Tom's Hardware > Forum > Storage > Hard Disks > Which PCI-X card for the Western Digital WD20EADS 2TB Drive?

Which PCI-X card for the Western Digital WD20EADS 2TB Drive?

Forum Storage : Hard Disks - Which PCI-X card for the Western Digital WD20EADS 2TB Drive?

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pkelly1984   08-04-2009 at 05:53:40 AM

I have:
1. Dell Precision 650 Workstation
2. with 2 open PCI-X slots (64-bit)
3. WinXP Pro SP3
4. Promise SATA 150 TX4 controller for existing 111GB drive (which is full)

The idea is to replace the 111GB drive and controller with the Western Digital WD20EADS 2TB Drive and new controller. The drive MUST be bootable to WinXP Pro.

Question is: which controller do I need for the drive?

Paul Kelly

rootsdigger05@comcast.net

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Bronze Storage badge r_manic   08-04-2009 at 08:07:27 AM
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I don't understand; why not just use the new drive with the old controller?

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XPS M1330 | T8300 | Dell 0U8042 | 2GB DDR2 800MHz | NVIDIA 8400M GS | WD2500BEVS-75US | 1280 x 800
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Bronze Storage badge sub mesa   08-04-2009 at 12:44:44 PM
- 0 +

For the same price of a controller, you can buy a motherboard with 6x SATA onboard and PCI-express instead of PCI/PCI-X which is obsolete right now and expensive.

Another option would be to put the drive in another system (on the chipset SATA connectors) and share via the network.

Ofcourse you can buy a PCI-X controller, but that would probably be wasted money. You can't take the controller in any new PC, only older PCs.

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------------------------------ ...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.
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chunkymonster   08-04-2009 at 02:14:30 PM
- 0 +

r_manic wrote :

I don't understand; why not just use the new drive with the old controller?

Wondering the exact thing myself?!?!

sub mesa wrote :

For the same price of a controller, you can buy a motherboard with 6x SATA onboard and PCI-express instead of PCI/PCI-X which is obsolete right now and expensive.

While I will agree that PCI Express has superceded PCI-X, PCI-X is far from obsolete and is still very much alive and in use, there are plenty of new production mobos that include PCI-X slots along side of PCI-E, if anything PCI-X RAID controllers have dropped in price as a result of PCI Express controllers.

pkelly1984 wrote :

I have:
1. Dell Precision 650 Workstation
2. with 2 open PCI-X slots (64-bit)
3. WinXP Pro SP3
4. Promise SATA 150 TX4 controller for existing 111GB drive (which is full)

The idea is to replace the 111GB drive and controller with the Western Digital WD20EADS 2TB Drive and new controller. The drive MUST be bootable to WinXP Pro.

Question is: which controller do I need for the drive?

Paul Kelly

rootsdigger05@comcast.net

To really answer this questions, please offer more info about the use and requirements of the drive and computer in general.

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Bronze Storage badge sub mesa   08-04-2009 at 02:49:18 PM
- 0 +

PCI-X is still useful, but if buying something today i see the PCI-X products being expensive and PCI-e being really cheap, while being superior in every way.

One major concern also is any PCI-X products you buy, you buy for right now. Because in the future there is no PCI-X. So portability and usefulness in the future is a concern.

With as little as 120 euro / 150 dollars you have a mobo with 6 sata ports, pci-e, onboard video, memory and dualcore cpu. About the same price as a PCI-X controller. Just my input. If TS wants to keep his system that's fine ofcourse. Supermicro has some 8-port PCI-X non-raid controllers that might be worth looking into.

------------------------------ ...man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.
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pkelly1984   08-05-2009 at 12:30:54 AM
- 0 +

chunkymonster wrote :

Wondering the exact thing myself?!?!

While I will agree that PCI Express has superceded PCI-X, PCI-X is far from obsolete and is still very much alive and in use, there are plenty of new production mobos that include PCI-X slots along side of PCI-E, if anything PCI-X RAID controllers have dropped in price as a result of PCI Express controllers.
To really answer this questions, please offer more info about the use and requirements of the drive and computer in general.



Please educate me. What is a "mobo"?

Reply to pkelly1984
pkelly1984   08-05-2009 at 12:36:36 AM
- 0 +

Ok, a "mobo" is a motherboard. I don't want to go that route. I just want a card that will handle the 2 GB drive. Period.

Reply to pkelly1984
pkelly1984   08-05-2009 at 12:37:56 AM
- 0 +

I spoke with the folks at Promise Technologies and they said the existing card will NOT work with the 2TB drive.

Reply to pkelly1984
pkelly1984   08-05-2009 at 12:48:30 AM
- 0 +

This is a home PC. I'm just trying to squeeze every useful bit (no pun intended) of life I can out of this aging machine. I just want to put the largest hard drive I can afford into this machine. I don't care about spending a little money on a PCI-X controller that will run this 2TB hard drive. Just trying to keep it simple.

Reply to pkelly1984
wuzy   08-05-2009 at 05:07:14 AM
- 0 +

Have you thought about the long term consequences of maintaining an aging machine?
Such as the non-portability/reusability of PCI-X controller cards that sub mesa mentioned. More important with a large RAID array, unless you're not using one.
Or something as simple as the limited productivity rate (i.e. not getting work done in time) that machine has left. Is the machine affecting your work speed/quality? (you may not aware of the possible big improvements)
Or power consumption over work done, especially if the machine is powered on for extended period (>10hrs/day).

It's the very reason why I retired my dual Athlon MP workstation back in very early 2007, along with any PCI-X cards and U320 SCSI drives. A simple computer built for less than $500 today can outperform older workstation like ours in every possible aspect. That, is the rate of development with electronics of this era.

[EDITED]Lastly computers are not like cars where emotional attachment can affect usability. If the numbers fall below a set minimum it's retired. Simple as that.


Message edited by wuzy on 08-05-2009 at 05:12:11 AM
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 Reply to wuzy
pkelly1984   08-05-2009 at 05:12:09 PM
- 0 +

I don't care about speed or productivity. All I care about is using the computer. Like I said, K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple, Stupid)

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