SATA or EIDE drives

[Jeff Labute]

Round cables just look nicer, and may improve airflow through your case.
If you are gonna do round cables... personally, I like the UV reactive
cables which
are silver in color..but glow blue under UV light....hehehe. This looks
great if you have
a window on your case.

I just bought a maxtor 80GB with 8MB buffer in S-ata. I'll let ya' know how
it performs.

 

[Jeff Labute]

I agree totally.. Raid is the way to go... especially if you require fault
tolerance.
Are you using Raid 0 or Raid 1? I think Raid 1 would be awesome... more
performance... and a ready-made backup. If there much performance
degradation using raid 1? DOes the raid chip on board do a good job?

Thanks

Jeff

 

[Creeping Stone]

Round cables just look nicer,

Good round cables provide sheilding from EM interference for less errors
than flat ones at high ata rates -according to one of Maxtors articles.

 

[Vince]

Edwin, I just added a 160MB Seagate SATA drive as an additional drive,
not a boot drive nor in a RAID setup. (A7N8X Deluxe, XP SP1)

I move over the stuff I had on my secondary IDE drive to this SATA
drive. The SATA drive is replacing that secondary drive. I'm now
running all my office applications off the new SATA drive.

It does seem that Outlook loads quicker now than before.

Slick new interfaces for both data and power so if you do buy a SATA
drive, keep this in mind and purchase the cable and power adapter if
you don't already have them.

The cost is comparable to regular IDE(PATA) drives as well.

Vince

 

[DreamMaker]

Round cables just look nicer,

Good round cables provide sheilding from EM interference for less errors
than flat ones at high ata rates -according to one of Maxtors article

does this shielding em stuff is a standar or it come with some special
cable.?

 

[DreamMaker]

Round cables just look nicer, and may improve airflow through your case.
If you are gonna do round cables... personally, I like the UV reactive
cables which
are silver in color..but glow blue under UV light....hehehe. This looks
great if you have
a window on your case.

I just bought a maxtor 80GB with 8MB buffer in S-ata. I'll let ya' know how
it performs.

Hmm, i would love to know if it's a lot better.

Whoo ho!
thank you

 

[Creeping Stone]

Round cables just look nicer,

Good round cables provide sheilding from EM interference for less errors
than flat ones at high ata rates -according to one of Maxtors article

does this shielding em stuff is a standar or it come with some special
cable.?

I think its pretty standard - an earthed sheath of wire around the bunch of
'twisted pairs' -Just have to watch out for cheap ones which dont include
the sheath apparently.

 

[Courseyauto]

I think its pretty standard - an earthed sheath of wire around the bunch of
'twisted pairs' -Just have to watch out for cheap ones which dont include
the sheath apparently.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

I have the good ones and the cheap ones and they ALL work the same. DOUG

 

[DreamMaker]

Round cables just look nicer, and may improve airflow through your case.
If you are gonna do round cables... personally, I like the UV reactive
cables which
are silver in color..but glow blue under UV light....hehehe. This looks
great if you have
a window on your case.

I just bought a maxtor 80GB with 8MB buffer in S-ata. I'll let ya' know how
it performs.

After a good reading, i'm very happy to learn that i was correct with
my first choice 6y080po. witch i guess is build with one platter and
as the greater density disk space.

But i'm a little bit concern about the 6Y120p0-80. In the test they
use a 120g as a disk build up with 80gigs platter. 120gigs with 2
platter of 80gigs!!! That does'nt work at all. I guess it was a 3
platter of 40 gigs. for the test it should as use the 160 gigs disk???
or maybe it an error that repeat it's self all the way to the
conclusion...

that was a good article...

 

[Creeping Stone]

I have the good ones and the cheap ones and they ALL work the same. DOUG

Have you tested them by subjecting the system to elevated EM levels as can
occur in storm or intermittently from household appliances, while
monitoring ecc error rates?...or overclocking the PCI rate so the ATA rate
is increased to failing level and comparing the performance between the
cables?

 

[Courseyauto]

I have the good ones and the cheap ones and they ALL work the same. DOUG

Have you tested them by subjecting the system to elevated EM levels as can
occur in storm or intermittently from household appliances, while
monitoring ecc error rates?...or overclocking the PCI rate so the ATA rate
is increased to failing level and comparing the performance between the
cables?

I think its pretty standard - an earthed sheath of wire around the bunch of
'twisted pairs' -Just have to watch out for cheap ones which dont include
the sheath apparently.

[/QUOTE][/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

YES

 

[Creeping Stone]

Have you tested them by subjecting the system to elevated EM levels as can
occur in storm or intermittently from household appliances, while
monitoring ecc error rates?...or overclocking the PCI rate so the ATA rate
is increased to failing level and comparing the performance between the
cables?

Yes

Could be intresting - what experimental setup did you settle on?
You have some data on error levels per ata rate? And you noticed identical
performance from sheilded and unsheilded cables ? Some details please to
ratify these significant findings :]

 

[Courseyauto]

Yes

Could be intresting - what experimental setup did you settle on?
You have some data on error levels per ata rate? And you noticed identical
performance from sheilded and unsheilded cables ? Some details please to
ratify these significant findings :][/QUOTE][/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

I have 2 computers,both using round cables,both in different environments,both
have O errors. One is set up with raid O.
Cant say on shielded cables because i dont use them.
The whole bruhaha is about data corruption from the wires not being isolated
from each other with a ground wire between each signal wire like flat cables.
Shielded cables should not make data transfer any faster,so performance is the
same with or without shielded cables. DOUG

 

[Creeping Stone]

I have 2 computers,both using round cables,both in different environments,both
have O errors. One is set up with raid O.
Cant say on shielded cables because i dont use them.
The whole bruhaha is about data corruption from the wires not being isolated
from each other with a ground wire between each signal wire like flat cables.
Shielded cables should not make data transfer any faster,so performance is the
same with or without shielded cables. DOUG

Im not recommending that you upgrade your cables. But my system slows
considerably with slightly overclocked ata133 over a normal flat 80line
cable, due to high levels of ECC going on, and at normal 133 there is still
some ECC detected in the SMART log. I run with slightly overclocked ata100
at the moment with almost no ECC going on.

Im going to do what Maxtor recommend in their knowledgebase article on EM
interference and try a shielded round cable -for about the same price as
the plain flat one actualy, but Ive been warned elsewhere to check its
sheilded and not just a bodged 80line flat one.

Ok philosphy to avoid rip offs like gold plated HiFi cable, but I expect
that sheilded ATA is preferable to unsheilded for my circumstance at least.

 

[Courseyauto]

Im not recommending that you upgrade your cables. But my system slows
considerably with slightly overclocked ata133 over a normal flat 80line
cable, due to high levels of ECC going on, and at normal 133 there is still
some ECC detected in the SMART log. I run with slightly overclocked ata100
at the moment with almost no ECC going on.

Im going to do what Maxtor recommend in their knowledgebase article on EM
interference and try a shielded round cable -for about the same price as
the plain flat one actualy, but Ive been warned elsewhere to check its
sheilded and not just a bodged 80line flat one.

Ok philosphy to avoid rip offs like gold plated HiFi cable, but I expect
that sheilded ATA is preferable to unsheilded for my circumstance at least.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

If shielded cables are so necessary,why havn't flat shielded cables been
recomened . I have run my PCI buss overclocked but the improvment ewas so
small i quit. I now use raid O on one computer and a WDraptor drive on the
other,performance is execellant. SATA is the wave of the future,round cables
for them also?
Gold is not a good conductor,it's there for corrosion protection. DOUG

 

[Creeping Stone]

If shielded cables are so necessary,why havn't flat shielded cables been
recomened.

Well, there could be many such questions and answers, sheilding flat cables
would make them even more cumbursome for a start - they didnt bring out
80line flat cables until transfer rates required them (try using 40pin line
above ata 66) but they do apperently struggle at ata133 - ECC handling is
usualy going on (transparently) at the top speed. Most users dont know to
monitor that. Its the nature of the technology to max out the physical
properties of equipment standards before moving on, so ATA has reached 133
and wont be going much/any further. The Via IDE Miniport driver
automaticaly lowers the DMA mode when it detects ECC handling (nice driver
if only it still worked)

I have run my PCI buss overclocked but the improvment ewas so
small i quit.

My PCI is overclocked as a side effect of overclocked FSB -which is where
my real performance gain is -its out of curiousity as much as any practical
purpose.

I now use raid O on one computer and a WDraptor drive on the
other,performance is execellant.

Hmm, Raptor - Nice. ATA 100 is ok, but if your running ata133 over
unshielded cables, you could check SMART log for ECC error occurence.
I think its- "Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate", this can be very high without
being obvious while using windows.

SATA is the wave of the future,round cables for them also?

Skinny sheilded ones I think.

Gold is not a good conductor,it's there for corrosion protection. DOUG

iirc, its one of the best conductors for heat, electricity -and
inappropriate sales

--
' gathering moss,
andy

PS: Check your Newsreader -its ignoring sigs and consequently posting in
sigspace, likely to be a hinderance in the long run - awkward for many.

 

[Courseyauto]

I have run my PCI buss overclocked but the improvment ewas so
small i quit.

My PCI is overclocked as a side effect of overclocked FSB -which is where
my real performance gain is -its out of curiousity as much as any practical
purpose.

I now use raid O on one computer and a WDraptor drive on the
other,performance is execellant.

Hmm, Raptor - Nice. ATA 100 is ok, but if your running ata133 over
unshielded cables, you could check SMART log for ECC error occurence.
I think its- "Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate", this can be very high without
being obvious while using windows.

SATA is the wave of the future,round cables for them also?

Skinny sheilded ones I think.

Gold is not a good conductor,it's there for corrosion protection. DOUG

iirc, its one of the best conductors for heat, electricity -and
inappropriate sales

--
' gathering moss,
andy

PS: Check your Newsreader -its ignoring sigs and consequently posting in
sigspace, likely to be a hinderance in the long run - awkward for many.
My PCI buss is locked at 33, i have set it up to 37 but got errors at that.
Most later MB's will lock the PCI at 33 even though it doesn't show that way..
Sounds like you have an AMD motherboard?
My raid set up is 2 Maxtor 133 drives with round cables,O problems with
yet. Very fast and so far reliable.
Gold is not a good electirc conductor, silver is the best followed by
copper. Many people have this misconception that gold is good. DOUG

 

[Creeping Stone]

My PCI buss is locked at 33, i have set it up to 37 but got errors at that.
Most later MB's will lock the PCI at 33 even though it doesn't show that way..
Sounds like you have an AMD motherboard?

A7v8x-x, none of the KT series AMD chipsets have PCI locking.

My raid set up is 2 Maxtor 133 drives with round cables,O problems with
yet. Very fast and so far reliable.
Gold is not a good electirc conductor, silver is the best followed by
copper. Many people have this misconception that gold is good. DOUG

Thats intresting, though I brought up the gold plated speaker wires to
highlight the difference that the sheilded ATA cables arent an expensive
con, they *cost about the same*, are practicaly constructed in accord with
an established technique (use of sheilding) and are recommended, at least
by Maxtor for safest & best performance at High ATA rates.

-Select your own preference

 

[DreamMaker]

Hi all
After waiting 3 day western digital answer me for the question asked :
what are the best drive for a home pc user?

Ps: a was referring to the speed and transfer rate of data per one
disk, and all what we been discussed here.

Then they reponse by this provocating message...

An ATA 100 hard drive is capable of transferring UP TO 100mb per
second, but in reality will never reach that speed. The average
read/write of this drive in question is from 15-35mb per second. For
the speeds that you want to reach, there is currently no ATA drives
available in a single drive configuration. There is however an option
to make 2 or more drives act as 1 to increase performance. This is
called RAID-0 (striping) (Redundant Array of independent Disks). In
reality, you would hook up 2 or more drives to a special controller
card. The drives will act and show as 1 drive in windows, and thus
doubling the performance. A basic Web Search on RAID will explain more
on this topic.

+ that
a guess that's there best drive?
Title: Various EIDE drive data transfer rates.
Link:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=582&p_created=1033742259
On this page they say that ata 133 is not a signifiant factor for them
do make ata100 that why they are only making ata100.
!!strange!!

Title: Tips for searching our knowledge base.
Link:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=863&p_created=1038266941

Title: Specifications for the 250GB EIDE drive (model WD2500BB).
Link:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=932&p_created=1049408910

Title: Specifications for the 100GB EIDE drive (model WD1000BB).
Link:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=700&p_created=1037220954

Title: Specifications for the 120GB EIDE drive (model WD1200BB).
Link:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=703&p_created=1037222838

Title: Specifications for the 160GB EIDE drive (model WD1600BB).
Link:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=705&p_created=1037223045

Title: Specifications for the 180GB EIDE drive (model WD1800BB).
Link:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=706&p_created=1037223150

Now lets hope maxtor will follow soon.
cheer

 

[Courseyauto]

Thats intresting, though I brought up the gold plated speaker wires to
highlight the difference that the sheilded ATA cables arent an expensive
con, they *cost about the same*, are practicaly constructed in accord with
an established technique (use of sheilding) and are recommended, at least
by Maxtor for safest & best performance at High ATA rates.

-Select your own preference [/QUOTE][/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

Most gold on those cables are not real gold, sometimes they are just refering
to the color gold. Copper and silver tend to tarnish,making for bad
connections. most plating usually a gold color are there to keep the
connectors from tarnishing causing a bad connection. DOUG