>> I think he means his OLD 500gb drive is IDE and the NEW drive in the NEW PC is SATA (so I dont think he should buy a SATA enclosure). << Yes, that probably what he means. That the problem with insufficient information. You have to make guesses which can often be wrong. While we are on the pedantic theme, both a PATA and SATA drives are IDE. That is the Device Electronics are Integrated within the device. Stuart

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The first time I ever heard the term CPU applied to the tower was in a retail store. At that time you could buy the computer from a retail store without an included monitor. I guess to differentiate the salespeople called it the CPU. On a slightly different tack it irritates me that people don't educate themselves about computer equipment the same way they do when buying other comsumer goods. The OP obviously didn't give much thought to this purchase. How about the folks buying Vista equipped computers only to replace Vista with WinXP. That negates the primary advantage of buying OEM. The savings from getting the OS practically free.

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mickey0 EDIT!!! I took a look at your manual, and the mboard specs and diagram. Upgrading and Servicing Guide http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manua... Motherboard specs: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/... Motherboard manufacturer's name: Asus M2N61-AR HP/Compaq name: Acacia-GL6E Findings.......... - both your hard drive and DVD drive are SATA connected. - there are only two SATA headers on the mboard, no IDE header, so you have no place to connect another hard drive data cable inside the case on the mboard itself, despite the fact another hard drive would probably physically fit inside the case if you custom mounted it. Therefore, if you will be using the PCI slot, you must use an external hard drive enclosure if you want to use the 500gb drive. - if you won't be using the PCI slot, you have the option of getting and installing a PCI IDE drive controller card that you connect your 500gb drive to if you can physically custom mount the drive inside your case, but you may need an adapter for the power connection as well (see below). - your onboard sound is merely a Realtek chipset - it may not be good enough for your needs. - you have 4 USB ports built into the I/O area on the edge of the mboard, and probably two more in the front of the case that have been connected to a USB header on the mboard. You have four more USB ports (of 6 on headers, of 10 total) available on the mboard via connecting to headers, but from what I can make out you have only 2 external slot spaces, or maybe three, at least one if not two of which are already being used, so if you use a commomly available wiring adapter and plate with 2 ports you install in a slot space at an end, there's no way you can connect all possible USB ports - you may be limited to as few as 6 total. I recommend that if you want to be able to have the max USB ports available possible that you get a firewire connected hard drive enclosure rather than a USB connected one, if you use one, if you're unlikely to need the firewire port connection. - you have only two card slots that can possibly be used for cards - one PCI, one PCI-E intended for a video card. The PCI one may have a dial-up modem installed in it - if that's the case you must remove the modem to be able to install a sound card, or any PCI card. If you need to use the dial-up modem card, such as for faxing, you need to get a USB connected sound device rather than possibly using the card you have, or using another sound card. ........ Alternatives. There may be PCI-E sound cards or PCI-E IDE hard drive controller cards that will work in the PCI-E slot intended for video, but I haven't encountered any. There are USB connected dial-up modems, but none are the better "hardware" modems. ...... (original post after this) If the 500gb drive CAN physically fit in the case, but the problem is there is no place to mount it, you can mount it anywhere inside the case it will fit but you would have to rig up the mounting hardware, or whatever you use to secure the drive from moving, yourself. If the mboard has an IDE header that has a data cable (40 pin connectors) connected to your IDE optical (CD or DVD) drive, you can connect and jumper the drive as slave on that - if the data cable has only two (40 pin) connectors on the cable you need to get one with three (with 80 wires, not 40; one meant for UDMA66 or above). If there is no IDE header and the DVD or CD drive is SATA connected (smaller cable, fewer pins), you can easily get IDE to SATA adapters that plug into the IDE socket on the drive and you can then connect a SATA data cable from that to a SATA header on the mboard (do you have a spare SATA header?? You may not!). You may also need to get a standard molex (4 wires, male, for the drive's socket) to SATA power connector (to a socket on the mboard) wiring adapter, or a one (female) to two (male) molex power wiring Y adapter if there are no spare molex ones . However, doing so MAY void your warranty. If the 500gb drive won't physically fit in the case, as others have said you need to get an external case to put it in, and connect it to the computer via USB or firewire. Using an external drive won't void your warranty. It sounds like that drive is IDE and has an IDE data cable connection. In that case the external case must be one meant for an IDE drive, and it must have a board/electronics in it that converts the IDE connection from the drive to a USB or firewire connection, which you can connect via an appropriate cable from a port on the external case to a USB or firewire port on the slimline computer. The card on many sound cards is often much shorter in height than the metal plate that installs in the end of the slot. If the card itself and it's ports will fit in the slimline case, you could remove the metal plate and use the card anyway, but you would have to be careful and make sure the card is seated after plugging in or unplugging in anything to the card - it would be best to do that with the AC to the computer unplugged or otherwise removed (e.g. by turning of a power bar) - and you would also have to check that if you move the computer case. Or if you're handy, you could remove the full height plate, cut it shorter and otherwise modify it (bend it's top) so that you can install it on the card and it will fit in the case and can be fastened by a screw - that is just as safe as if it came with a shorter plate. If that's not possible, you could just use the onboard sound, or you can get sound cards that will fit in slimline computers, or ones that have a short card and both a regular and shorter end plate one of which it is installed on, or the option of either plate with the same card depending on which model you get, such that they can be installed in either a regular or reduced height slot space. Or you can get USB connected sound adapters, but they often aren't as versatile as a card. Creative/SoundBlaster makes good ones though. Ram that works in another mboard , or any ram you buy or have lying around, may not work properly, or sometimes, not at all - even if it physically fits and is the right overall type for your mboard. In the worst cases of incompatibilty your mboard may not boot with it installed, and the mboard may not beep - the ram has to be compatible with the mboard and it's chipset. See response 5 in this for some info about ram compatibilty, and some places where you can find out what will work in your mboard for sure: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... Correction to that: Mushkin www.mushkin.com

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On www.newegg.com i found two adapters that might work if u have a open pci slot. it will conect your ide hard drive. serch newegg or other computer part stores for simular products or price. $14.99 Rosewill RC-208 PCI IDE (ATA) Silicon Image Host Controller un-RAID Card - Also Supports Window Vista Ready - Retail $79.99 SIIG High-speed dual channel Ultra ATA 133/100 controller for Mac Model SC-MP4A12 - Retail

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rap3me2005 If you had read response 9 above carefully, you will note he has only one spare PCI slot, IF he doesn't have a dial-up modem card in it that he wants to use, and he has stated he would prefer to be able to use the sound card he already has, or presumably another better better sound card if he can't, so he probably doesn't have a PCI slot to spare. If he did have a PCI slot to spare, the first controller you suggested is fine and Silicon Image chipsets support recognizing both hard drives and optical drives (some chipsets don't support optical drives). If he doesn't he's left with the only choice being getting a firewire or USB connected external drive enclosure and installeing the IDE drive in that.

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StuartS first reply to OP: “You didn’t buy a CPU you bought a computer.” Sorry but you are mistaken and should be corrected. A computer is a calculator and a calculator is a computer. A CPU is a central processing unit and NOT a computer. The first processors didn’t even have a math coprocessor until the mid 1990’s and then it was built in to the processor. Prior to that you had to buy one and add it to the motherboard. I wonder if you even know how data is stored in memory or for that matter even stored on a hard drive. So if you are going to disrespect the OP then at least get your story. He only needed a helping hand and you gave him a slap. Good day My first “real” PC – 486 Cyrix 40Mhz DLC 4 Megs memory 40 Meg harddrive. ISA slots and a 32bit bus all ran by Windows 3.1x operating system. The year was 1995 and man we had it made. The space shuttle was still using 286 CPUs back then just 12 short years ago.

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TerryZ StuartS knows very well what a cpu is. Take another look at the first post and the title of this thread. He was commenting on the fact that mickeyO was calling his computer a CPU, or his computer case a CPU, rather than a computer, or a computer case. That is a pet peeve of mine as well. If he hadn't said it I probably would have, with an added explanation similar to yours.

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Terry Z, >> I wonder if you even know how data is stored in memory or for that matter even stored on a hard drive. << My friend, I could tell you more about how data is stored in memory and how data stored on hard drives than you could ever imagine. The first computers I ever worked on had hard disks stacked in a pile as big as a small car tyre and the CPU was in a cabinet four foot high. If you are going to criticise someone, at least learn to read and understand whats written. Stuart

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