ECS K7S5A Pro and HDD ATA100 controller

[beaver]

Two kinds of ECS K7S5A board I have at my home: K7S5A and K7S5A Pro.
AMD 1400MHz + ECS K7S5A + Maxtor 40GB HDD on Maxtor HDD ATA100 controller runs fast and fine. In BIOS setting, HDD with ATA100 controller and HDD w/o can use the same: IDE0 (or IDE1)
AMD 1800+ + ECS K7S5A Pro + Maxtor 40GB HDD on Maxtor HDD ATA100 controller runs apparently slow. W/o Maxtor HDD ATA100 controller, bios setting is IDE0 (or IDE1) but if HDD with Maxtor HDD ATA100 controller, bios setting has to be ?ULTRA DO? or PC not boot at all. Each time I click HDD to open a file folder, I have to wait maybe one second to get the folder open. I was thinking AMD1800+ should be much faster than my AMD 1.4Ghz.

In device manager, no any yellow question mark. I tried on different PCI slots. Same slow. tried win98 and winMe also. Did anybody here have similar experience? What?s your bios setting?

Thanks.

 

[DieHardware]

On any board where the IDE channels are connected through the chipset manufacturer's faster proprietary bus to the Southbridge I'd leave the HDD (s) on the MB's IDE channels. And I'd leave one or more of my slower ODDs on the controller card which is on the slower PCI bus. I'm sure Peter will correct me if the K7S5A IDE channels are connected through the PCI bus.

As for you're setup, which BIOS version is installed on the PRO?

 

[Peter]

Not at all. SiS have been pioneering the idea "put the IDE controllers on a fast internal chipset connection" way back in the 486 days (!), and of course it's been staying that way ever since. Nowhere else is using a PCI IDE card a worse move than here.

 

[beaver]

the bios dated on 1/21/2003 S.

So Peter
1. Do you have correct setting for Maxtor HDD ATA100 controller on K7S5A Pro? "IDE0", or BBS "ULTRA DO"? why setting on K7S5A Pro is not the same as K7S5A?
2. is it common that AMD 1800+ slower than AMD 1.4GHz? So far I didnot get any problem except the HDD folder open slow.
3. Any specific PCI slot for Maxtor HDD ATA100 controller on K7S5A Pro? I tried next one and next two PCI slots away from the AGP slot. IRQ 10 is assigned (default) to the Maxtor HDD ATA100 controller.

Thanks

 

[robcy]

I dont get it. Are you running your HD's on a PCI card? or are you connecting them to the MB's IDE channels?

The diffrence between a AMD1400 and a 1800+ is not that noticeable in everyday use like Web browsing, Word, email. You will notice the diffrence under strees, like gaming, SETI, mp3 to WAV conversion and so on.

 

[Peter]

beaver, when a drive is on a controller that brings its own BIOS, the drive is registered with system BIOS through BBS services. The string you see there is whatever that 3rd party controller BIOS chose to submit. So, your BBS "ULTRA D0" choice seems perfectly right.

IRQs and choice of PCI slot don't matter. What matters is that the PCI bus in itself is substantially slower than the board's own IDE channels.