Which should I get

[cage47]

Well On the 15th I'm going to upgrade something on the system. Question is what. I have a line on a 17" monitor for $70. Or a 20gig hd for $65 or a 40gig for $90. Then again I need a newer sound card or modem. I have one question. My motherboard is a Via 591p and it says it will take up to udma 33 hard drives. The 20 gig is a udma 66 and the 40 is a udma100. Will the board even recognize the drive? I know it won't perform to it's optimium but will it work at all. I'm not ready for a complete system overhaul, maybe summer, but I would like the extra room. But if the hd won't work I'll go for the monitor. So Whady'all think?

[mdwatts]

All ATA66/100 HD's can be used on a ATA33 controller. The only thing you have to worry about is the bios is new enough to support 40GB drives.

[cage47]

Thanks. But I'm thinking of getting the 20gig. Don't have the need yet and I might take the difference and get a new sound card too. I think the 20 gig is not over the limit from what I've read in the info. It was just the udma 66 that I wasn't sure about. I think there is also an update for the bios. It is flashable I know that and if this bios won't support the 20gig I think the upgrade will. thanks Watts

[mdwatts]

Glad to help. I would get the 40GB since it's double the space for only $25 more.

You can never have enough disk space and who knows in a few months you may be kicking yourself for not spending the extra to get the 40. Just my opinion though.

[cage47]

I know what you're saying but put together, tight budget with the fact I have to do work on the van I need to get only what I need. Actually I only need 10gig but I want extra space so I can have room to triple book my Mandrake/win3.1 and another linux. I have Redhat 7.1 waiting to install. If I don't like it I'm going to do some experimenting with my Debian again. This way I can put my 4gig in the Brio for a dual boot machine and take the 1 gig out of the brio that I think isn't working right.

[mdwatts]

Whatever you think is best and you can afford.

I just wouldn't want you to regret not getting the extra 20GB for only $25.

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

<me being selfish> I'd say buy the 20GB drive and then give me the line on the monitor ,/me being selfish>

;)

Seriously, I'd agree with WattsMD. If you really wanted a deal, though, FoBoT is selling a 40GB drive for $65 shipped in the Hardware Trading section. Then, you could in a sense get 20GB more than you would have...