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[quote="jonnyb"]how many optical drives do you have?
if you only have one, there should be an open slot on the IDE cable. on the motherboard, there are two IDE cable connectors, one is usually blue, and the other grey. the IDE cables have two connectors on them. which mean, if you only have 1 optical drive (CD/DVD) then you can just hook em all together. (the HDD and the CD/DVD can go on the same IDE cable.

as for the USB card, the belkin is fine.
as for the HDD, [url=http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=291932]bam.[/url] that one is the same drive you linked, only cheaper. (consider shipping too)

maxtor, western digital, and seagate are all reliable HDD makers.

and when considering HDDs, look at RPMs, and Buffer size.[/quote]
Amen. Don't forget to look for low seek and read times too. Watch sunday sales at Best Buy/Circuit City/etc. You can pick up 160's and all for like 50 or 60 bucks.

As for IDE cables, there is only master and slave, so two ports per motherboard connection.

As for Belkin, overall they are decent with good prices. The only thing I'd avoid from them would be mice. I had one, the worst mouse I have ever owned. As for their routers, I personally don't like them. When you get advanced with them, they don't tend to have enough features and can be buggy. I've had a few D-Link routers, never any real problems. Linksys was always flawless for me.


Good idea on waiting to upgrade. I'm holding off for the X2 64's to drop in price.

[quote="Chris"]here is another question. If I wanted to hook all 3 HDD's (my original, DVR, and this new) to my computer, what do I need to do? I only have 2 connectors that I can see in there. Do they make a cable that allows you to connect 3, that is just plugs in?[/quote]
how many optical drives do you have?
if you only have one, there should be an open slot on the IDE cable. on the motherboard, there are two IDE cable connectors, one is usually blue, and the other grey. the IDE cables have two connectors on them. which mean, if you only have 1 optical drive (CD/DVD) then you can just hook em all together. (the HDD and the CD/DVD can go on the same IDE cable.

as for the USB card, the belkin is fine.
as for the HDD, [url=http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=291932]bam.[/url] that one is the same drive you linked, only cheaper. (consider shipping too)

maxtor, western digital, and seagate are all reliable HDD makers.

and when considering HDDs, look at RPMs, and Buffer size.

I bought 2 maxtor maxline 3 300 gb sata 150 drives, 5 year warrenty. like 150 each or somthing

i dont know about their hardware, but their cables work perfectly for me.. d link ive never had problems with but i suppose to each his own..

I think I want to stay away from Dlink, I've have a DLink router, that I've had issues with, and found that many others have the same issue, and Dlink won't fix it.

How about Belkin?
[url]http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?dest=9999999997&product_id=2470580&sourceid=1500000000000002543940[/url]

here is a USB 2.0 adapter/expander
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815105102[/url]

it's about 3-4 years old. AMD 1600+
Beem a good computer, just want to upgrade a few things, and hold off buying a new computer until the 64 bit takes off.

USB card is another thing I'm looking to upgrade. It currently only has 2 usb 1.1 ports. Would like to upgrade to a 2.0. Any suggestions there? I'm trying to search on Newegg for PCI USB 2.0 cards, but not finding anything.

considering you said your pc is old, best bet is to get an external HD using your USB port. other options would include a new motherboard and everything, so thats not worth it

does this look like a pretty good one?
[url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148035[/url]

I'm just not sure if I need retail or not. I know my computer has the cable an extra HDD because I put my DVR disk there all the time.

here is another question. If I wanted to hook all 3 HDD's (my original, DVR, and this new) to my computer, what do I need to do? I only have 2 connectors that I can see in there. Do they make a cable that allows you to connect 3, that is just plugs in?

ah OK, my computer is old, so I'm sure it won't support serial. IDE it is.