is
round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller
cards and cables, too. Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
nk.net...
Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives,
and calls them Raptors...
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD,
OEM Drive Only
Specifications:
Capacity: 74GB
Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms
Buffer: 8MB
Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM
Interface: Serial ATA
Features: High Performance SATA Interface
Packaging: OEM Drive Only

Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For
example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor
how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a
middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They
also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive
won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That
creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it
beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't
stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate...
-E


"HH" wrote in message
...
Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
ink.net...

If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a
separate
controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive.

I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see
them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any
links to retail suppliers?
-E

Quick questions. What, if anything, is runing in the background when you try
to run the database? If anything, have you disabled same before starting? Do
you have MS Office installed? If so is Findfast enabled? Is indexing
enabled for the drive/volume? The drive is NTFS, correct? Defrag regularly?
Delete temp internet files regularly?
HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
ink.net...
Well, I have a "home use" that my 7200rpm drive can't handle properly...
It's a 7GB chess endgame database of 290 files ranging up in size to about
150kb. The drive can't keep up with the software as this database is
accessed, so it slows down things greatly. So the hard drive light remains
on constantly, while the processor is running at 100% capacity
constantly - for many hours, constantly.

As a little background...
The game of chess has now been solved for all combinations of 5 pieces
remaining on the chessboard. These perfect & complete solutions go into
the 7GB database in a format known as Nalimov EGTB Tablebases. As the end
of a game of chess approaches, chess analysis engines will begin to access
these Tablebases, which is a lot faster and more reliable than the engine
calculating all of those possibilities again. That would be wasted effort,
because they have already been calculated - i.e. they constitute the
Tablebase data.

How many Tablebase accesses are involved per second? A lot! A lot more
than 7,200 rpm IDE drives can handle. The experts say that 15,000 rpm SCSI
drives can keep up with the access demand OK, but nothing else can.

Now, the 6-piece chess endgames are in process of being solved completely
too, so the chess endgame Tablebases are increasing towards the order of a
terrabyte of data when that task is completed (probably within a year or
two). That makes the little 7GB Tablebases look puny by comparison, and
the problems involved in accessing them will be correspondingly enormous.
-E

"HH" wrote in message
...
Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot
handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced
itself right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got
faster and more reliable.
HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
nk.net...
I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for
confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card
and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works.
After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only
comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to
afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.)
-E

"HH" wrote in message
...
You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your
Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is
round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller
cards and cables, too. Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
nk.net...
Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives,
and calls them Raptors...
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD,
OEM Drive Only
Specifications:
Capacity: 74GB
Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms
Buffer: 8MB
Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM
Interface: Serial ATA
Features: High Performance SATA Interface
Packaging: OEM Drive Only

Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For
example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor
how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a
middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They
also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive
won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That
creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it
beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but
can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate...
-E


"HH" wrote in message
...
Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
ink.net...

If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a
separate
controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive.

I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see
them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any
links to retail suppliers?
-E

Another question. Have you thought about installing an IDE Raid controller
card and setting up a 2-drive for performance?
HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
ink.net...
Well, I have a "home use" that my 7200rpm drive can't handle properly...
It's a 7GB chess endgame database of 290 files ranging up in size to about
150kb. The drive can't keep up with the software as this database is
accessed, so it slows down things greatly. So the hard drive light remains
on constantly, while the processor is running at 100% capacity
constantly - for many hours, constantly.

As a little background...
The game of chess has now been solved for all combinations of 5 pieces
remaining on the chessboard. These perfect & complete solutions go into
the 7GB database in a format known as Nalimov EGTB Tablebases. As the end
of a game of chess approaches, chess analysis engines will begin to access
these Tablebases, which is a lot faster and more reliable than the engine
calculating all of those possibilities again. That would be wasted effort,
because they have already been calculated - i.e. they constitute the
Tablebase data.

How many Tablebase accesses are involved per second? A lot! A lot more
than 7,200 rpm IDE drives can handle. The experts say that 15,000 rpm SCSI
drives can keep up with the access demand OK, but nothing else can.

Now, the 6-piece chess endgames are in process of being solved completely
too, so the chess endgame Tablebases are increasing towards the order of a
terrabyte of data when that task is completed (probably within a year or
two). That makes the little 7GB Tablebases look puny by comparison, and
the problems involved in accessing them will be correspondingly enormous.
-E

"HH" wrote in message
...
Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot
handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced
itself right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got
faster and more reliable.
HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
nk.net...
I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for
confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card
and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works.
After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only
comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to
afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.)
-E

"HH" wrote in message
...
You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your
Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is
round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller
cards and cables, too. Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
nk.net...
Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives,
and calls them Raptors...
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD,
OEM Drive Only
Specifications:
Capacity: 74GB
Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms
Buffer: 8MB
Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM
Interface: Serial ATA
Features: High Performance SATA Interface
Packaging: OEM Drive Only

Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For
example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor
how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a
middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They
also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive
won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That
creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it
beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but
can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate...
-E


"HH" wrote in message
...
Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
ink.net...

If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a
separate
controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive.

I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see
them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any
links to retail suppliers?
-E

"HH" wrote in message
...

Quick questions. What, if anything, is runing in the background when you
try to run the database?
Closing down my anti-virus and firewall have no effect on this problem, and
there's nothing else significant running in the background. Note that my
chess analysis engine software normally runs with 100% processor usage.
That's the software which accesses the Tablebases, so it's necessary.

If anything, have you disabled same before starting?
N/A

Do you have MS Office installed?
No.

If so is Findfast enabled?
N/A

Is indexing enabled for the drive/volume?
No.

The drive is NTFS, correct?
Yes.

Defrag regularly?
Yes.

Delete temp internet files regularly?
Yes. They are deleted automatically when I exit IE.

Have you thought about installing an IDE Raid controller card and setting
up a 2-drive for performance?
Duh...no...and have no idea what's involved.
I have a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 PCI Adapter Card on my shelf, if that would do
it? I used it in a former computer, but haven't had any reason to put it in
this Compaq S4020WM.

My only "Lone Ranger hunch" is that Compaq may have disabled the DDR feature
of RAM on this S4020WM. It has DDR RAM installed, however the benchmarks
(with Everest) show it as a speed typical of ordinary PC (non-DDR) RAM. So I
guess the problem could be RAM speed, at least partly. At the same time
Compaq hid all of those kinds of special settings in the BIOS setup utility,
so there's apparently no way to tweak it back to DDR speed.
-E

"Euclid" wrote in message
ink.net...
Well, I have a "home use" that my 7200rpm drive can't handle properly...
It's a 7GB chess endgame database of 290 files ranging up in size to
about 150kb. The drive can't keep up with the software as this database
is accessed, so it slows down things greatly. So the hard drive light
remains on constantly, while the processor is running at 100% capacity
constantly - for many hours, constantly.

As a little background...
The game of chess has now been solved for all combinations of 5 pieces
remaining on the chessboard. These perfect & complete solutions go into
the 7GB database in a format known as Nalimov EGTB Tablebases. As the end
of a game of chess approaches, chess analysis engines will begin to
access these Tablebases, which is a lot faster and more reliable than the
engine calculating all of those possibilities again. That would be wasted
effort, because they have already been calculated - i.e. they constitute
the Tablebase data.

How many Tablebase accesses are involved per second? A lot! A lot more
than 7,200 rpm IDE drives can handle. The experts say that 15,000 rpm
SCSI drives can keep up with the access demand OK, but nothing else can.

Now, the 6-piece chess endgames are in process of being solved completely
too, so the chess endgame Tablebases are increasing towards the order of
a terrabyte of data when that task is completed (probably within a year
or two). That makes the little 7GB Tablebases look puny by comparison,
and the problems involved in accessing them will be correspondingly
enormous.
-E

"HH" wrote in message
...
Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot
handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced
itself right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got
faster and more reliable.
HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
nk.net...
I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for
confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card
and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works.
After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only
comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to
afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.)
-E

"HH" wrote in message
...
You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your
Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is
round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller
cards and cables, too. Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
nk.net...
Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives,
and calls them Raptors...
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD,
OEM Drive Only
Specifications:
Capacity: 74GB
Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms
Buffer: 8MB
Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM
Interface: Serial ATA
Features: High Performance SATA Interface
Packaging: OEM Drive Only

Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems.
For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means,
nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which
has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same.
They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA
drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special
BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may
put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed,
but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate...
-E


"HH" wrote in message
...
Try he

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1

HH

"Euclid" wrote in message
ink.net...

If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a
separate
controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive.

I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see
them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any
links to retail suppliers?
-E