New CD drive help plz

[Cullhaven]

I need a new CD disc drive for my computer. Strolling around PC World, all they seemed to have were SATA drives. My mother board is an

Asus P5K SE ddr2, SataII PCI-exl6 2 x pci, 3 x pci -ex l

Not sure how to proceed here, Other times I have replaced CD disc drives in my comps I have just attached the new one to the old wires. I am guessing its not that easy with Sata - dont know if the failing drive already installed is sata or how to find out?

( current drive is hl-dt-st dvd-ram gsa-h55l. which I am not sure is SATA or not)

 

[Aciiid]

You'd really need the motherboard ID (shown in the bios screen at machine startup, or on the main screen if you go into the bios) and then you can look up the manual to see what ports it has on it. Intel use ID's like this: DQ45EK

Alternatively open it up and have a look.

Sata should be fine for just swapping them over, the cable usually has a little clip that IDE cable's don't have so make sure you press the button to detach the cable or it may snap. There's 2 type of sata cables, and the wider ones tend not to have the clip, I'd imagine that a cd drive would just use the smaller one.Other than that they're a lot easier to unplug than IDE that usually involve really trying to yank it out without snapping the connector.


Looking up the P5K_SE motherboard on Asus's web site it does list an ide connector so you may find that it's using that (if that's the right motherboard):

Internal I/O Connectors:
3 x USB connectors support additional 6 USB ports
1 x Floppy disk drive connector
1 x IDE connector
4 x SATA connectors
1 x CPU Fan connector
1 x Chassis Fan connector
1 x Power Fan connector
1 x S/PDIF Out connector
1 x4-pin ATX 12V Power connector
24-pin Power connector
Front panel audio connector
COM connector
CD/AUX audio in
System Panel

Unlike IDE that has the whole master slave issues sata just kinda sorts itself out so you should be able to just unplug the old IDE drive and plug in the Sata one and just work.

 

[Cullhaven]

I'll have a look at whats attached to the drive that is in, at the cables attached, should be able to tell what type to get from that?

If I bought a SATA drive and then found that the old one was IDE - I wouldnt be able to attach the sata drive on the old, existing cables I presume ?

 

[Aciiid]

Swapping CD drives is pretty easy, they're pretty much plug and play. you may need to install drivers if it's a very new model or running an older operating system, but even then windows has some default drivers that work with most.

You can probably plug the new sata drive in and have it run along side the older IDE one if you wanted as well, it's only the IDE drives that conflict with other IDE devices.

I suppose the main question is why you even need a cd drive at all, it it's just for dvd's pretty much any old drive these days should work, 20-30 pounds would be more than enough.

:edit: oh make sure it comes with a Sata cable. some cheecky people ship just the drives, so it's worth asking.

 

[Cadfiel]

Be aware that while i would definitely recommend swapping to SATA, the power cable for SATA is different to an IDE drive, you may need a molex to SATA power adapter.

Some SATA drives also have a molex power so that is not needed.

Oh, and to really confuse things, IDE can also be referred to as PATA.

SATA data connection with SATA power connection below it.

Molex power

 

[Cullhaven]

If its any help this is the drive - any clues there as to which it is?

LG GSA H55l

also saw this on a spec list for it

"X3T13 ATA/ATAPI5/1321D"

so im assuming its definitely not a sata one?

 

[Tempy]

Take the lid off the PC - if the CDR data cable is 2" wide, its PATA, if its 0.5" it's SATA.

 

[Cadfiel]

Thats an IDE (PATA) drive.

 

[Cullhaven]

Thanks all, that makes things easy then. Changed this sort of drive before so I'll look for one.