How many IDE channels can I have?

[bastardman]

I'm on crusade to put as many IDE devices in my computer as possible. Right now I have 4 IDE channels for 8 devices (the standard 2 channels, and 2 extra from the raid controller built into my KG7-RAID mobo). I'm going to add at least 1 Promise Ultra133TX2 for two more channels, but I'd rather add as many as possible. I'm guessing the best move would be to disable both the primary and secondary channels (which each take 1 irq), and add 2 cards (which each have 2 channels at one irq each), then another on irq 10. That way I'll be set up as thus;

IRQ 10 - Promise IDE card (2 channels)
IRQ 11 - Built in RAID controller (2 channels)
IRQ 12 - taken
IRQ 13 - taken
IRQ 14 - Promise IDE card (2 chan (previously primary IDE))
IRQ 15 - Promise IDE card (2 chan (previously second IDE))

Giving me eight channels for a total of 16 devices! I'm guessing that I shouldn't try using IRQ 9 or 7 (which don't show up as used in device manager... but I don't know enough about irqs, they are probably used by something?) Will this work? I just must find a way to install 14 hard drives in my system! ..... mounting them all in the case will be another challenge

 

[lhgpoobaa]

The most ive ever seen was with a Epox 8K5A3 board.
It had the standard 2 primary and secondary, an extra FOUR channels off the onboard raid controller and a 4 channel RAID card in a PCI slot.
Thats 10 channels for 20 drives!

<font color=blue>Many modern games <b>must</b> be played multiplayer. And those you encounter online are, almost as a rule, <b>complete and utter cockmongers.</b></font color=blue> :frown:

 

[Bosse]

HAHAHA cool !!!

 

[Crashman]

I've seen 4 channel cards, but I've heard rumors of up to 8 channel cards.

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

 

[cdpage]

I have an Asus P4S8X MoBo, a socket 478, it doesn't have RAID at all, just the typical Pri/Sec IDE's how ever it does have S-ATA.

Currently i have 2 HD's Both IDE and 2 ROM's the other 2 IDE.

***With out buying a S ATA HD to replace a current one, how would i go about Putting in My 250 Zip Drive?...its currently not installed.

***Also Is S ATA only one channel? becasue the cables that i was given only seem to be, as there are no mid brake brake points.



ASUS P4S8X - P4 2.4B - 2 x 512M DDR333 - ATI 9500 Pro(Sapphire) - WD 80G HD (8M Buffer) - SAMSUNG SV0844D 8G HD - LG 16X DVD - Yamaha F1 CDRW - Iomega Zip 250 int.

 

[cdpage]

Oh and its a SiS648 chip set if that help any.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by cdpage on 06/17/03 00:51 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Crashman]

Yes, I'm familiar with that board (unfortunately). I'd suggest you simply add a cheap PCI IDE adapter card and forget the onboard SATA.

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

 

[Crashman]

Oh, and SATA is one device per cable. Later there are plans to release hubs for additional devices to branch off from additional cables.

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

 

[eViktor]

But you gotta watch the HEAT man... I have 5 drives and they put out enough heat to broil a tuna.

-evik

 

[cdpage]

You think i should buy a PCI card for my Zip drive?

How much does one of those go for? i never knew you could get an IDE PCI card before...

I would suppose going throught a PCI card would slow things down and thats probably why its not too popular.

But in any case, its just a Zip Drive, and to have it attached slowly would still be better then not at all.



ASUS P4S8X - P4 2.4B - 2 x 512M DDR333 - ATI 9500 Pro(Sapphire) - WD 80G HD (8M Buffer) - SAMSUNG SV0844D 8G HD - LG 16X DVD - Yamaha F1 CDRW - Iomega Zip 250 int.

 

[Crashman]

Slow things down? Unpopular?

In all likelyhood your onboard IDE controller is treated as a PCI device by the rest of the chipset. And your SATA controller is also a PCI device, they simply ran the wires for a PCI slot directly to the chip, instead of a slot. Heck, even SCSI cards are PCI!

The transfer rate for a PCI slot is 133MB/s! As for your Zip drive, it's probably around 10MB/s! Certainly PCI cards are faster than your Zip drive, in fact they are faster than hard drives too!

The add in cards are quite popular. Many are RAID cards, but most RAID cards allow you to set non-RAID as well.

I can't believe you would think a PCI card would slow down a ZIP drive. Especially considering IDE RAID adapters are also PCI!

OK, lets put this in perspective. The fastest IDE interface is UDMA133. That's 133MB/s, the same as a PCI card. By comparison, USB 2.0 is 480 mega<i>bits</i> per second, you divide by 8 to get mega<i>bytes</i> per second, so that USB 2.0 is only 60MB/s. Firewire is 400 megabits, or 50MB/s. Standard USB is 12 megabits, or 1.5MB/s!

So you just can't do better than PCI with your board to support ANY drive.

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

 

[cdpage]

ok, wow thanks for the run down...

I feel a little stupid now... i knew that ZIPs were slow...and should have know that the PCI slots would still be faster.

however i didn't relize the on board SATA or even the IDE was PCI...or at least treated as one.

I suppose i still deserve the nOOb title

ASUS P4S8X - P4 2.4B - 2 x 512M DDR333 - ATI 9500 Pro(Sapphire) - WD 80G HD (8M Buffer) - SAMSUNG SV0844D 8G HD - LG 16X DVD - Yamaha F1 CDRW - Iomega Zip 250 int.

 

[Crashman]

Yes, SATA is supposed to be the "new fast" standard for hard drives, yet the only SATA adapter on PC's on a faster bus is the integrated controller on the Intel ICH5R southbridge (available only for the 865 and 875 series chipsets). That means that all of the other onboard stuff uses a PCI interface. That includes all these Highpoint, Promise, Silicon Image, etc. RAID controllers.

The only way to get a faster interface for your hard drive controller is to use a server board with a wider PCI version. Server boards include such interfaces as 64-bit PCI, 66MHz PCI, and PCI-X, all meant to offer improved drive throughput when you need to access several drives at once.

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

 

[sjonnie]

3ware make 12 channels RAID controllers. Just plug 5 of them into your system, should keep you tied up for a while!

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