ATA133 + ATA66 = ???

[GTaudiophile]

I am going to be building a new system soon, and my intent is to get a Maxtor DX740 40.0GB 7200rpm ATA133 drive to use as my Primary Master. I am going to keep one of my current drives, a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 27.2GB 7200rpm ATA66 drive, and intend to use it as my Primary Slave. Will these drives only run at ATA66 (the lowest of the two) if they are on the same channel? In order to maximize the speed available on the 40.0GB, should I run it as PM, and the 27.2GB as SM?

 

[ku]

do the PM and SM. That is the only gaurentee that both will run at optimum speeds.

 

[zmzhang]

If they are one the same channel, they will both run at ATA66. I would put the ATA133 as Primary Master and the ATA 66 as Secondary Master.

 

[GTaudiophile]

So, to take full-advantage of the ATA133, you'd do the following:

PM: Maxtor 40.0GB ATA133
PS: Toshiba SD-M1602 DVD-ROM
SM: Maxtor 27.2GB ATA66
SS: Plextor 16/10/40A

I am planning on getting the MSI 845 Ultra-ARU (i845-B). I have never messed with RAID before, so knowing that is an option, what configuration would you have?

 

[zmzhang]

PM: Maxtor 40.0GB ATA133
PS: Toshiba SD-M1602 DVD-ROM
SM: Maxtor 27.2GB ATA66
SS: Plextor 16/10/40A

I think the Toshiba DVD and the Plextor are both ATA33. (Correct me if i'm wrong). If you set it up like that, then both harddrives would be running at ATA 33. If you want to take the full advantage of the speed, then I would go get an ide controler, or see if it is possible to use the raid controler on that motherboard just as an controler.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Zmzhang, if you are correct, I'll do PM/PS on the harddrives and SM/SS on the DVD/CD-RW drives. I'll also look into using the RAID controller, though I really didn't plan on using it.

 

[CocaCola5]

Those larger Maxtor drive usually come with a controller card try to find one that includes it, then put your drives on the card as masters and those ATA 33 drives on the motherboard.

 

[Duvie]

good lord!!! This must be asked once a week...

< If they are one the same channel, they will both run at ATA66. I would put the ATA133 as Primary Master and the ATA 66 as Secondary Master. >

This guy doesn't know what he is talking about....

Newer board detect devices on the channel independently....

The only issues of diminished performance would be if writing from hdd to hdd since they are both on the same channel...however since most hdd's don't even use the alotted bandwidth it isn't that much of a performance hit.

 

[GT578]

I know that this isn't an option you mentioned, but set the maxtor on primary master without a primary slave. I had a seagate ATA66 hooked up as a primary slave to my IBM60GXP and it slowed the IBM down. I recently re-installed my promise Ultra100 controller to see if separating the two would make the IBM faster....and it did ....its really noticeable for me...but thats probably just in my case.


I have a KT133A board.....and it does detect each independently...but the speed is still hindered by the slower drive........thats what I experienced anyways.

 

[gimlids]

It is most likely possible to use the raid controller as an ata controller, no reason it shouldn't. if you really want to cruise, although i know not how much better this is than the alternative, put each of your four devices on it's own channel (utilizing both the on board ata and the on board raid).

 

[Duvie]

< I have a KT133A board.....and it does detect each independently...but the speed is still hindered by the slower drive........thats what I experienced anyways. >

I had a kt133 board and did not experience this...Like I said I knew I would get a performance ding when writing to the other harddrive on the same channel. However when I benched the drives both on same channel, both on separate channels, and later on ata100 controller there wasn't any real difference between the first 2 and the controller in my case was a bit slower but whether I felt it in real world performance was questionable....IN this test it was with a 15gig 7200rpm ata100 and a 13.6gig 7200rpm ata66. Every drive beched accordingly to comparable systems and default test systems...

I have sis735 now with hdds temporary on the same channel and my 40gigs benches amazing high...burst speed off the charts...max transfer 41000...avg 39000...read/seek time at 9.9ms. Sissoft test ranks 2-3000 above their ata100 7200rpm drive. I feel no performance drag.

 

[CAMS]

zmzhang
"If they are one the same channel, they will both run at ATA66."

Thats been wong for a few years now. I have even hooked up a LS120 slave to an ATA100 HDrive master. It had no effect on HDTach benchmarks. Burst of the scale at 80mb/s average 32mb/s.