Need Ideas for an Old Motherboard

[Shagnasty]

I've got an old Intel VC820 (Rambus) running a PIII 1ghz
and doing fine with one exception...The MB only supports
ATA/66...I have an add-in ATA133 card but I cannot get
the thing to boot with it...There are no options in the bios
for add on cards...Anyone know a way to get the thing
to boot to the add on ???

[Peter M]

UDMA. "ATA" is the name of the specification, terms like "ATA133" do not exist. This is UDMA mode 6.

Besides, the point would be? With current harddisks hardly achieving throughput that'd exceed UDMA-66?

Just run them on the IDE channels you have.

[Shagnasty]

I beg to differ...I've noticed a big difference in things
like Video Capturing and editing and just transferring
large files 3-12gb...I'd like my Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9
160gb ATA/133 (That's what it's labeled) to perform as best it can...but I'd like to be able to boot to it with the OS also...
currently I'm using an old 40gb drive for the OS and running
the bigger drive off the add-in adaptor and it's performing
alright...Just ties up an extra drive...

[Peter M]

DiamondMax Plus9 160 GByte model, depending on whether you got the 68- or the 80-GB-platter model, have actual media throughput of 39-55 MB/s and 33-59 MB/s, respectively. Only on the outermost rim of the drive will a 66 MB/s interface put a very very minor brake to it.

http://www.storagereview.com/php/benchmark/compare_rtg_2001.php?typeID=10&testbedID=3&osID=4&raidconfigID=1&numDrives=1&devID_0=226&devID_1=222&devCnt=2

Cache-to-system transfers, the only thing that does go faster on a faster interface, is irrelevant when you're linearly accessing large files - which is exactly what you're doing.

Also, an UDMA mode 6 controller might advertize 133 MB/s throughput, but your 32-bit 33 MHz PCI bus will not give it more than approx. 95 - at 100 percent system load.

There's no point. I said that.

If you don't believe me, download HDTACH and generate your own set of numbers.

[tweakerpc]

Is the bios flashed to the latest, is there a option "boot from other device" which there should be?, i am guessing your mother board is from 2000, or early 2001.

[Canyon411]

I have an older PII 350Mhz machine that I did the same thing to. I used a promise ata133 pci card and set a 20 gig fujitsu as scsi primary master and a creative cd/rw as scsi primary slave.

Origionaly I wanted to set it up with win982nd, but it did not work so I set it up with WinXpPro. Just go into the bios and set the boot order to cdrom,scsi, a and put the xp disk in the cdrom. When it prompts to load from cdrom, hit the (space bar) or what ever it requires. During set-up it will give a prompt for scsi/raid drivers by taping (f6).

Before you start this process, goto the scsi card manufactorer's site and download a floppy driver disk for the scsi drivers and have it ready.

After you tap (f6), it will prompt for the scsi driver floppy. Put in the new floppy and let it load. Then continue on and let xp format the drive and load a fresh version, assuming that's what you want to do.

I am not discounting pete's advice, but I did notice a big change in load time, responsivness, and installation time of software from cdrom to hd. I believe this is because they are both on the scsi card together and can share the benifit of the increased throughput.

[Canyon411]

I also wanted to clarify that the ise ports on the motherboard are not used at all. Everything is running on the scsi card. :t