IDE/ATA drive recommendation for ProTools

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 17:28:18 GMT, John Noll
<jn145_deletethisfirst_@verizon.net> wrote:

>I'm setting up a Mix Plus system on a G4 867 single
>processor/system 10.3/ProTools 6.4.1.
>
>Any recommendations for a dedicated IDE/ATA audio drive?

I've become reaaaally fond of SATA drives lately... I've got three
Western Digitals in a RAID that work beautifully. Maxtor also makes
good drives.

For what it's worth, some people swear by certain drive manufacturers
being more problematic than other, but I've never had a problem with
either one of those two.
jtougas

listen- there's a hell of a good universe next door
let's go

e.e. cummings

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

jtougas wrote:
> On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 17:28:18 GMT, John Noll
> <jn145_deletethisfirst_@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>
>>I'm setting up a Mix Plus system on a G4 867 single
>>processor/system 10.3/ProTools 6.4.1.
>>
>>Any recommendations for a dedicated IDE/ATA audio drive?
>
>
> I've become reaaaally fond of SATA drives lately... I've got three
> Western Digitals in a RAID that work beautifully. Maxtor also makes
> good drives.
>
> For what it's worth, some people swear by certain drive manufacturers
> being more problematic than other, but I've never had a problem with
> either one of those two.
> jtougas


What's the difference between ATA/60 ATA/100 ATA/133
etc? Do they have the same connectors?

Will SATA drives plug into the internal connectors of a
G4? Compatable with Mix+? Thanks.

--
--
John Noll

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

"John Noll" <jn145_deletethisfirst_@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:41D55B6A.3050408@verizon.net...
> What's the difference between ATA/60 ATA/100 ATA/133
> etc? Do they have the same connectors?

In the PC world, they'll have the same connectors but the cabling will be
different and cabling can affect the speed. The number refers to the
throuhgput capabilities of the ATA (buss?) so your 133 is faster than the 60
or 100.


dik

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 14:03:08 GMT, John Noll
<jn145_deletethisfirst_@verizon.net> wrote:

>What's the difference between ATA/60 ATA/100 ATA/133
>etc? Do they have the same connectors?

They do have the same connectors, and are backwards compatible, and
all use the same cable. Older ATA connections only used 40 wires,
Ultra ATA connections (66 - 133) use 80 wires.

>Will SATA drives plug into the internal connectors of a
>G4?

As far as I know, the G4's didn't have serial ATA drives in them,
though I could be wrong (I know the early ones didn't, not sure about
the Mirrordoor set). I know the G5's do, but that's not your
question. What you can do is get an internal PCI card that will let
you control SATA drives, if you do not already have the connectors.

A RAID card for this purpose is not a bad idea, depending on which
flavor of RAID you want to use. I highly suggest 5, as it stripes &
mirrors, but at the expense of one of the three drives you put in.
IOW, you put in three 250GB drives, and end up with one 500GB
partition, as far as the computer is concerned. If one of the two
drives in use goes down, the third drives steps in and picks up the
slack, with all of the data already in place.

> Compatable with Mix+? Thanks.

I don't see any reasons they shouldn't be, but you might want to ask
the same question of the Digidesign folks...
jtougas

listen- there's a hell of a good universe next door
let's go

e.e. cummings

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

John Noll wrote:
>
> What's the difference between ATA/60 ATA/100 ATA/133 etc? Do they have
> the same connectors?

Yes, all of them use the same 40-pin connector and an 80-pin cable (every other wire is a ground to help prevent interference.)

Oh, ant it's ATA66.




> Will SATA drives plug into the internal connectors of a G4?

I don't think Apple supported SATA until the G5 came out.

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 17:28:18 GMT, John Noll
<jn145_deletethisfirst_@verizon.net> wrote:

>I'm setting up a Mix Plus system on a G4 867 single
>processor/system 10.3/ProTools 6.4.1.
>
>Any recommendations for a dedicated IDE/ATA audio drive?

Oh, just about anything 7200 speed these days. Drives have become
commodity items, and aren't a performance bottleneck in audio systems
any more.

CubaseFAQ www.laurencepayne.co.uk/CubaseFAQ.htm
"Possibly the world's least impressive web site": George Perfect

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

www.storagereview.com is the best place to review this type of stuff.
great forum also.

Sean

>>Any recommendations for a dedicated IDE/ATA audio drive?

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

>
> What's the difference between ATA/60 ATA/100 ATA/133 etc? Do they have
> the same connectors?
>

Others have anwered the connector question. As for spped differences, there
is a lot of discussion about this. ATA-133 has the *potential* of
transferring data at 133 Mbps, but the drive heads don't read data off the
platters that fast. The electronics can go at warp speed, but the physical
limitations don't let it happen. Last I read, the actual max transfer rate
of the fastest drives was around 80 Mbps. It may be better today.

Regardless, definitely go with 7200 rpm, or 10,000 rpm if that's available
in SATA yet.

-John O

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

"John O" <johno@#no^spam&heathkit.com> wrote in message
news:cEGBd.9287$by5.1326@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com...
> >
>> What's the difference between ATA/60 ATA/100 ATA/133 etc? Do they
>> have the same connectors?
>>
>
> Others have anwered the connector question. As for spped differences,
> there is a lot of discussion about this. ATA-133 has the *potential*
> of transferring data at 133 Mbps, but the drive heads don't read data
> off the platters that fast. The electronics can go at warp speed, but
> the physical limitations don't let it happen. Last I read, the actual
> max transfer rate of the fastest drives was around 80 Mbps. It may be
> better today.
>
> Regardless, definitely go with 7200 rpm, or 10,000 rpm if that's
> available in SATA yet.

10K RPM isn't even required for video anymore.

Note that as density increases, the speed of the data traveling under
the head increases proportionally.

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

>>> What's the difference between ATA/60 ATA/100 ATA/133 etc? Do they have
>>> the same connectors?
>> Regardless, definitely go with 7200 rpm, or 10,000 rpm if that's
>> available in SATA yet.
>
> 10K RPM isn't even required for video anymore.
>
> Note that as density increases, the speed of the data traveling under
> the head increases proportionally.

Right, there's more than one way to get data through the heads faster. Good
point.

-John O

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

On Sat, 01 Jan 2005 23:47:20 GMT, "John O"
<johno@#no^spam&heathkit.com> wrote:

>Others have anwered the connector question. As for spped differences, there
>is a lot of discussion about this. ATA-133 has the *potential* of
>transferring data at 133 Mbps, but the drive heads don't read data off the
>platters that fast. The electronics can go at warp speed, but the physical
>limitations don't let it happen. Last I read, the actual max transfer rate
>of the fastest drives was around 80 Mbps. It may be better today.

Clever drive design and on-board caching can make access speed for
small amounts of data very fast. This is great for many
applications, but hardly relevant to users (like us) who require
sustained transfer of very large files.



CubaseFAQ www.laurencepayne.co.uk/CubaseFAQ.htm
"Possibly the world's least impressive web site": George Perfect

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

Try Seagate or Maxtor. Best of luck!!

Dean
YOU DON'T NEED A BAND!
http://WWW.RockgardenMusic.com