Question about PCI IDE Card

[John Casey]

It has been about 10 years since I built my last computer so I am a
little rusty.

I had a Dell Optiplex GX270 given to me. I decided to build a DVD
ripping and storage server. I replaced the case with the Aspire QPack
(for size and airflow). I have an LG 16X DL DVD burner and currently 5
300 GB drives in the case. I have determined how to physically get 7
300GB drives in the system without restricting airflow. For ease 2 of
the drives are connected using a USB to IDE connector. I planned on
adding the last two drives the same way. I have been thinking perhaps I
should actually add a PCI IDE card, but in my research I have come
across alot of issues with installing and configuring these cards.

I only rip from the DVD to one drive at a time. I only play a movie
from one drive at a time. So drive speed is not really an issue. Is
there any issue with having 4 permanent USB drives on a system. If I
should go the PCI IDE card route, what is the simplest PCI IDE card to
use? I do not need to boot from the drives connected to the PCI IDE
card and I am running Windows XP.

 

[Mike Walsh]

Promise has a reputation for fast and reliable PCI adapters. In my main home PC I am using an Ultra100 card that I first used with a Pentium 2 motherboard. Try here for cards that are currently available - http://www.promise.com/product/segment_lv2list.asp?segment=Non-RAID HBAs

 

[FUBARinSFO]

John:

Promise Ultra100 TX2 or Ultra133 TX2 are the preferred PCI cards for
extra drives. Promise doesn't officially support them anymore, I do
not believe, but the drivers and BIOS upgrades are still availabie on
their web site. I just bought one of these cards from Newegg.com for
about $40 delivered. Works as advertised. But note that I had to get
it to debug an earlier one that had developed some sort of drive
failure, and wasn't being recognized by Windows 2003 Server as Ultra100
(ultra.sys defaulted to Ultra33). And, no diagnostics from Promise.

Adaptec also makes a PCI IDE card, which I also have. But two problems
with this card: 1) it doesn't support CS (cable select) for the
attached drives, so they all have to be jumpered as master or slave
specificially according to their position on the cable; and 2) the boot
ROM on the card inserts itself at the head of the drive chain, ahead of
the onboard IDE drives. So where before drives 0/1 would have been
from the onboard IDE channel, then now start with the drives attached
to the Adaptec card. Not convenient for mapping drives to logical
Windows letters. Both of these problems are deal-killers for me. In
its defense, it's got a control applet that connects to Control Panel
in which you can see what the drive thinks it's doing. May also have
diagnostics, but haven't investigate that.

-- Roy Zider

 

[Paul]

It has been about 10 years since I built my last computer so I am a
little rusty.

I had a Dell Optiplex GX270 given to me. I decided to build a DVD
ripping and storage server. I replaced the case with the Aspire QPack
(for size and airflow). I have an LG 16X DL DVD burner and currently 5
300 GB drives in the case. I have determined how to physically get 7
300GB drives in the system without restricting airflow. For ease 2 of
the drives are connected using a USB to IDE connector. I planned on
adding the last two drives the same way. I have been thinking perhaps I
should actually add a PCI IDE card, but in my research I have come
across alot of issues with installing and configuring these cards.

I only rip from the DVD to one drive at a time. I only play a movie
from one drive at a time. So drive speed is not really an issue. Is
there any issue with having 4 permanent USB drives on a system. If I
should go the PCI IDE card route, what is the simplest PCI IDE card to
use? I do not need to boot from the drives connected to the PCI IDE
card and I am running Windows XP.

I'd buy the Promise Ultra133 TX2, as it supports large drives.
The Ultra100 does too, if you have the right firmware
revision, but the Ultra133 leaves no doubt as to the support. So
the Ultra133 should work out of the box, with no fiddling.

Paul

 

[kony]

It has been about 10 years since I built my last computer so I am a
little rusty.

I had a Dell Optiplex GX270 given to me. I decided to build a DVD
ripping and storage server. I replaced the case with the Aspire QPack
(for size and airflow). I have an LG 16X DL DVD burner and currently 5
300 GB drives in the case. I have determined how to physically get 7
300GB drives in the system without restricting airflow. For ease 2 of
the drives are connected using a USB to IDE connector. I planned on
adding the last two drives the same way. I have been thinking perhaps I
should actually add a PCI IDE card, but in my research I have come
across alot of issues with installing and configuring these cards.

You will hear about issues with any kind of hardware.
People who have no problems move on to other things instead
of posting the expected "I have it and it works" on the
internet.

In general, an ATA133 PCI IDE card is very easy. Unplug
system, put it in. plug in system, boot to the OS. Install
driver, turn off system. Hook drives up, you're done.

If you buy a RAID card and don't want raid arrays, don't
define them- single drives are by default considered Single
Drive Spans. Do not change them to Single Drive Stripes,
and they will never be considered Single Drive Stripes by
default, not until the person using the specific RAID card
defined them as such which they would never do.

The second thing to remember is that if you want to use
ATAPI drives (DVD/CD/etc), you want a non-RAID card or at
least a RAID card that can be made non-RAID with a bios
flash, bios menu change or jumper change. In general it's
easier to just leave the optical drive on the motherboard
ATA controller.

I only rip from the DVD to one drive at a time. I only play a movie
from one drive at a time. So drive speed is not really an issue. Is
there any issue with having 4 permanent USB drives on a system. If I
should go the PCI IDE card route, what is the simplest PCI IDE card to
use? I do not need to boot from the drives connected to the PCI IDE
card and I am running Windows XP.

PCI card would be better than USB. Fewer electronics and
fewer CHEAP parts (USB devices tend to be made at lowest
possible cost) while a PCI IDE card need not have any
high-cost parts, plus no need for those adapter boards or
additional USB latency. Randomly grab any $15 Silicon
Image based card, it will not require anyting advanced to
just hook up 4 drives and install the driver when windows
prompts. As always you will need the master/slave jumper on
the drives set correctly and that's about all. The Promise
or Highpoint cards work fine too, but for your described use
there isnt' much point in paying multiple times as much for
one. In some benchmarks they score slightly higher, but in
your described use it won't matter at all.

 

[BitBucket]

Kony -- the Adaptec card I described earlier has a Silicon Image chip.
At the minimum you'll have to keep track of master/slave jumpering,
rather than simpler cable select, and it may also put the drive at the
head of the drive string, another drawback in comparison with the
Promise cards.

-- Roy

 

[kony]

Kony -- the Adaptec card I described earlier has a Silicon Image chip.
At the minimum you'll have to keep track of master/slave jumpering,
rather than simpler cable select, and it may also put the drive at the
head of the drive string, another drawback in comparison with the
Promise cards.

What do you mean by "put the drive at the head of the drive
string"?

I'm wondering why one would pay more for the Promise card if
it has same chipset. I have some older Promise Ultra66/100,
FastTrack66/100 and newer generic Silicon Image cards and
find they all work fine, not enough difference to justify
paying more for the Promise card... athough, on Pricewatch
one can now get some of the Promise cards pretty cheap too,
almost same ($15) price.

 

[BitBucket]

Kony --

"Head of the drive string" means that the drives listed in the MMC Disk
Management listing as Drive 0, Drive 1, Drive 2 etc are headed by the
drives attached to the adapter card, not the drives on the motherboard
IDE connections (which now come after the adapter-connected drives).
This is illogical and unnecessary. Promise does this correctly.

The Promise controller cards do not have "the same chipset" -- they
have their own chipsets. On many if not most motherboards these are
the chipsets that run the RAID functionality.

The Promise /100 cards are fast enough for all IDE drives except for
Maxtor, which supports a 133MBps interface.

-- Roy