Help with ATA controller card

[VegasATO]

My new 30GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 hdd (7200 rpm) is plugged directly into my old Gateway motherboard. The mobo only supports ATA 33...here is a link to the specs for the IDE part of it:

http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/INTEL/m00264/m0026410.shtml

Anyway...would I benefit a decent amount if I bought an ATA 100 PCI controller card, and just plugged my hdd into that? They're pretty cheap, and if I can squeeze a little more speed out of my new hard drive, it would be worth it.

Sorry for the newb question, and thanks in advance =)

 

[EeyoreX]

In this particular case, you would likely get some more speed out of the drive using a controller card. Under ATA66/100/133 maximum burst speeds tend to be about 60MB/s (this is generally not sustained speeds), above what ATA33 can provide. For that alone, I would go for the controller card.

\Dan

 

[bacillus]

the controller card will allow you to use the max performance of that hdd!

 

[VegasATO]

Ok I just got the new ATA controller card and connected my HDD to it. Everything booted up fine, and I get some sort of Raid bios screen. Not sure what that is, but Win XP still boots up like normal. Is there way to test to see if I'm getting more speed now? I didn't notice a difference in boot up, so I'm not sure if this is working correctly. Thanks again =)