BH6 disk drive upgrade?

I have a BH6 1.01 with the SS BIOS, 756 MB PC133 RAM and an 850 MHz Slot
1 PIII running Win98SE.

My 7200 RPM hard drives get around 4.8 MB/sec. My latest CD-RW claims to
be faster (52X is over 7 MB/sec) but doesn't write anywhere near that speed
(doing around 10X).

Seems to me the BH6's ATA33 interface is the limiting factor, so I was
wondering about putting an ATA IDE interface card in one of my PCI slots
when I upgrade my drives.

God idea? If so, which cards are good choices?


--
Jeff

================================================== =================
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Jeff Lindstrom wrote:

> Seems to me the BH6's ATA33 interface is the limiting factor, so I was
> wondering about putting an ATA IDE interface card in one of my PCI slots
> when I upgrade my drives.

WD bundles PROMISE ULTRA100 TX2 controllers with some of their retail drives
over 160MB, I believe. You can get a good deal with a rebate. That's what I
have. My CDRW and DVD drives are now on the ATA33. Newegg has the
ULTRA133 TX2 for $34...

Jeff Lindstrom wrote:
> I have a BH6 1.01 with the SS BIOS, 756 MB PC133 RAM and an 850 MHz Slot
> 1 PIII running Win98SE.
>
> My 7200 RPM hard drives get around 4.8 MB/sec.

Any 7200-rpm harddrive should be faster than that.
Are you sure UDMA is enabled for the drive?

> My latest CD-RW claims to
> be faster (52X is over 7 MB/sec) but doesn't write anywhere near that speed
> (doing around 10X).

(U)DMA enabled..?

"Jens C. Hansen [Odense]" <> wrote:

> Jeff Lindstrom wrote:
>> My 7200 RPM hard drives get around 4.8 MB/sec.

> Any 7200-rpm harddrive should be faster than that.

Even on an ATA-33 bus? That is what the BH6 uses, right?


> Are you sure UDMA is enabled for the drive?

According to the Device Manager, DMA is not enabled for these disks
(although Ultra DMA is enabled in the BIOS). I tried setting it and got a
warning that it could screw things up. I haven't tracked down the specs to
verify the two drives I have in there are capable of DMA (or is that solely
a function of the motherboard?).


>> My latest CD-RW claims to
>> be faster (52X is over 7 MB/sec) but doesn't write anywhere near that
>> speed (doing around 10X).
>
> (U)DMA enabled..?

I'll have to look into setting that.


--
Jeff

================================================== =================
NOTE: Remove underscores from my e-mail address to reply personally.

"Fishface" <?> wrote:

> WD bundles PROMISE ULTRA100 TX2 controllers with some of their retail
> drives over 160MB, I believe. You can get a good deal with a rebate.
> That's what I have. My CDRW and DVD drives are now on the ATA33.
> Newegg has the ULTRA133 TX2 for $34...

Thanks for the info. I wa sleaning towards a WD drive anyway (fluid
bearings and all).


--
Jeff

================================================== =================
NOTE: Remove underscores from my e-mail address to reply personally.

Jeff Lindstrom wrote:
>
> I enabled DMA in the Device Manager and got much faster speed (12-13
> MB/sec on the newer drive's partitions and ~8 MB/sec on the older drive's
> partitions).

Are the hard drives on the same cable?
What is the speed if you unplug the older drive?

> I also enabled DMA for the CD-RW and my recording speed did increase, but
> only to 14-16X from 8-10X. Top possible speed showing up in Roxio's
> selector is still 22X, nowhere near the CD-RW's 52X top speed.

22x burn-speed is equivalent to 3.3 MB/s, so that is still far from what
ATA-33 (UDMA mode 2) will do.

Maybe there is some other device sharing the interrupt(IRQ) used for the
IDE/ATA-interface?

"Jens C. Hansen [Odense]" <> wrote:

> Jeff Lindstrom wrote:

>> I enabled DMA in the Device Manager and got much faster speed (12-13
>> MB/sec on the newer drive's partitions and ~8 MB/sec on the older
>> drive's partitions).
>
> Are the hard drives on the same cable?

Yes, with the newer drive as the Master.


> What is the speed if you unplug the older drive?

Haven't checked that.


>> Top possible speed showing up in Roxio's
>> selector is still 22X, nowhere near the CD-RW's 52X top speed.

> 22x burn-speed is equivalent to 3.3 MB/s, so that is still far from
> what ATA-33 (UDMA mode 2) will do.
>
> Maybe there is some other device sharing the interrupt(IRQ) used for
> the IDE/ATA-interface?

Hhmmm... I will have to check that out, but I don't seem to recall that
being the case (it's been several years since I checked).


--
Jeff

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NOTE: Remove underscores from my e-mail address to reply personally.

Jeff Lindstrom wrote:
>
> The primary drive (40 GB, 7200 RPM) maintains the same ~13 MB/sec whether
> or not the 20 GB, 7200 RPM drive is in circuit or not.
>
> When both drives are in the system, all partitions except the last are
> over 11 MB/sec.

One last question, we are talking read speeds, right?

"Jens C. Hansen [Odense]" <> wrote:

> Ok - I just remembered, there is a problem with Win98(SE) and 512 MB
> RAM or more.
> ...
> Based on this, I would try running with only 512 or 256 MB RAM and
> test the speeds again.

I can do that easily enough, but my system seems quite stable.



>> IRQ 11 TBS Montego PCI Audio
>> IRQ 11 TBS Montego Multifunction PCI Platform
>> IRQ 11 Intel 82371AB/EB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
>> IRQ 11 IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
>>
>> I don't see any problem here. Do you?
>
> Apart from the soundcard sharing an IRQ with the USB Controller, no.
> Moving the soundcard to another PCI-slot will change that.
> Do you use USB for anything? If not, then I would disable it in bios.

I have a digital camera that uses USB. I'll try moving the sound card;
maybe that will speed up transfers.


--
Jeff

================================================== =================
NOTE: Remove underscores from my e-mail address to reply personally.

"Jens C. Hansen [Odense]" <> wrote:

> Jeff Lindstrom wrote:
>>
>> The primary drive (40 GB, 7200 RPM) maintains the same ~13 MB/sec
>> whether
>> or not the 20 GB, 7200 RPM drive is in circuit or not.
>>
>> When both drives are in the system, all partitions except the last
>> are over 11 MB/sec.
>
> One last question, we are talking read speeds, right?

The testing program is a Matrox utility with my Marvel TV video card (it
sets limits on video quality based on the destination's recording speed),
so no.

I can dig out another system checking tool, but I am assuming read speeds
are at least as fast as write speeds.


--
Jeff

================================================== =================
NOTE: Remove underscores from my e-mail address to reply personally.