Worth upgrading to ATA100?

[Tomas]

Hi all,

Just added a new Western Digital ATA100 120GB harddrive to my old
computer. The computer has only an ATA33 interface but programs
launch much faster than before. Would I notice much more improvement
with the addition of an ATA100 controller card to the system?

Thanks in advance

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hi all,

Just added a new Western Digital ATA100 120GB harddrive to my old
computer. The computer has only an ATA33 interface but programs
launch much faster than before. Would I notice much more improvement
with the addition of an ATA100 controller card to the system?

Depends on the computer. Since the HDD is able to saturate ATA33,
you might get some improvement, but only if the rest of the
system can keep up. This will only be for linear accesses, since
the maximum transfer rate of the HDD is not that much higher than
33MB/s.

Arno

 

[Eric Gisin]

Probably not. Most likely your bottleneck is slow processor or limited memory.

 

[chrisv]

Just added a new Western Digital ATA100 120GB harddrive to my old
computer. The computer has only an ATA33 interface but programs
launch much faster than before.

Not surprising.

Would I notice much more improvement
with the addition of an ATA100 controller card to the system?

None that you'd notice, like you did with the HD upgrade.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Depends on the computer. Since the HDD is able to saturate ATA33,
you might get some improvement, but only if the rest of the
system can keep up. This will only be for linear accesses, since
the maximum transfer rate of the HDD is not that much higher than 33MB/s.

Even the 5400rpm WD1200 can do 40MB/s.
That is a 33% increase over the 30MB/s ATA33 limit.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Hi all,

Just added a new Western Digital ATA100 120GB harddrive to my old
computer. The computer has only an ATA33 interface but programs
launch much faster than before. Would I notice much more improvement
with the addition of an ATA100 controller card to the system?

'Much more' will depend on how really slow your previous harddrive was.
If you already notice a big difference now from what was likely a smaller
difference than going from ~30MB/s, now, to say 47MB/s (previous model)
or even 57MB/s (latest model) with the new card, then sure.

 

[Shailesh Humbad]

Hi all,

Just added a new Western Digital ATA100 120GB harddrive to my old
computer. The computer has only an ATA33 interface but programs
launch much faster than before. Would I notice much more improvement
with the addition of an ATA100 controller card to the system?

Thanks in advance

I had an old Abit BX2 ATA33 with a P3 750. When I bought the WD 120GB
drive, I also bought a promise fastrak tx2 100. If I remember
correctly, I did notice a difference in performance between when the
drive was plugged into the motherboard and when it was plugged into
the controller. In any case, if your cpu is over 500Mhz and you enjoy
tinkering with your old computers, I'd throw in an ata-100 card--it
should cost under $20.

 

[Rod Speed]

Even the 5400rpm WD1200 can do 40MB/s.
That is a 33% increase over the 30MB/s ATA33 limit.

But that does not mean that he will necessarily
see much effect if what he does on the drive
doesnt come close to using anything like that much.

 

[anonymous]

Hi all,

Just added a new Western Digital ATA100 120GB harddrive to my old
computer. The computer has only an ATA33 interface but programs
launch much faster than before. Would I notice much more improvement
with the addition of an ATA100 controller card to the system?

Thanks in advance

Useful for adding more drives. Handy if you want to use dual cdr or
dvd burners.