4PI Fire Dragon Upgrades?

Hi, I want to add a little more power to my old Fire Dragon mainboard.
I'm not looking to build a totally new machine for a few months, but
just need some extra power to get me through half life 2.

Anyway, does anyone know how large a hard drive I can add to the high
point IDE controller? I've got a painfully full 100 Gig drive right
now. Will a 200 Gig drive work? 250?

Also, can the board accept a 2.5GHz P4? I didn't find a source of 2.4
Gig P4s at price grabber, but there was s 2.5GHz in a 478 package.

Thanks,

John

Johns.junk wrote:
> Hi, I want to add a little more power to my old Fire Dragon
mainboard.
> I'm not looking to build a totally new machine for a few months, but
> just need some extra power to get me through half life 2.
>
> Anyway, does anyone know how large a hard drive I can add to the high
> point IDE controller? I've got a painfully full 100 Gig drive right
> now. Will a 200 Gig drive work? 250?
>
> Also, can the board accept a 2.5GHz P4? I didn't find a source of
2.4
> Gig P4s at price grabber, but there was s 2.5GHz in a 478 package.
>
> Thanks,
>
> John

John,

Your Fire Dragon is a great board. I had one when they first came out.
But finding a new cpu for this board is getting to be harder to do each
day that passes. You Fire Dragon will only accept a 400Mhz P-4 places
like NewEgg don't even carry them anymore. But if you go to
PriceWatch.com you will still find them, I just looked and they had
listings for 2.6Ghz 400Mhz processors, but I don't recomend buying from
the first company listed (tigerdirect). This site lists the products
and where you can get them at. If your looking locally just remember
the socket 478 cpu's come in 400Mhz, 533Mhz, and 800Mhz but the Fire
Dragon supports only the 400Mhz models.

On your hard drive question, if your using BIOS 2ba2 or 2ba3 you have
support for hard drives larger then 137gb on all your IDE connections.
If you need to update the bios you will also need to update the
Highpoint driver as well.

> day that passes. You Fire Dragon will only accept a 400Mhz P-4 places
> like NewEgg don't even carry them anymore. But if you go to
> PriceWatch.com you will still find them, I just looked and they had
> listings for 2.6Ghz 400Mhz processors, but I don't recomend buying
from

Can the Fire Dragon set a clock ratio of 26x? I know it can do 24x,
and I see those listed at pricewatch. But, I can't find anything that
says the 4PI has anything greater than a 24x ratio setting. Was there
an update in a later bios?

>
> On your hard drive question, if your using BIOS 2ba2 or 2ba3 you have
> support for hard drives larger then 137gb on all your IDE
connections.
> If you need to update the bios you will also need to update the
> Highpoint driver as well.

I have those, but what is the limit? Can I add a 250Gig drive?

Thanks again,

John

Well after doing some digging I couldn't find anything that shows
support on the Fire Dragon greater the 2Ghz. The manual says it
supports any 400Mhz cpu but then again its older then the last of the
400Mhz cpu's. If your sure it will support the 2.4 you can find those
listed on Pricewatch.

As to your hard drive, if your running WinXP with Service Pack 2 you
should have 48-bit hard drive support and should have no problems. But
also remember your motherboard will hold 4 IDE drives on IDE 1 & 2, it
will also run 4 hard drives on IDE 3 & 4 on the highpoint controller as
well. So you really don't need a drive that size, unless you want one
or have already bought it. Just also remember the larger the hard drive
capacity the longer the seek time on reading the drive. Let alone the
longer formatting time.

I'm not having much luck installing a Hitachi 160 GB hard drive on my Fire
Dragon. I do have WinXP Service Pack 2. It will only see 137GB of the
drive. Using Ontrack Disk Manager that came with the drive didn't help. It
only saw 137GB as well. I tried to update my bios but it said my bios is
"write protected" and that I needed to turn this off to install the bios. I
can't find any reference in my Soyo documentation concerning turning off
bios write protection. PLEASE HELP!

Thanks.

BigSky
<> wrote in message
news: ups.com...
> Well after doing some digging I couldn't find anything that shows
> support on the Fire Dragon greater the 2Ghz. The manual says it
> supports any 400Mhz cpu but then again its older then the last of the
> 400Mhz cpu's. If your sure it will support the 2.4 you can find those
> listed on Pricewatch.
>
> As to your hard drive, if your running WinXP with Service Pack 2 you
> should have 48-bit hard drive support and should have no problems. But
> also remember your motherboard will hold 4 IDE drives on IDE 1 & 2, it
> will also run 4 hard drives on IDE 3 & 4 on the highpoint controller as
> well. So you really don't need a drive that size, unless you want one
> or have already bought it. Just also remember the larger the hard drive
> capacity the longer the seek time on reading the drive. Let alone the
> longer formatting time.
>

Same MB with 200GB drive. I had the same problem. The fix was to install the
updated High Point controller driver v.2.3.2 from Soyo's download page.
K

"BigSky" <> wrote in message
news:%Z44e.1005$Ut1.708@fed1read01...
> I'm not having much luck installing a Hitachi 160 GB hard drive on my Fire
> Dragon. I do have WinXP Service Pack 2. It will only see 137GB of the
> drive. Using Ontrack Disk Manager that came with the drive didn't help.
> It only saw 137GB as well. I tried to update my bios but it said my bios
> is "write protected" and that I needed to turn this off to install the
> bios. I can't find any reference in my Soyo documentation concerning
> turning off bios write protection. PLEASE HELP!
>
> Thanks.
>
> BigSky



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That's interesting because other posts I've read say you need to have the
latest version of the bios before installing the updated High Point Driver.



"K" <NEWS.Usenet-Access.com> wrote in message news:42532897$1_2@127.0.0.1...
> Same MB with 200GB drive. I had the same problem. The fix was to install
the
> updated High Point controller driver v.2.3.2 from Soyo's download page.
> K
>
> "BigSky" <> wrote in message
> news:%Z44e.1005$Ut1.708@fed1read01...
> > I'm not having much luck installing a Hitachi 160 GB hard drive on my
Fire
> > Dragon. I do have WinXP Service Pack 2. It will only see 137GB of the
> > drive. Using Ontrack Disk Manager that came with the drive didn't help.
> > It only saw 137GB as well. I tried to update my bios but it said my
bios
> > is "write protected" and that I needed to turn this off to install the
> > bios. I can't find any reference in my Soyo documentation concerning
> > turning off bios write protection. PLEASE HELP!
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > BigSky
>
>
>
> ----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet
News==----
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Newsgroups
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=----

Instead of relying on "other posts you have read", go to the Soyo web site
for the correct information. I told you what worked for me. Take it or leave
it.
K

"Big Sky" <> wrote in message
> That's interesting because other posts I've read say you need to have the
> latest version of the bios before installing the updated High Point
> Driver.

> "K" <NEWS.Usenet-Access.com> wrote in message
> news:42532897$1_2@127.0.0.1...
>> Same MB with 200GB drive. I had the same problem. The fix was to install
> the
>> updated High Point controller driver v.2.3.2 from Soyo's download page.
>> K

>> "BigSky" <> wrote in message
>> > I'm not having much luck installing a Hitachi 160 GB hard drive on my
> Fire
>> > Dragon. I do have WinXP Service Pack 2. It will only see 137GB of the
>> > drive. Using Ontrack Disk Manager that came with the drive didn't
>> > help.
>> > It only saw 137GB as well. I tried to update my bios but it said my
> bios
>> > is "write protected" and that I needed to turn this off to install the
>> > bios. I can't find any reference in my Soyo documentation concerning
>> > turning off bios write protection. PLEASE HELP!
>> >
>> > Thanks.
>> >
>> > BigSky



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Listen "K"niption,

When I said "That's interesting...", I meant it from a purely from the
perspective of a person who loves computers and is amazed at all the nuances
that seem to exist. There wasn't an ounce of smart ass or malice in my
comment back to you. Assuming you had also explored multiple paths like me,
I was only hoping to delve deeper into the issue of driver vs BIOS updates.
Had I known I was talking to Oracle of Delphi ("Take it or leave it"), I
would've just answered with "Thank you." My mistake. I apologize.

A faceless Internet is not an excuse for a lack of courtesy.

Regards.

"K" <NEWS.Usenet-Access.com> wrote in message news:42560a6a$1_1@127.0.0.1...
> Instead of relying on "other posts you have read", go to the Soyo web site
> for the correct information. I told you what worked for me. Take it or
leave
> it.
> K
>
> "Big Sky" <> wrote in message
> > That's interesting because other posts I've read say you need to have
the
> > latest version of the bios before installing the updated High Point
> > Driver.
>
> > "K" <NEWS.Usenet-Access.com> wrote in message
> > news:42532897$1_2@127.0.0.1...
> >> Same MB with 200GB drive. I had the same problem. The fix was to
install
> > the
> >> updated High Point controller driver v.2.3.2 from Soyo's download page.
> >> K
>
> >> "BigSky" <> wrote in message
> >> > I'm not having much luck installing a Hitachi 160 GB hard drive on my
> > Fire
> >> > Dragon. I do have WinXP Service Pack 2. It will only see 137GB of
the
> >> > drive. Using Ontrack Disk Manager that came with the drive didn't
> >> > help.
> >> > It only saw 137GB as well. I tried to update my bios but it said my
> > bios
> >> > is "write protected" and that I needed to turn this off to install
the
> >> > bios. I can't find any reference in my Soyo documentation concerning
> >> > turning off bios write protection. PLEASE HELP!
> >> >
> >> > Thanks.
> >> >
> >> > BigSky
>
>
>
> ----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet
News==----
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Newsgroups
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You misunderstand. I referred you to the manufactures web site, not because
I'm right or wrong, but so you could fine the correct information.
K

"Big Sky" <> wrote in message
> Listen "K"niption,
>
> When I said "That's interesting...", I meant it from a purely from the
> perspective of a person who loves computers and is amazed at all the
> nuances
> that seem to exist. There wasn't an ounce of smart ass or malice in my
> comment back to you. Assuming you had also explored multiple paths like
> me,
> I was only hoping to delve deeper into the issue of driver vs BIOS
> updates.
> Had I known I was talking to Oracle of Delphi ("Take it or leave it"), I
> would've just answered with "Thank you." My mistake. I apologize.
>
> A faceless Internet is not an excuse for a lack of courtesy.
>
> Regards.
>
> "K" <NEWS.Usenet-Access.com> wrote in message
> news:42560a6a$1_1@127.0.0.1...
>> Instead of relying on "other posts you have read", go to the Soyo web
>> site
>> for the correct information. I told you what worked for me. Take it or
> leave
>> it.
>> K
>>
>> "Big Sky" <> wrote in message
>> > That's interesting because other posts I've read say you need to have
> the
>> > latest version of the bios before installing the updated High Point
>> > Driver.
>>
>> > "K" <NEWS.Usenet-Access.com> wrote in message
>> > news:42532897$1_2@127.0.0.1...
>> >> Same MB with 200GB drive. I had the same problem. The fix was to
> install
>> > the
>> >> updated High Point controller driver v.2.3.2 from Soyo's download
>> >> page.
>> >> K
>>
>> >> "BigSky" <> wrote in message
>> >> > I'm not having much luck installing a Hitachi 160 GB hard drive on
>> >> > my
>> > Fire
>> >> > Dragon. I do have WinXP Service Pack 2. It will only see 137GB of
> the
>> >> > drive. Using Ontrack Disk Manager that came with the drive didn't
>> >> > help.
>> >> > It only saw 137GB as well. I tried to update my bios but it said my
>> > bios
>> >> > is "write protected" and that I needed to turn this off to install
> the
>> >> > bios. I can't find any reference in my Soyo documentation
>> >> > concerning
>> >> > turning off bios write protection. PLEASE HELP!
>> >> >
>> >> > Thanks.
>> >> >
>> >> > BigSky
>>
>>
>>
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> Newsgroups
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>
>



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