I have a Dell Destop, Dimension XPS 400. The DVD/RW is not working. Looking at new ones to replace it with, I notice some are ATA controlled and some are IDE controlled. WHich should I buy?
2006-07-01 19:26:05 · 8 answers · asked by driveshaft1957 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
Just so you know ATA and IDE are not the same thing. ATA will work on IDE but it's speed characteristics will be effected. Might not allow on the fly copies if you hook a ATA up to a IDE. Open your computer and check the connections. Follow the cable to the port. It is most likely a IDE. If it is there will be 2 of them next to each other. ATA is usually off the the side by itself.
2006-07-01 19:36:39 · answer #1 · answered by MiKe 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
ATA and IDE shouldn't matter.
IDE means it uses a flat ribbon cable connector. ATA (or Ultra ATA) is the standard used for all IDE drives and will work on almost any PC (unless you have SCSI which is rare these days).
Technically speaking, DVD drives only go up to ATA-66 so the transfer speed numbers beyond that (ATA100/133) will have no effect on performance so don't worry about that... You're not going to notice a difference in speed. You can connect your drive to either of the IDE ports on your motherboard but preferably you want to keep it on the port and cable that your hard drive is NOT connected to since this will allow for disc-to-disc copying if you have a two DVD/CD drives in your system for that.
With all that said, IDE and ATA are the same for the purposes of adding a DVDRW drive to a desktop computer. :)
On the other hand, there are alternate options you can go with but aren't necessary if you just want to replace a desktop DVDRW...
1. If you want, you can get an external USB drive which is a bit more expensive but you can use it on any PC with a USB port and its portable.
2. There are also new SATA DVDRW drives which are more expensive and may not work on older computers that don't have SATA ports. They have faster potential transfer speeds but it's not really worth the extra price yet IMHO.
2006-07-02 02:33:13 · answer #2 · answered by anonfuture 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ATA and IDE are really the same thing in this case. The only time when you would need to be concerned with this is when buying a SCSI (pronounced "scuzzy") of any internal device, or a SATA hard drive. Virtually all home-based computers do not use SCSI.
You can buy any DVD+/-RW drive stating that it is either ATA or IDE without worry.
2006-07-02 02:34:31 · answer #3 · answered by svancouw 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you should contact dell first and see if they will replace the drive free through warranty, they are pretty good about this. I do it all the time for the company I work for.
go with S-ATA if that's what you mean by ATA and you have room on the controller
2006-07-02 02:35:44 · answer #4 · answered by bobert 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ATA and IDE are the same thing...try a Benq or a Lite-on
2006-07-02 02:32:07 · answer #5 · answered by Sophie832 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
open the case an see how ur DVD/RW connects to the MoBo they aint the same they are difrent kinds of cables
older comps use ide newer use sata connections
2006-07-02 05:19:30 · answer #6 · answered by Jimmy James 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
go with IDE
2006-07-02 02:35:03 · answer #7 · answered by The_Mann 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
modt computer that i know user ide
2006-07-02 02:30:12 · answer #8 · answered by beth n 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋