PCI v. ISA modems

[Seth]

Are there any Hard modems for PCI? I find the best modems for gaming are ISA, right now. Cause all the PCI modems i know about are soft modems, if you know of any good hard modems for PCI that are good for gaming(quake2, quake, etc...) then let me know.
thanks

[steves]

Yes (there are hard PCI modems and they should work just as well as hard ISA modems).

The Soft PCI modem seems to have given the hard PCI modem a bad name and there is a lot of misinformation around in some circles.

[Dreadnaught]

Curiousity has got me. What is a soft pci modem? I have a HSP Winmodem by Zoltrix. I haven't really tried gaming on line yet so I don't know about that.

Later...Paul

[CMonster]

A software based modem, or "winmodem," is usually PCI, but not always, and uses software and therefore the system CPU to function as an onboard controller chip ("UART" Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter - I believe it is called) and therefore are the cheapest to manufacture.

A "hard" modem has its own controller chip. I read that a typical winmodem requires up to 8% of system resources to run, and while that may not seem like much if those figures are correct that would offset any performance gained by overclocking by say 50mhz. So you can see if you are busy multitasking (gaming) that performance would suffer.

steves please supply links to the source of these hardware based PCI modems, as I am sure many here would like to know. I have not seen any PCI modems that are "hard" modems -only heard rumors.

~edit: You may think that you have a hardware based PCI modem just because it does not say "winmodem" but many of the manufacturers are hiding this ripoff in the fine print. Rest assured if it says minimum system requirements Pentium processor and Windows 9X then what you have is a winmodem.

[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 06-07-99).]

[Susan]

I know what you mean CMonster about the fine print. I keep looking and haven't found a non-winmodem in PCI yet. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif

[JROBERTS]

Heres a link to a data sheet of a PCI hardware modem. www.multitech.com/products/DataSheets/1.asp?ID=31 (http://www.multitech.com/products/DataSheets/1.asp?ID=31)

I found the link on the 56K.com message board. www.56k.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000091.shtml (http://www.56k.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000091.shtml)

[reboot]

There's another good PCI hard modem. Made by GVC. Check out www.gvc.ca (http://www.gvc.ca) .
I love it, and have used it exclusively for gaming and web in the past 11 systems I've built. Really helps to have PCI in systems that have few, if any, ISA slots.
Cheers, Jim

[RyanVM]

For reference, the MultiTech modem can be gotten off of PriceWatch for $151 right now + shipping.

I can't even find the GVC one anywhere. reboot, any idea on the price???

Ryan

[Seth]

If there truly is a "hard" PCI modem, would the PCI bus (32bit data path) improve anything? or would the slow connection not be enough to take full advantage of it?

[steves]

CMonster~Links for hardware modems (others are on the case for me).

Try http://www.scan.co.uk/hw_idx.htm -> modems for starters. Scan claim to only supply hardware modems so any of their PCI modems should be hard (of course visit the manufacters sites to check, but at the moment I trust them).

Scan distribute GVC motherboards in the UK under the Terra brandname therefore I suspect the Terra modem is the GVC modem reboot is talking about. I'll have to check as I'm buying a new modem next week and it was either this or a Diamond Supra-Pro.

Perhaps it's a UK thing, but softmodems don't seem to have penetrated the market as much here (maybe it's just the suppliers I use). Perhaps because of the BABT regulations and the reduced size (until recently) of the modem market (because we don't get free calls).

[reboot]

I sell the GVC hard PCI modem (Rockwell chipset) for $86.00 US plus $5.00 shipping to anywhere in North America. E-Mail me webmaster@nineworlds.net anytime for more information.

[This message has been edited by reboot (edited 06-08-99).]

[cobain1crt]

PCI is always better, as having nothing on your ISA bus will speed things up, especialy if your mobo alows you to turn ISA off. Now typicaly the Paralell and Disk drive are based through the ISA bus, that is why your system goes so slow when accessing diskets and printing compaired with normal. Realy, there are only 2 reasons to get ISA,

1. Typicaly cheaper

2. Work on old 486s sometimes.