newbie Q: Whats a controller card ATA66 ATA100?

[bigobb]

Never heard of these before.

 

[Avalanche007]

They are used to connect more drives to your motherboard. Ultra 100 offer faster transfer speeds that Ultra 66.

 

[bigobb]

So I only would need it if I had a whole bunch of Hardrives?

 

[Mday]

since the pentium days, motherboards had 2 channels for up to 4 IDE drives. but let's say I wanted to use a 5th IDE drive, hard drive, or CD-ROM... well, i would get one of these cards which let me use a 5th drive, or a 6th drive, or a 7th, and 8th...

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typically the addition of a 5th drive, while MANDATING the addition of such a card, is not the only reason some choose to get them.

these addon cards take up one IRQ for both channels (2 channels, for 2 drives each = 4 more total) while the motherboard's controller uses one IRQ per channel (2 channels, for 2 drives each = 4 drives) which means 2 IRQs. so, the addon cards "free" up an IRQ. should the motherboard's controller not be "active" (disabled in the bios). or one of these onboard channels can be disabled (the secondary channel) which means, along with the card, oen could have up to 6 IDE drives using 2 IRQs.

another reason is that older motherboards don't detect the full capacity of modern drives, some 100 GB, compared to an older limit of the pentium machines of 8 GB. These cards (the newer the better) recognize the full capacity right away (some bugs exist sometimes). the other option should such a situation occur requires the use of something called a "software overlay" which tricks the computer into using the full capacity of the drive. though useful in its time, software overlay to fix such a problem (with capacity) is not recommended.

another benefit is that older motherboards do not support the ATA66 or ATA100, some don't even support ATA33. with these cards, you can utilize the full benefit of the drive's increased speed without the motherboard's obsolete controller hurting your performance. of course since CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or CD-RW drives exist fine on the motherboard since their transfer rates are so slow. (DMA aside).

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basically, if you have an old pentium, and want to add a new HDD, i would recommend getting one of these cards, which can be found for $40 in online stores (US). or if you have a new system and want to free up an IRQ or have more than 4 IDE drives or something...

 

[Mday]

i hate long replies ;-)

 

[bigobb]

Thanks that was very informative and helped me out a ton

 

[bacillus]

<< i hate long replies ;-) >>


lol
btw bigobb, in case you're still wondering, the card fits into a pci slot!