New HD, need advice: ATA66, 7200rtm Etc..

[Glytzhkof]

Hello guys. I need some advice on what is the best buy (value for money, future use etc..) when it comes to hard drives.

I've got a pretty old system with an Asus P/I-P55T2P4 MB, an (intel) pentium 233MMX, 96 MB RAM, 3,2GB Western Digital HD, 8xMat****a CD-ROM, 8x4x2Mitsumi CD-RW etc.. Currently I'm running Win98.

I'm running heavy "business apps" and development tools only (no games) and I need a new HD and also some more "punch" in the whole computer.

The question then is what HD I should buy to achieve this (N.b: IDE only), and how I should set it up. So far I've narrowed the choice down to a disk from either Western Digtal or IBM, but I've made no choice as to what models to buy.

Given my use (development) and my "old" machine I'm wondering how much "extra performance" I'd get from say 2MB cache, or 7200rtm or ATA66. As I understand it ATA66 will not be supported by my MB, and so I assume that what I should go for to get some extra performance is a 7200rtm drive? What about the cache? To me a cache on a HD sounds strange, is it to ensure a more "stable" data stream sent to the disk? Is the point that applications can "dump" data to the cache very fast and then "continue execution" without having to wait for the HD to finish writing?

Finally: If I get a faster drive, how do I set it up on my system so that an older, slower HD doesn't slow down the overall system performance? Is it enough to use the "new" drive as the "primary drive" with the operating system on it, or is it better just to remove the old HD from the system entirely?

[This message has been edited by Glytzhkof (edited 07-19-99).]

[Stan]

Hi

Go for the IBM. They are the best HD.
Like you said, go for 7200rpm and 2Mb cache. You WILL see a BIG difference.

The way I would set up the HD: the new one as master on IDE1 with CDrom (or CD-RW) as slave); and the old HD as master on IDE2. Your cd-rom (or cd-rw) would be slave on IDE2.

Disk caching works under the same principle as memory caching. The most recently accessed data from the disk (as well as adjacent sectors) is stored in a memory buffer. When a program needs to access data from the disk, it first checks the disk cache to see if the data is there. Disk caching can dramatically improve the performance of applications, because accessing a byte of data in RAM can be thousands of times faster than accessing a byte on a hard disk.

So the more cache you have, the better it is !

FYI, the new IDM 36 GB LZX has 8MB cache ! availble in SCSI U2W flavour only !

Stan

One last thing: to get the most of the new UDMA HD, buy a Promise Controler (around 50 pounds). You will need new cables. Udma 66 uses 80 pins cable instead of 40 pins for udma 33. And don't worry: udma 66 is backward compatible.

Sorry about the lenght of this reply

[Perce]

I agree with Stan on the Promise Ultra66 controller card!!! They work great, give full support for the UDMA66 Spec HDDs. As to IBM or WDC, either or, I have used both on this controller, both perform well. As for caching, 2MB caching is the way to go, well worth the extra money. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Stan]

Now, if you want real performance with IDE drives, use the FASTTRACK 66 from Promise.
You can have raid 0 or 1. I recommend raid 0 for improved HD performance...

http://www.promise.com/Products/ideraid/ft66page.htm

Stan

[jeffgordon24]

Go to www.buy.com and get the promise card. It's 40 bucks there and comes with the ultra cable you need. That's where I'm going to buy mine at. I think the shipping is about 8 to 10 dollars, depending on where you live. They also sell the Western Digital hard drives with the 2mb buffer and the ata/66 and 7200rpm your looking for. I think the 9.1 was around 160 to 180. If you want one bigger they sell those too. Good thing about them they're open 24 hours a day. Wish I would've waited to buy my hard drive.

[This message has been edited by jeffgordon24 (edited 07-19-99).]

[Glytzhkof]

I finally ordered the new drive. Since I need speed and efficiency more than a lot of storage I settled on an IBM 9,1GB ATA/66 7200rpm 2MB cache Deskstar IDE drive.

[Stan]

Hey Glytzhkof, check this link: this is the story of my new disk sub-system, with some benchmarks.
FastTrak in RAID0, with 2 IBM 22Gxp 9.1 Gb (7200rpm, 2Mb cache)... faster than SCSI U2W !!!

http://www.sysopt.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/00113
0.html
Stan