P4P800-E Deluxe and ATA133 Hard drives

[ziggs]

I'm looking at the manual and I'm a bit confused. I have two Ata133
hard drives and I'm trying to figure out where to hook them up. The
documentation states that the PRI_IDE1 and SEC_IDE2 can handle
UltraDMA 100/66 IDE hard disk ribbon cable. So I'm assuming that
these slot won't handle the Ata133. Also, there is a PRI_RAID that
supports RAID ATA133/100/66/33 connector.

First off, I would assume that I need to use the 80 pin ribbon that
came with the hard drives. Where should I hook up the 80 pin ribbon?
BTW, I don't think I want to bother with the RAID since I don't fully
understand it.

Any helpful thoughts would be appreciated.

TIA

 

[Paul]

I'm looking at the manual and I'm a bit confused. I have two Ata133
hard drives and I'm trying to figure out where to hook them up. The
documentation states that the PRI_IDE1 and SEC_IDE2 can handle
UltraDMA 100/66 IDE hard disk ribbon cable. So I'm assuming that
these slot won't handle the Ata133. Also, there is a PRI_RAID that
supports RAID ATA133/100/66/33 connector.

First off, I would assume that I need to use the 80 pin ribbon that
came with the hard drives. Where should I hook up the 80 pin ribbon?
BTW, I don't think I want to bother with the RAID since I don't fully
understand it.

Any helpful thoughts would be appreciated.

TIA

The Primary or Secondary IDE will work fine. ATA is backward
compatible, so an ATA133 disk will work on an ATA100 interface.
Use the 80 wire cable, as it has better signal properties than
a 40 wire cable.

HTH,
Paul

 

[ziggs]

Thx. So, if I use the Primary or Secondary IDE will I still get the
speed of the Ata133 or will it get bumped down to the Ata100?

 

[billh]

It'll go to ATA100 but many consider the difference to be minimal if any in
speed. I think you can use the RAID ports in non-RAID and get the ATA133
speed. See answers to post by Neil Maxwell a bit earlier than yours.
Billh

 

[ziggs]

Thx for responsing Paul. I did see the post you mentioned before I
posted mind. Unfortunately, it only mentioned adding to the PRIM_RAID
and never addressed if one could use the PRIM_RAID only. Anyone have
a clue?

TIA

 

[Paul]

Thx for responsing Paul. I did see the post you mentioned before I
posted mind. Unfortunately, it only mentioned adding to the PRIM_RAID
and never addressed if one could use the PRIM_RAID only. Anyone have
a clue?

TIA

I think you are responding to Bill, but anyway...

I see an option in the manual, "Operating Mode" and the options
are RAID or IDE. This option is associated with "Onboard Promise
Controller" [Enabled]. On some RAID controllers, you connect
a single drive, then select Auto Initialize, and the RAID BIOS
can make a single drive array, so that is a second way it can
be done.

Now, you may be all excited about having an ATA133 interface to
connect to your ATA133 disk, but now you are limited by the
practical 100MB/sec limit of the PCI bus that the Promise
controller sits on. Notice how the universe is conspiring to
prevent you from getting 133MB/sec ? When Maxtor thought this
up, they didn't reengineer the rest of the computer to match.

Only on server class boards, do you get "the sky is the limit"
bandwidth. Some of those have 64 bit PCI slots and they clock
at 66, 100, or 133MHz. Now that is some serious bandwidth.

I'm also still waiting to verify, that desktop boards that have
SATA on the Southbridge, can actually run at more than 100MB/sec.
Sadly, the necessary bus diagram is missing from what few datasheets
I've been able to get. I wrote a short performance analysis
a while back, and I've been rethinking the fact that I haven't
seen any bragging about how much bandwidth people are getting
via SATA in RAID or non-RAID mode, on a Southbridge.

OK. Here is the best benchmark I could find in a quick search,
for a SATA RAID on the ICH5R. So, it is possible to have more than
100MB/sec via that interface. Higher numbers will await a disk
with a higher media (head) rate. Some day, there will be four
SATA interfaces on a Southbridge. Yum.

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showpost.php?p=595566

This is a RAID done on the Promise controller. Notice how it
squeeks up to the limits of the PCI bus.

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showpost.php?p=650264

Paul

 

[ziggs]

Thanks for the very informative post Paul. I'll go ahead and hook up
to the regular IDE so that I don't have to worry about configurations
and problems in the future.

Thx for responsing Paul. I did see the post you mentioned before I
posted mind. Unfortunately, it only mentioned adding to the PRIM_RAID
and never addressed if one could use the PRIM_RAID only. Anyone have
a clue?

TIA

I think you are responding to Bill, but anyway...

I see an option in the manual, "Operating Mode" and the options
are RAID or IDE. This option is associated with "Onboard Promise
Controller" [Enabled]. On some RAID controllers, you connect
a single drive, then select Auto Initialize, and the RAID BIOS
can make a single drive array, so that is a second way it can
be done.

Now, you may be all excited about having an ATA133 interface to
connect to your ATA133 disk, but now you are limited by the
practical 100MB/sec limit of the PCI bus that the Promise
controller sits on. Notice how the universe is conspiring to
prevent you from getting 133MB/sec ? When Maxtor thought this
up, they didn't reengineer the rest of the computer to match.

Only on server class boards, do you get "the sky is the limit"
bandwidth. Some of those have 64 bit PCI slots and they clock
at 66, 100, or 133MHz. Now that is some serious bandwidth.

I'm also still waiting to verify, that desktop boards that have
SATA on the Southbridge, can actually run at more than 100MB/sec.
Sadly, the necessary bus diagram is missing from what few datasheets
I've been able to get. I wrote a short performance analysis
a while back, and I've been rethinking the fact that I haven't
seen any bragging about how much bandwidth people are getting
via SATA in RAID or non-RAID mode, on a Southbridge.

OK. Here is the best benchmark I could find in a quick search,
for a SATA RAID on the ICH5R. So, it is possible to have more than
100MB/sec via that interface. Higher numbers will await a disk
with a higher media (head) rate. Some day, there will be four
SATA interfaces on a Southbridge. Yum.

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showpost.php?p=595566

This is a RAID done on the Promise controller. Notice how it
squeeks up to the limits of the PCI bus.

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showpost.php?p=650264

Paul

 

[flap flop]

On Thu, 20 May 2004 02:52:21 -0500, Paul wrote:

[snip>

I think you are responding to Bill, but anyway...

I see an option in the manual, "Operating Mode" and the options
are RAID or IDE. This option is associated with "Onboard Promise
Controller" [Enabled]. On some RAID controllers, you connect
a single drive, then select Auto Initialize, and the RAID BIOS
can make a single drive array, so that is a second way it can
be done.
[snip>

OK. Here is the best benchmark I could find in a quick search,
for a SATA RAID on the ICH5R. So, it is possible to have more than
100MB/sec via that interface. Higher numbers will await a disk
with a higher media (head) rate. Some day, there will be four
SATA interfaces on a Southbridge. Yum.

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showpost.php?p=595566

This is a RAID done on the Promise controller. Notice how it
squeeks up to the limits of the PCI bus.

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showpost.php?p=650264

Paul

Great post Paul, very informative. Thanks!

Flip


[snip>