new desktop advice

steve773000

Hi

I am looking to upgrade from my 6 year old desktop and have seen these 2 available.

Compaq SG3-320UK at currys / pc world
Zoostorm Intel Pentium E5500 at Argos 507/2208

Can anyone offer any advice if one is better than the other?

It will be used mainly for surfing, photo storage etc

Many thanks

Steve

SteveJH200

If it's just for everyday basic use then maybe the Compaq has the edge. This has the later DDR3 memory. It's likely though that you could upgrade your current computer cheaply.

steve773000

Thanks. I did buy a new hdd last year and plugged it in but couldnt get the pc to recognise it. The main reason for the upgrade is to get more disc space so if any one can help to get this hdd it would be much appreciated!!

SteveJH200

Did you buy a larger internal hard drive or an external USB one?

steve773000

A 500gb wd internal one. i ideally wanted to make this the main one.

SteveJH200

If you want just one larger hard disc in the computer you will need to load the operating system on it and transfer all your files over. When you say it wasn't recognised, how did you connect it up?

steve773000

There was a spare power plug on the lead to the original drive which i connected and a new sata lead to a spare sata socket on the board

If i remember correctly there was a program on the wd website which would copy everything over for you

SteveJH200

You have to look in the BIOS and make some changes for a second drive to be seen - it also depends what the current set up is and whether raid has been enabled on the SATA connections. Have you tried hooking up the new drive to your current connections to see if it's recognised? Maybe it may be better using a second disc for files and keep your current one as it has the operating system on it. Alternatively buy a caddy and use your new hard drive as an external drive to store files.

robmar0se

I'll second what Stevejh200 says, look in the bios to see if the drive is recognised - sometimes with Dells you need to update the BIOS (but one would expect a warning at start-up). Secondly on some motherboards, the sata sockets are reserved eg for RAID, so try plugging the drive into other motherboard sockets. There is no other reason, apart from a faulty drive, why a second drive shouldn't be recognised - it should be as easy as falling off a log.

I'd also agree with the suggestion to keep the system on your old hard drive, and just relocate your personal folders onto the new one.

One other suggestion on yr old system (assuming you are on XP), is making sure you have more than 512mb RAM - XP runs well with what you're doing with 1gb RAM. With a clean up it will perform as well as any new system.

steve773000

Ok. I have pulled the cables from the old hdd and connected the new hdd in its place. When I open CMOS in setup the new hdd is not shown where the old one was before i disconnected it.

Does this mean it is a faulty hdd?

I am using XP and have 1.21gb RAM after I added a new card a year or so ago.

The old hdd was connected to SATA 0. The new one was connected to SATA 1. In CMOS it lists IDE Channel 0 master, 0 slave, 1 master, 1 slave, 2 master, 3 master. 1 master shows dvd drive. 2 master shows old hdd. all others show none. there are 2 sata ports on the board and 2 ide ports, one of which connects to the dvd drive. Hope you can help??

robmar0se

A thought occurs to me - we're assuming it is a sata drive - if so and you plugged it in to the same cables as your old hdd then it does rather suggest a dud hdd - retail wd hdd's usually have a 3 yr warranty.

If however, and this is just a thought, it is a pata (eide) drive, then you may need to ensure that the jumper is correctly set on both hdd's - with the eide wd hdd in my hand - one needs no jumper for one hdd, but for two you would need a jumper in both - if that makes sense? You would see a diagram on the label, hope it helps you.