Good IDE card for ATAPI drives?

[Evenkeel]

I need to add more DVD burners to my system. I have an Intel 925XCV mobo. The 4 SATA ports are in use by hard drives, and will stay that way. This mobo only has a single IDE channel/port, so I can only have 2 ATAPI IDE DVD drives installed.

I know I could go external w/an enclosure, but I'd rather add internal drives. I have both PCI and PCI Express slots open in my system. I know that some add-in IDE cards are better for hard drives, and some are better for optical drives. I have plenty of power from my PSU for the extra drives.

I'm asking this here, because I've read that some add-in IDE cards can be very problematic. Can you suggest a few brands/model #'s of some IDE cards that would work?

 

[StormRider]

From my experience, IDE cards that use the Silicon Image (formerly CMD) chips are usually the most compatible with optical drives.

 

[Evenkeel]

Originally posted by: StormRider
From my experience, IDE cards that use the Silicon Image (formerly CMD) chips are usually the most compatible with optical drives.

What about this one?

SIIG card

Neither Newegg, nor the manufacturer's website, say what chipset it uses.

Or how about this one:

Adaptec card

Thanks for your help.

 

[StormRider]

I've had some SIIG IDE cards that used the Silicon Image chip but unfortunately they always cover up the chip with their sticker so I'm not sure which chip that particular card uses.

I have no idea which chip the Adaptec card uses.

Here's a card that uses the Silicon Image chip:

Computer Geeks

I have a card that uses this chipset (Silicon Image 680) and it works fine with a Panasonic DVD-RAM/-R drive I have.

 

[Zepper]

One of the best of the SiliconImage based adapters is the LSI MegaRAID ATA 133-2 card. Newegg sells it new for about $50 +sh - right now they have some refurbs for about $35.. But if you want the same card for much less... then slide on over to the geeks.com and grab the $20. one (the IBM one) - now don't tell anyone else about it <wink, wink - nudge,nudge> or there might not be any left for me...
. That kit was packaged as an optional upgrade for their business grade PCs/servers and sold for about $130. from IBM - and you know that IBM doesn't stint on the components for their business machines. It includes the LSI MegaRAID card plus you get four cables, regular and longer ones for server cases!!! The other one from the geeks and referenced above, comes with only one cable.

.bh.

 

[Evenkeel]

Originally posted by: Zepper
One of the best of the SiliconImage based adapters is the LSI MegaRAID ATA 133-2 card. Newegg sells it new for about $50 +sh - right now they have some refurbs for about $35.. But if you want the same card for much less... then slide on over to the geeks.com and grab the $20. one (the IBM one) - now don't tell anyone else about it <wink, wink - nudge,nudge> or there might not be any left for me...
. That kit was packaged as an optional upgrade for their business grade PCs/servers and sold for about $130. from IBM - and you know that IBM doesn't stint on the components for their business machines. It includes the LSI MegaRAID card plus you get four cables, regular and longer ones for server cases!!! The other one from the geeks and referenced above, comes with only one cable.

This looks to be a nice card, but is it exactly what I need? I looked at it on Newegg, then on LSI Logic's website, and it seems to be meant for RAID configs. The user manual on LSI's site did say that the card supports UDMA modes 0-6, so that does cover what a DVD burner would need, but I've heard that using cards meant primarily for RAID can cause problems when used on systems that (1) need an IDE card only for optical drives, and (2) some IDE/RAID cards don't allow you to disable RAID.

I skimmed the user's manual, and didn't see a way to disable RAID altogether. This is of concern to me, because my SATA hard drives are already running thru the onboard Intel RAID 0 BIOS setup. I'd be concerned that I would run into conflicts, if two different RAID BIOS's were trying to load.

I also didn't see anything in the manual or on the site, that mentioned CD/DVD drives were okay to use w/this card. The primary use, as you said, and as the site says many times, is to set up RAID in servers.

So would this card actually work for my comparatively low-tech needs: i.e. just running 2-3 more DVD drives? Or would it just cause me problems? I ask, because the other two cards in my earlier post specifically mention that they can be used w/DVD drives, and the Adaptec card specs do mention that it is not a RAID card.

 

[Zepper]

This card is basically the same as the Syba or Koutech models based on the same SI chip. The SI chip can run anything from the slowest Zip100 or LS-120 SuperDisk, ATAPI drives (opticals) up to the fastest HDs. It's the most flexible chip around. You may want to check all three web sites for the latest updated drivers and info: IBM.com, LSILogic.com and SiliconImage.com. If you plan to use for opticals only, you might not even need to use any drivers.

But I can see why you might be uncomfortable as nothing is mentioned about ATAPI in LSI or IBM's docs (except that ATAPI drives should not be connected to the RAID controller as they are not supported - LSI must have done something hinky in their firmware).

. So go ahead and get the Syba controller from newegg. But it only comes with one cable so you should order another 80-wire cable at the same time unless you already have one.
And all drives on an SI controller should be set to Cable Select.

.bh.