IDE vs. Firewire

[alpcmed]

In at nutshell:
I am burning DVDs and don't want to wait 90 minutes for a burn of a 10 gb avi file that will be 3.8 gb DVD.

System:
Athlon XP 1700; 512 mb DDR RAM; IDE 1: 20 gb HD/DVD-ROM;
IDE 2: 80 gb HD/DVR-RW; XP Pro.
Both drives have DMA turned on. Transfer rates:
20 gb 30-40,000 KBs; 80 gb 12000 KBs .

Bought the following to solve problem:
External firewire HD case and new HD. New HD was Maxtor 80gb Diamond Max Plus , ATA133 8mb . After installing it and using it as my "video drive" I still was at 12,000 KBs transfer rate - not acceptable.

Returned external case and bought ATA133 PCI card. Installed card and attached new HD. Transfer rate now at 44,000 KBs. Very good except for one thing - XP either locks up or crashes. System will not remain stable. After removing ATA133 card, system is back to normal. But the problem is not solved. One interesting side note - When the ATA133 card is installed, XP assigns it and the soundcard IRQ 11.

Proposed solution: Based on the review of USB 2.0 add on case compared to Maxtor and WD External firewire HD, the WD won hands down. But I really would like to keep the ATA133, but not if the system keeps crashing. Any suggestions for improving speed for burning DVDs?

Thanks

 

[Guest]

To me it sounds like the system is not happy with the controller. The problem could lie in your system, but I think more likely it is either a bad card, or installed improperly.

You never mention the model/manufacturer of the card. Often a card made by a bad company has no chance of working up to a demanding users expectations even if it is working up to the companies expectations. I came to this same realization after suffering with several bad SCSI cards.

 

[alpcmed]

The manufacturer of the card is SIIG (www.siig.com) and
their part number is SC-PE4B12 .
Link to their webpage is : http://www.siig.com/products/ide/features/Ultra_ATA133PCI.html

Version 2.0, Silcon Image Sil0680 Chipset

Assuming that it is a bad card, the options are to buy the Maxtor card ($10 more - obviously not a bad deal if it works). On items like this, I did not think that who made it made that much of a difference. Opionion?

 

[Guest]

I am not familiar with that particular card, but I have used SIIG stuff before without anything mentionable happening.

The problem often can be that perfect hardware is nothing without good drivers. Perfectly good hardeware can seem deffective all due to a bad software implementation.

That being said I would probably first try to exchange this card for one that works under warranty. If that doesn't work chalk it up to experience and buy something else, hopefully better. Again, this assumes the installation of the card to the PC was proper.

 

[khha4113]

System:
Athlon XP 1700; 512 mb DDR RAM; IDE 1: 20 gb HD/<b><font color=red>DVD-ROM</font color=red></b>;
IDE 2: 80 gb HD/<b><font color=red>DVR-RW</font color=red></b>; XP Pro.

Put both of your HD on the same channel (IDE1). DVD and DVD-RW have lower data transfer should be on Secondary channel (IDE2).

Good or Bad have no meaning at all, depends on what your point of view is.

 

[Crashman]

It sounds like the PCI slot for your IDE card is sharing IRQ's with another bus mastering device. Drive controllers are the most problematic devices for IRQ sharing. Did you try a different PCI slot?

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[alpcmed]

Swapped the SIIG card for a Maxtor and got the same results.
The card installs fine, the warning comes up about the device not having "digitally signed drivers". After the HD is installed, XP sees it just fine. But as soon as you do a large file transfer from HD#2 to new HD (#3), it's "crash and burn". So, I think I'll chalk this one up to experience, change the IDE configuration as noted in a reply posted below (IDE1 - HD1 & 2), IDE2 (DVD,DVD-RW) and swap the new stuff out for the WD firewire HD. I appreciate the responses.

 

[alpcmed]

Yes, I tried two slots with same results. I did notice after installing the new Maxtor card that the IRQs had changed, with the NIC and the ATA card now sharing IRQ11. The bios is set for Plug and Play OS.

 

[Guest]

oh no! you weren't supposed to buy a new card yet.

"But as soon as you do a large file transfer from HD#2 to new HD (#3), it's "crash and burn".

I guess I was misunderstanding you before. I thought you were saying that just having the card in the machine was causing crashes. That WOULD point to the card.

However, this new info suggests it could either be the card or one, or more of the drives.

PS i don't think I own a card that doesn't give me the "digitally signed" message when I install the drivers.

 

[LumberJack]

I do a lot of the same. I suggest moving to a raid array for your burning... or get an old pc and turn it into a dedicated burning machine ... load gentoo on that baby and watch it fly...

To err is human... to really screw things up you need a computer!