Promise Ultra100/133-TX2 ATA Controller Card(s)

[f1br0pt1kl]

I am in the market for a controller card. Depending on how the comments are on them; I will change the setup, but I still need one.

I have three drives, and two optical drives. I want to put two drives (important data) onto a controller card, but the question remains on the actualy controller card itself.

I heard that the Ultra100 specifically has problems corrupting data? If it happened in that one case; that's fine. I have plans to backup all of this data to CD in the near future (yes, it will take awhile), but I still would like to avoid it overall.

For anyone here who has a Promise Ultra100-TX2 or an Ultra133-TX2 Controller Card; could you please give me your comments on it? Mainly wondering if it messed up any data, but I'd still like to get overall general comments on them.

Thanks.

 

[Jeff H]

f1br0pt1kl, I purchased an Ultra133-TX2 card last spring, in anticipation of utilizing it in a system I was planning to build. As it turned out I bought a mobo w/ an onboard HiPoint controller, so the Promise card sat out. I attempted to put it in my daughter's system, which consists of a Soyo 6BA+III board. I followed the instructions for installing the board in an existing Win98 setup. Didn't get any conflicts in Device Mgr., but after the first boot I would get Windows Protection Errors. I was able to pull the card and return to healthy Win98 operation. I emailed Promise and they said to look for conflicts.

I recently installed that same card in my neighbor's Asus CUSL2-C. This time I did the install differently. I placed the card in a PCI slot, but did not hook the boot drive up to it. When Windows detected the card I pointed the install to the floppy drivers and rebooted. After the reboot I shut the system down and hooked up the boot drive to the first IDE channel on the card. No conflicts, and no issues w/ Windows Protection Errors. My neighbor' system has been running fine since the install Monday, and you can visually see a difference in boot time and system performance.

If I had to guess what went wrong on the first install I'd chalk it up to the age of the mobo and its BIOS. FWIW we didn't need to do a BIOS update to my neighbor's system. Just remember not to put the optical drives on the Promise controller. These type of cards don't play nice w/ optical drives. you might want to consider putting your three hard drives on the Promise controller, and then your two optical drives separately on the two onboard controller channels, as masters. This was you'll optimize your ability to do direct disc to disc transfers and copies, if that's something you do on a regular basis.

 

[Regalk]

I just got me a Promise Ultra Tx100 (didn't want the 133 since I do not think those speeds are sustainable) and it works fine for me. It even takes FSB overclocking well.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Jeff H
These type of cards don't play nice w/ optical drives. you might want to consider putting your three hard drives on the Promise controller, and then your two optical drives separately on the two onboard controller channels, as masters. This was you'll optimize your ability to do direct disc to disc transfers and copies, if that's something you do on a regular basis.

Hmm, maybe that's the problem I had with a SIIG IDE controller...it works ok with my zip drive on it now, but if I connect my CDRW, it causes Windows 2000 to lock up during the part of the boot process where the windows logo screen with the progress bar is showing. Does that sound familiar?

 

[JackBurton]

f1br0pt1kl, I've had an Ultra 133 TX2 for awhile now and it has been nothing short of perfect. It is in my server which runs 24/7 and is responsible for managing three of my hard drives that hold all of my crucial data. Just make sure you get the latest BIOS and drivers for it if you are running Windows 2000. It is a MUST if you have SP3 installed.

 

[JellyBaby]

I have the Ultra133-TX2. It runs a DVD drive just fine and recently I added an old 30 GB HD as well. No problems.

Works fine with XP though I believe the installation instructions are a bit different for that OS IIFC.

My only gripe is the added boot time when the controller performs device detection but that's an annoyance of every add-in IDE controller, not just the Promise.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

I had suspected that my onboard Promise 133 corrupted my HD.... Maybe this was true.
I use my main IDE channels now.