P2b-F requirements for big harddisk

  • Thread starter Thread starter Thomas Bliesener
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Thomas Bliesener

With the good advice from this group, bios upgrade to 1014 beta 003 and CPU
upgrade to 1.3 Tualation from jes-computer.de worked perfectly.

Now, to add a harddrive for a video archive, I suppose I'll have to restrict
to <128GB and to content myself to UDMA33, would you confirm this? And is
there anything else I'll have to provide (be it any driver update or any
jumper settings or whatsoever ... I am new to hardware questions)?

Many thanks again for reassuring or correcting me,

Thomas
 
Thomas said:
With the good advice from this group, bios upgrade to 1014 beta 003 and CPU
upgrade to 1.3 Tualation from jes-computer.de worked perfectly.
Great!

Now, to add a harddrive for a video archive, I suppose I'll have to restrict
to <128GB and to content myself to UDMA33, would you confirm this?
Click to expand...

No! Nothing keeps you from using an add-on PCI IDE controller card. My
standard tip is the Promise Ultra100 TX2 - it's not too expensive, and
flashed with the latest BIOS (2.00 build 15 I think) and used with
current drivers (probably still 2.00 build 42), it will work flawlessly
with hard drives beyond 128 GiB, and as the name implies, it's capable
of UDMA100. You shouldn't use ATAPI drives on it though, these are
better kept on the southbridge IDE. The old Ultra66 I use on my P3B-F
was still a bit quirky in some respects, but in terms of the U100TX2
there hasn't been much reason to complain (except for a nasty driver bug
that was finally fixed in 2.00 build 42).

Stephan
 
Stephan Grossklass said:
No! Nothing keeps you from using an add-on PCI IDE controller card. My
standard tip is the Promise Ultra100 TX2
Click to expand...

Thank you for this option, Stephan; it was worth posting.

In my particular configuration, there arises an obstacle though: all slots
are taken. Well, somewhere you encounter limits.

Regards, Thomas
 
Thomas said:
Thank you for this option, Stephan; it was worth posting.

In my particular configuration, there arises an obstacle though: all slots
are taken. Well, somewhere you encounter limits.
Click to expand...

All 5 PCI slots? With no additional PCI IDE controller, and presumably
no PCI graphics card? *scratches head* I could imagine that this is
possible with a TV card, sound card, NIC, Firewire card and ISDN card,
but in this example there'd be at least two potential options to free up
slots.

Stephan
 
I could imagine that this is possible
with a TV card, sound card, NIC, Firewire card and ISDN card,
but in this example there'd be at least two potential options to free
up slots.
Click to expand...

To complete your imagination, as ISDN card was deliberately chosen the
Fritzcard "classical" on the ISA slot in order to gain the 5th PCI slot for
a videoconferencing card.

I'd be delighted if you could suggest a way to have the same functions with
using one PCI slot less. If not, however, don't bother: in discussions with
colleagues I could not make out a better solution either.

Regards, Thomas
 
Thomas said:
To complete your imagination, as ISDN card was deliberately chosen the
Fritzcard "classical" on the ISA slot in order to gain the 5th PCI slot for
a videoconferencing card.

I'd be delighted if you could suggest a way to have the same functions with
using one PCI slot less.
Click to expand...

Buying a sound card with Firewire may be an option. (Audigy 2 ZS?) Can't
remember whether combo NIC/Firewire cards exist.

Stephan
 
Stephan Grossklass said:
Buying a sound card with Firewire may be an option. (Audigy 2 ZS?)
Can't remember whether combo NIC/Firewire cards exist.
Click to expand...

Ok, there are enough Ifs and Buts coming up to better cut this part of the
considerations.

Back to my original posting, second part. To run a 120 GB drive with UDMA33,
how can it be made downward compatible, or what model already is it?

Thomas
 
Thomas said:
Ok, there are enough Ifs and Buts coming up to better cut this part
of the considerations.

Back to my original posting, second part. To run a 120 GB drive with
UDMA33, how can it be made downward compatible, or what model already
is it?
Click to expand...
All UDMA66/100/133 harddisks are backwards compatible to UDMA33 (in fact
they are compatible down to PIO mode 0) so that's not a problem.

Roland
 
Thomas said:
Back to my original posting, second part. To run a 120 GB drive with UDMA33,
how can it be made downward compatible, or what model already is it?
Click to expand...

All of them (for PATA drives, of course). Right now, I'm running a
Samsung SV0802N off the onboard IDE on my P2B-D, strictly for data
storage. Write performance on the PIIX4E isn't terribly good (about 18
MB/s max, at rather high CPU load - same on my notebook, btw), read
performance is as good as it gets for a UDMA33 controller (29-30 MB/s).
This is not really the ideal IDE controller for a system drive, but okay
for data storage. (I keep backup copies and MP3s there, the latter
because the clicking of the Cheetah during playback used to drive me
nuts.)

Stephan
 
Roland Scheidegger said:
All UDMA66/100/133 harddisks are backwards compatible to UDMA33 (in
fact they are compatible down to PIO mode 0) so that's not a problem.
Click to expand...

Many thanks for your united support. Since noon, a Samsung SP1203N does the
job, seemingly well enough for the intended avi files of Camtasia
screencaptures. And a little heat for my feat is not so bad in these cold
days.

Regards, Thomas
 
Stephan Grossklass said:
This is not really the ideal IDE controller for a system drive, but
okay for data storage. (I keep backup copies and MP3s there, the latter
because the clicking of the Cheetah during playback used to drive me
Click to expand...

Many thanks for your united support. Since noon, a Samsung SP1203N does the
job, seemingly well enough for the intended avi files of Camtasia
screencaptures. And a little heat for my feat is not so bad in these cold
days.

Regards, Thomas
 
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