Frank, The drive is physically inside the PC, not outside. The mobile rack is connected to either the primary or secondary IDE port on the mobo with a standard 40 pin IDE ribbon cable. No extra IDE controller card needed unless you are out of ports. I made sure it was attached to the closer of the two connectors because inside the removable box, the HD is connected to a 3" 40 pin IDE ribbon cable. If I used the farther connector, the total cable length might exceed the 18" safe limit for IDE cables.
<Swapping standard hard drives does have risks.>
Yes it does. That's part of the analysis each person must do to decide if such a solution is right for him. But I treat all computer stuff very gingerly, even Zip disks, so it's not a big deal to me. 6.4GB removable at HD speed is a real treat, let me tell you. On my new mobo with UDMA mode 2, I benched it using WinBench 97, and the max real transfer rate was about 2.5MB/sec using a Cyrix PR200+. Twice as fast as my old PIO mode 3 drive while using less CPU.
Andy. I wish I had only paid $20 for it. Usually Fry's is quite inexpensive (got a Creative MA202 2MB graphics card there today for $30) but even though $40 was ridiculous for $3 worth of low tech parts and 3 oz. of plastic, I needed it bad enough, so didn't shop.
BTW, I was talking about high-end use which is why I compared it here on the SYQT thread. You were comparing a HD with removable optical. Of course a HD is more expensive. But the HD speed is part of the requirement for high-end use. If speed wasn't of concern, then obviously optical is the way to go. But if speed and capacity are requirements, then what will a removable 20GB solution cost? |
