Promise SATA card + Raptor WD + 120Gb WD SE + Optorite DVD writer

[Kamui]

Hi,

I am wondering if I should upgrade my computer to a Raptor HD. But my current motherboard (ABIT TH7) doesnt support SATA.

If I purchase the promise SATA card and connect a raptor WD, my current 120GB WD SE (using a convertor) and my optorite DVD-R drive, will my raptor performance be reduced because of the slower speed ratings of my later components?

Thanks
KaMUI

 

[SUOrangeman]

SATA is point-to-point, so there should be no performance degradation. I would not put the DVD drive on SATA, however. Maybe when drives actually come with SATA built in or they actually reach 33MB/s speeds.

I have the Promise SATA150TX4, a 36GB Raptor, two other SATA drives. I also have a WD1200JB that I have tried to connect to the 4th SATA port. To date, I have been unsuccessful with a Koutech and a HighPoint IDE-to-SATA converter. Promise support e-mailed me something else to try, but I'll have to buy another adapter to try it. :/

BTW, I am running my Promise controller at 66Mhz (64-bit/66MHz PCI slots on my mobo), so my performance results may be atypical. But I won't go back to 33MHz if I don't have to!

If you're considering any non-Windows operating systems, the Promise controller will likely give you a big uphill battle.

-SUO

 

[Josephus]

If you're just going to run one raptor on the non RAID Fastrack board, you won't lose any performance and it's probably a decent investment.

For the same money, you might be able to land a motherboard with a KT600 or KT800 chipset that has the SATA support in the chipset, which has much higher bandwidth than the PCI bus.

Raptors (in RAID) on the PCI bus is a poor investment in my opinion.