SATA/IDE adapters and paging file performance

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lothar of the Hill People
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Lothar of the Hill People

I just bought a new Windows XP Professional computer from Dell, with a
500 GB, 7200rpm, SATA II hard drive. To my dismay, I discovered upon
opening it that it only has one IDE connector (which is filled by two
CD-ROM/DVD drives), along with several SATA connectors. I want to be
able to add my old 120 GB ATA/100, 7200rpm hard drive to it as a
secondary, non-RAID hard drive.

I have two purposes in mind for this old hard drive: (1) as a place to
occasionally backup some files like mp3's that take up too much space
to back up to CD's/DVDs (in which case performance/speed of the
secondary drive doesn't much matter to me--I won't be doing daily
backups there), and (2) I am considering running my paging file off
this secondary drive (in which case performance will be more
important), because I have heard that this improves performance.

My understanding is that there are two way that I can adapt the old
drive to my new computer (1) using a simple SATA/IDE adapter (along
with a power cable adaptor) on the back of the hard drive, or (2)
using a PCI adapter card. My questions are, (1) is there any
significant speed/performance difference between the two approaches,
and (2) Is it a good idea to put my paging file on the old hard drive,
or would it be better leaving it on my primary hard drive?

Thanks.
 
You also have a third option: get an external USB 2.0 enclosure and put your
120GB drive there. Use it as a backup.
Swap file activity becomes an issue if you have too little RAM for your
applications. In most situations that does not occur. I would put a fixed
size swap file on your primary/new drive.
 
Lothar of the Hill People said:
I just bought a new Windows XP Professional computer from Dell,
with a 500 GB, 7200rpm, SATA II hard drive. To my dismay,
I discovered upon opening it that it only has one IDE connector
(which is filled by two CD-ROM/DVD drives), along with several
SATA connectors. I want to be able to add my old 120 GB ATA/100,
7200rpm hard drive to it as a secondary, non-RAID hard drive.
Click to expand...

You sure that there is just one IDE connector ? Thats unusual.
I have two purposes in mind for this old hard drive: (1) as a place to
occasionally backup some files like mp3's that take up too much space
to back up to CD's/DVDs (in which case performance/speed of the
secondary drive doesn't much matter to me--I won't be doing daily
backups there), and (2) I am considering running my paging file
off this secondary drive (in which case performance will be more
important), because I have heard that this improves performance.
Click to expand...

Its a myth with modern systems and its much more viable to have
enough physical ram anyway so the page file doesnt get used much.
My understanding is that there are two way that I can adapt the
old drive to my new computer (1) using a simple SATA/IDE adapter
(along with a power cable adaptor) on the back of the hard drive,
Correct.

or (2) using a PCI adapter card. My questions are, (1) is there any
significant speed/performance difference between the two approaches,
Click to expand...

The first approach is likely to be better performance.
and (2) Is it a good idea to put my paging file on the old hard
drive, or would it be better leaving it on my primary hard drive?
Click to expand...

It would be better to leave it where it is.
 
Hi,
do u know "the head of the bottle" ?
That's what u trying to do. Your computer is a new sata-generation and
was made for performance. Using a mixed mode (sata/ata, isa/pci) were
and are only a "between-solution" a kind of beta-version for new
technology. Use ur system as is it and you will endjoy it.
Ragarding the pagefile I would say, it is the same thing. Look, the
transfer data rates of sata and ata are different and to manipulate the
pagefile from a drive that's slower takes more time than other way
around.
If your looking for performance, sell your old ata, put some dollar
more and buy a new sata and put there ur savings and ur pagefile.
Basta
 
You sure that there is just one IDE connector ? Thats unusual.
Click to expand...

Quite sure. They must be starting to phase those out these days in
favor of SATA connectors (there are a lot of SATA connectors in this
computer). I was also a bit dismayed to discover that there is no COM
port on this computer. It's as if Dell is thinking that if someone is
buying a state-of-the-art high-end computer, they wouldn't possibly
ever want to install any legacy devices on it. Personally I think
there should be a much longer transition period for things like that.
It would be better to leave it where it is.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, I will do that.

Lothar
 
Swap file activity becomes an issue if you have too little RAM for your
applications. In most situations that does not occur. I would put a fixed
size swap file on your primary/new drive.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will do that. That raises another question--what would
anyone recommend a fixed size for my paging file, considering that I
have 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive?

Lothar
 
Hi,
do u know "the head of the bottle" ?
That's what u trying to do. Your computer is a new sata-generation and
was made for performance. Using a mixed mode (sata/ata, isa/pci) were
and are only a "between-solution" a kind of beta-version for new
technology. Use ur system as is it and you will endjoy it.
Ragarding the pagefile I would say, it is the same thing. Look, the
transfer data rates of sata and ata are different and to manipulate the
pagefile from a drive that's slower takes more time than other way
around.
If your looking for performance, sell your old ata, put some dollar
more and buy a new sata and put there ur savings and ur pagefile.
Basta
Click to expand...


Thanks for the response, Basta. I am not at all interested in buying
another hard drive for this computer (this computer has already cost
me over US$7000, and I'm not spending another penny!). The only
reason I want to insert my old hard drive into it as a second drive is
because it won't cost me a thing (except for the adapter), and also
because I am afraid I may discover that I still need some of the files
on it some day if I discover that I missed transferring over any
important data files to my new hard drive. I do this every time I buy
a new computer (every couple of years)--it's my routine.

I'll take your and Peter's advice to leave the paging file on my new
hard drive. That leaves my old drive to serve no other purpose than
to back up some occasional mp3's and other data, in which case
performance of that drive no longer matters to me in the slightest.

From what you, Rod, and Peter advised, it sounds to me like my best
bet is to just use a SATA/IDE adapter on the back of my old hard
drive.
 
Thanks, I will do that. That raises another question--what
would anyone recommend a fixed size for my paging file,
considering that I have 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive?
Click to expand...

I think fixed sizes are a bad idea, essentially because the size
cant be determined from any of the hardware detail, its determined
by the most demanding software you run on that system.

Demanding in the sense of which app uses the most virtual memory.

The best approach is to have enough physical ram so the
page file isnt used much except at boot time. You have plenty.
 
Swap file activity becomes an issue if you have too little RAM for your
Thanks, I will do that. That raises another question--what would
anyone recommend a fixed size for my paging file, considering that I
have 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive?
Click to expand...

I would set it at 2GB. If it gets utilized to 70%, reset it to more (3GB or
4GB). If it never reaches 35%, reduce it to 1GB. Use Performance Monitor /
Paging File / % Usage Peak while you run your applications. Fixed size
pagefile might help to minimize its fragmentation.
 
I would set it at 2GB. If it gets utilized to 70%, reset it to more (3GB or
4GB). If it never reaches 35%, reduce it to 1GB. Use Performance Monitor /
Paging File / % Usage Peak while you run your applications. Fixed size
pagefile might help to minimize its fragmentation.
Click to expand...


Thanks, Rod and Peter. Hmmm, now I have two recommendations--one in
favor of a fixed paging file, and one in favor of a dynamic one.
Anybody care to be a tiebreaker? Personally, I have always used fixed
paging files, but I have never had nearly this much RAM before, so am
not really sure where to set it, if at all.
 
Lothar said:
Quite sure. They must be starting to phase those out these days in
favor of SATA connectors (there are a lot of SATA connectors in this
computer). I was also a bit dismayed to discover that there is no COM
port on this computer. It's as if Dell is thinking that if someone is
buying a state-of-the-art high-end computer, they wouldn't possibly
ever want to install any legacy devices on it. Personally I think
there should be a much longer transition period for things like that.
Click to expand...

It's not Dell, it's Intel--they're determined to kill off the conventional
serial and parallel ports in favor of USB, so they removed the support from
their chipsets. Dell would have to put a separate UART in the machine with
the necessary glue logic to hook it to the PCI bus in order to have a
serial port. While I'm sure they're capable of doing that it would be
tying up an IRQ that many users would rather put to work elsewhere.

I suspect that the situation is similar with ATA vs IDE.
 
J. Clarke said:
It's not Dell, it's Intel--they're determined to kill off the conventional
serial and parallel ports in favor of USB, so they removed the support from
their chipsets. Dell would have to put a separate UART in the machine with
the necessary glue logic to hook it to the PCI bus in order to have a
serial port. While I'm sure they're capable of doing that it would be
tying up an IRQ that many users would rather put to work elsewhere.
Click to expand...
What a load of bullshit.
Intel chipsets have never had com/lpt ports. The mainboard does.
 
Thanks, Rod and Peter. Hmmm, now I have two recommendations--
one in favor of a fixed paging file, and one in favor of a dynamic one.
Anybody care to be a tiebreaker?
Click to expand...

It aint about votes with that sort of question.
Personally, I have always used fixed paging files,
but I have never had nearly this much RAM before,
so am not really sure where to set it, if at all.
Click to expand...

With that much physical ram, there is no advantage with a fixed page file.
 
Lothar said:
Thanks, I will do that. That raises another question--what would
anyone recommend a fixed size for my paging file, considering that I
have 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive?

Lothar
Click to expand...

Unless you're running things like Photoshop that won't even load without
the presence of a paging file, with 4GB of RAM you could actually do
away with one altogether.

Probably the quickest way to do it.

Try it and see.


Odie
 
J. Clarke said:
It's not Dell, it's Intel--they're determined to kill off the conventional se-
rial and parallel ports in favor of USB, so they removed the support from
their chipsets. Dell would have to put a separate UART in the machine
with the necessary glue logic to hook it to the PCI bus in order to have
a serial port. While I'm sure they're capable of doing that it would be
tying up an IRQ that many users would rather put to work elsewhere.
Click to expand...
 
Unless you're running things like Photoshop that won't even load without
the presence of a paging file, with 4GB of RAM you could actually do
away with one altogether.

Probably the quickest way to do it.

Try it and see.
Click to expand...


Thanks Odie, I may give that a try, out of curiosity.

Lothar
 
Eric Gisin said:
Intel chipsets have never had com/lpt ports. The mainboard does.
Click to expand...

Errm, I think you better go and read motherboards 101 and see how com
and lpt ports interface to the internal bus and learn what an Intel
chipset is.

Just a "for instance" to point you in the right direction, a
motherboard in front of me now has an Intel 82801FR I/O controller
hub, do you have an idea what it does?


--
 
Martin Evans said:
Errm, I think you better go and read motherboards 101 and see how com
and lpt ports interface to the internal bus and learn what an Intel
chipset is.

Just a "for instance" to point you in the right direction, a
motherboard in front of me now has an Intel 82801FR I/O controller
hub, do you have an idea what it does?
Click to expand...
I have the 82801BA and it certainly does NOT have com/lpt/fdc.

Perhaps you should RTFM before spouting more bullshit.
 
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