hardware upgrade, HDD, RAM etc

[Charlie Kravetz]

On Sat, 2008-03-22 at 03:27 +0100, Zhengguo Xu wrote:
> thanks Charlie, i guess i didn't state it clearly. I knew ATA and SATA
> is different. what i didn't know is WHETHER my driver IS ATA OR NOT.
> there's "IDE/ATA" printed on it but in the Device Manager i saw sth
> like "serial ATA", that would mean SATA. So i was confused. is there
> any command i can type to determine it?
> 
> about the memory. my cpu FSB is 533MHz, same as the memory bus. what i
> want to know is if i want to change memory card, can i use the new
> memory card with HIGHER BUS LIKE 667MHz instead of 533MHz? 
> 
> sorry for the ambiguity in my writing.
> 
> On 22/03/2008, Charlie Kravetz <cjk at teamcharliesangels.com> wrote:
>         
>         On Sat, 2008-03-22 at 02:42 +0100, Zhengguo Xu wrote:
>         > Hi all,
>         >
>         > i was  considering upgrade HDD and memory of my Dell
>         Inspiron 9300
>         > laptop and have a couple of questions.
>         >
>         > 1. from the purchase list i got when i bought the laptop, i
>         have a
>         > "100GB IDE hard drive" and when i took the driver out
>         there's "Hitachi
>         > IDE/ATA" printed on it. the HDD i wanted (at low price in
>         store) is
>         > simply said "HDD 250GB SATA" for laptop. now, from the
>         limited
>         > knowledge i have, ATA, or PATA, is different from SATA. does
>         it mean i
>         > cannot use this SATA drive in my laptop? however, when i
>         looked in
>         > Ubuntu's "Device Manager", it has sth like
>         >
>         "/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/storage_serial_1ATA_Hitachi_HTS7210........" the phase "serial_1ATA" appeared quite lot. does it mean SATA? I'm a newbie so got a little confused. any help here?
>         >
>         > 2. i had Intel Pentium M 780 CPU with FSB 533MHz. my old
>         memory card
>         > is 1GB at 533MHz memory bus. the memory card in the store is
>         DDR2
>         > 2048/667, i guess that means 2048MB at 667MHz memory bus
>         (same price
>         > as the one with 533MHz). so, can i use this new card?
>         >
>         > if i need provide more infomation, what command should i
>         type? i'm not
>         > a fan of command-line so a hint here is necessary.
>         >
>         > many thanks.
>         >
>         
>         I can help with part of this, but someone else will step in
>         with more
>         information, please.
>         
>         The hard drives are _not_ the same. PATA is a "Parallel
>         Advanced
>         Technology Attachment", also known as IDE and ATAPI
>         interfaces. SATA is
>         "Serial ATA", and uses an entirely differently connector.
>         These two
>         drives are not the same and can not be swapped for each other.
>         
>         The memory, is another story. You first mention the speed of
>         the Front
>         Side Bus (FSB) which is not the memory bus. A 533 FSB does not
>         mean
>         533Mhz memory, as my own system is running a 1.5Ghz cpu with
>         memory that
>         is 512MB, DDR400 DIMMs that run at either 400Mhz or 333Mhz,
>         depending on
>         the actual cpu in the motherboard at the time.
>         --
>         Charlie Kravetz
>         Linux Registered User Number
>         425914          [http://counter.li.org/]
>         Never let anyone steal your DREAM.
>         [http://keepingdreams.com]
>         
>         
No problem. I'll try again. But let's try not to top post, okay?

If your drive has "IDE/ATA" printed on it, it is not SATA. Ubuntu
started using sd? to designate drives with version 6.06, Dapper Drake.
This was to conform with new libata code (in the kernel). And, yes, it
does cause confusion for us trying to figure out just what the drive
really is. Sometimes you can install "hwinfo" (use Synaptic Package
Manager) to help identify the hardware more correctly. Most of the time,
the labels on the item itself is the best way.

As for the memory, having worked for Dell, if you go to the Dell support
website and put in your Service Tag, you should be able to get a listing
of compatible memory modules and speeds. To the best of my humble
knowledge, DDR2/667 memory is not compatible with your system,
officially.

good luck and I hope this helps a little,

-- 
Charlie Kravetz 
Linux Registered User Number 425914          [http://counter.li.org/]
Never let anyone steal your DREAM.           [http://keepingdreams.com]