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will a 200gb hd work in Compaq S4020WM ?
Staples has some 200GB hard drives on sale, but will it work in my Compaq
S4020WM purchased at Walmart a little over a year ago? -E |
Most likely, yes. Jumper it CS for Cable Select.
HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Staples has some 200GB hard drives on sale, but will it work in my Compaq S4020WM purchased at Walmart a little over a year ago? -E |
OK, thanks, I'll probably get one at Staples tomorrow and try it. I'd really
like to have a SCSI drive for my op system but don't know enough about the technical factors nor whether my computer could handle it. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Most likely, yes. Jumper it CS for Cable Select. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Staples has some 200GB hard drives on sale, but will it work in my Compaq S4020WM purchased at Walmart a little over a year ago? -E |
SCSI would be an expensive solution for almost no benefit. It has its uses.
This just isn't one of them. Tom "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... OK, thanks, I'll probably get one at Staples tomorrow and try it. I'd really like to have a SCSI drive for my op system but don't know enough about the technical factors nor whether my computer could handle it. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Most likely, yes. Jumper it CS for Cable Select. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Staples has some 200GB hard drives on sale, but will it work in my Compaq S4020WM purchased at Walmart a little over a year ago? -E |
Another point. Most PCs won't boot from a SCSI drive if there is an IDE
drive present. HH "Tom Scales" wrote in message ... SCSI would be an expensive solution for almost no benefit. It has its uses. This just isn't one of them. Tom "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... OK, thanks, I'll probably get one at Staples tomorrow and try it. I'd really like to have a SCSI drive for my op system but don't know enough about the technical factors nor whether my computer could handle it. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Most likely, yes. Jumper it CS for Cable Select. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Staples has some 200GB hard drives on sale, but will it work in my Compaq S4020WM purchased at Walmart a little over a year ago? -E |
OK, I figured there were technical problems, but it would benefit me if I
had one. The IDE drives are too slow and unreliable for one of my database applications that has constant heavy disk access. The experts with that application software recommended the faster SCSI drives as the only possible solution. Of course they're mostly university professors running unix-related op systems, not windows. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Another point. Most PCs won't boot from a SCSI drive if there is an IDE drive present. HH "Tom Scales" wrote in message ... SCSI would be an expensive solution for almost no benefit. It has its uses. This just isn't one of them. Tom "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... OK, thanks, I'll probably get one at Staples tomorrow and try it. I'd really like to have a SCSI drive for my op system but don't know enough about the technical factors nor whether my computer could handle it. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Most likely, yes. Jumper it CS for Cable Select. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Staples has some 200GB hard drives on sale, but will it work in my Compaq S4020WM purchased at Walmart a little over a year ago? -E |
The experts are idiots.
If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. SCSI is so last year. "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... OK, I figured there were technical problems, but it would benefit me if I had one. The IDE drives are too slow and unreliable for one of my database applications that has constant heavy disk access. The experts with that application software recommended the faster SCSI drives as the only possible solution. Of course they're mostly university professors running unix-related op systems, not windows. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Another point. Most PCs won't boot from a SCSI drive if there is an IDE drive present. HH "Tom Scales" wrote in message ... SCSI would be an expensive solution for almost no benefit. It has its uses. This just isn't one of them. Tom "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... OK, thanks, I'll probably get one at Staples tomorrow and try it. I'd really like to have a SCSI drive for my op system but don't know enough about the technical factors nor whether my computer could handle it. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Most likely, yes. Jumper it CS for Cable Select. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Staples has some 200GB hard drives on sale, but will it work in my Compaq S4020WM purchased at Walmart a little over a year ago? -E |
Perhpas I'll get the chance to test your opinion at some point--my SCSI at this
point still out performs my 7200 RPM IDE when paying avi files that are processed by my encoder video card out to NTSC. Playback studders with the 7200 IDE--perhaps the 10,000 is enough to do the job. I'd welcome loosing the SCSI card and HDD, simplifing the setup in my PC to one or two large IDEs.... Dale |
I'd be surprised if your hard drive was the limiting factor. I record DVD
quality video and play it back off a 5400rpm drive in an external USB2 case and it plays flawlessly. Tom "DEJ57" wrote in message ... Perhpas I'll get the chance to test your opinion at some point--my SCSI at this point still out performs my 7200 RPM IDE when paying avi files that are processed by my encoder video card out to NTSC. Playback studders with the 7200 IDE--perhaps the 10,000 is enough to do the job. I'd welcome loosing the SCSI card and HDD, simplifing the setup in my PC to one or two large IDEs.... Dale |
Excellent point. May well be the 1996 16 bit capture/encoder video card I
use--but I can get smooth playback using the SCSI Quantum Vicking II--heck, had it so long now I don't remember what its rotation speed is--likely 10,000...but the 7200 IDE studders occasionally....when I got the SCSI way back when (1997) it was to get video playback working smoothly with the above video card in my 4112--a 133/60 MHZ, 96 RAM, and 10,000 in IDE was unheard of, at least by me.... Dale |
If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
Try he
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and
calls them Raptors... Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only Specifications: Capacity: 74GB Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms Buffer: 8MB Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM Interface: Serial ATA Features: High Performance SATA Interface Packaging: OEM Drive Only Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate... -E "HH" wrote in message ... Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your Presario
onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and cables, too. Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and calls them Raptors... Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only Specifications: Capacity: 74GB Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms Buffer: 8MB Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM Interface: Serial ATA Features: High Performance SATA Interface Packaging: OEM Drive Only Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate... -E "HH" wrote in message ... Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for
confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.) -E "HH" wrote in message ... You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and cables, too. Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and calls them Raptors... Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only Specifications: Capacity: 74GB Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms Buffer: 8MB Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM Interface: Serial ATA Features: High Performance SATA Interface Packaging: OEM Drive Only Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate... -E "HH" wrote in message ... Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot
handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced itself right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got faster and more reliable. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.) -E "HH" wrote in message ... You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and cables, too. Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and calls them Raptors... Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only Specifications: Capacity: 74GB Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms Buffer: 8MB Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM Interface: Serial ATA Features: High Performance SATA Interface Packaging: OEM Drive Only Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate... -E "HH" wrote in message ... Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
Well, I have a "home use" that my 7200rpm drive can't handle properly...
It's a 7GB chess endgame database of 290 files ranging up in size to about 150kb. The drive can't keep up with the software as this database is accessed, so it slows down things greatly. So the hard drive light remains on constantly, while the processor is running at 100% capacity constantly - for many hours, constantly. As a little background... The game of chess has now been solved for all combinations of 5 pieces remaining on the chessboard. These perfect & complete solutions go into the 7GB database in a format known as Nalimov EGTB Tablebases. As the end of a game of chess approaches, chess analysis engines will begin to access these Tablebases, which is a lot faster and more reliable than the engine calculating all of those possibilities again. That would be wasted effort, because they have already been calculated - i.e. they constitute the Tablebase data. How many Tablebase accesses are involved per second? A lot! A lot more than 7,200 rpm IDE drives can handle. The experts say that 15,000 rpm SCSI drives can keep up with the access demand OK, but nothing else can. Now, the 6-piece chess endgames are in process of being solved completely too, so the chess endgame Tablebases are increasing towards the order of a terrabyte of data when that task is completed (probably within a year or two). That makes the little 7GB Tablebases look puny by comparison, and the problems involved in accessing them will be correspondingly enormous. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced itself right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got faster and more reliable. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.) -E "HH" wrote in message ... You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and cables, too. Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and calls them Raptors... Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only Specifications: Capacity: 74GB Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms Buffer: 8MB Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM Interface: Serial ATA Features: High Performance SATA Interface Packaging: OEM Drive Only Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate... -E "HH" wrote in message ... Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
Quick questions. What, if anything, is runing in the background when you try
to run the database? If anything, have you disabled same before starting? Do you have MS Office installed? If so is Findfast enabled? Is indexing enabled for the drive/volume? The drive is NTFS, correct? Defrag regularly? Delete temp internet files regularly? HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... Well, I have a "home use" that my 7200rpm drive can't handle properly... It's a 7GB chess endgame database of 290 files ranging up in size to about 150kb. The drive can't keep up with the software as this database is accessed, so it slows down things greatly. So the hard drive light remains on constantly, while the processor is running at 100% capacity constantly - for many hours, constantly. As a little background... The game of chess has now been solved for all combinations of 5 pieces remaining on the chessboard. These perfect & complete solutions go into the 7GB database in a format known as Nalimov EGTB Tablebases. As the end of a game of chess approaches, chess analysis engines will begin to access these Tablebases, which is a lot faster and more reliable than the engine calculating all of those possibilities again. That would be wasted effort, because they have already been calculated - i.e. they constitute the Tablebase data. How many Tablebase accesses are involved per second? A lot! A lot more than 7,200 rpm IDE drives can handle. The experts say that 15,000 rpm SCSI drives can keep up with the access demand OK, but nothing else can. Now, the 6-piece chess endgames are in process of being solved completely too, so the chess endgame Tablebases are increasing towards the order of a terrabyte of data when that task is completed (probably within a year or two). That makes the little 7GB Tablebases look puny by comparison, and the problems involved in accessing them will be correspondingly enormous. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced itself right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got faster and more reliable. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.) -E "HH" wrote in message ... You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and cables, too. Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and calls them Raptors... Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only Specifications: Capacity: 74GB Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms Buffer: 8MB Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM Interface: Serial ATA Features: High Performance SATA Interface Packaging: OEM Drive Only Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate... -E "HH" wrote in message ... Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
Another question. Have you thought about installing an IDE Raid controller
card and setting up a 2-drive for performance? HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... Well, I have a "home use" that my 7200rpm drive can't handle properly... It's a 7GB chess endgame database of 290 files ranging up in size to about 150kb. The drive can't keep up with the software as this database is accessed, so it slows down things greatly. So the hard drive light remains on constantly, while the processor is running at 100% capacity constantly - for many hours, constantly. As a little background... The game of chess has now been solved for all combinations of 5 pieces remaining on the chessboard. These perfect & complete solutions go into the 7GB database in a format known as Nalimov EGTB Tablebases. As the end of a game of chess approaches, chess analysis engines will begin to access these Tablebases, which is a lot faster and more reliable than the engine calculating all of those possibilities again. That would be wasted effort, because they have already been calculated - i.e. they constitute the Tablebase data. How many Tablebase accesses are involved per second? A lot! A lot more than 7,200 rpm IDE drives can handle. The experts say that 15,000 rpm SCSI drives can keep up with the access demand OK, but nothing else can. Now, the 6-piece chess endgames are in process of being solved completely too, so the chess endgame Tablebases are increasing towards the order of a terrabyte of data when that task is completed (probably within a year or two). That makes the little 7GB Tablebases look puny by comparison, and the problems involved in accessing them will be correspondingly enormous. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced itself right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got faster and more reliable. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.) -E "HH" wrote in message ... You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and cables, too. Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and calls them Raptors... Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only Specifications: Capacity: 74GB Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms Buffer: 8MB Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM Interface: Serial ATA Features: High Performance SATA Interface Packaging: OEM Drive Only Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate... -E "HH" wrote in message ... Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
"HH" wrote in message ... Quick questions. What, if anything, is runing in the background when you try to run the database? Closing down my anti-virus and firewall have no effect on this problem, and there's nothing else significant running in the background. Note that my chess analysis engine software normally runs with 100% processor usage. That's the software which accesses the Tablebases, so it's necessary. If anything, have you disabled same before starting? N/A Do you have MS Office installed? No. If so is Findfast enabled? N/A Is indexing enabled for the drive/volume? No. The drive is NTFS, correct? Yes. Defrag regularly? Yes. Delete temp internet files regularly? Yes. They are deleted automatically when I exit IE. Have you thought about installing an IDE Raid controller card and setting up a 2-drive for performance? Duh...no...and have no idea what's involved. I have a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 PCI Adapter Card on my shelf, if that would do it? I used it in a former computer, but haven't had any reason to put it in this Compaq S4020WM. My only "Lone Ranger hunch" is that Compaq may have disabled the DDR feature of RAM on this S4020WM. It has DDR RAM installed, however the benchmarks (with Everest) show it as a speed typical of ordinary PC (non-DDR) RAM. So I guess the problem could be RAM speed, at least partly. At the same time Compaq hid all of those kinds of special settings in the BIOS setup utility, so there's apparently no way to tweak it back to DDR speed. -E "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... Well, I have a "home use" that my 7200rpm drive can't handle properly... It's a 7GB chess endgame database of 290 files ranging up in size to about 150kb. The drive can't keep up with the software as this database is accessed, so it slows down things greatly. So the hard drive light remains on constantly, while the processor is running at 100% capacity constantly - for many hours, constantly. As a little background... The game of chess has now been solved for all combinations of 5 pieces remaining on the chessboard. These perfect & complete solutions go into the 7GB database in a format known as Nalimov EGTB Tablebases. As the end of a game of chess approaches, chess analysis engines will begin to access these Tablebases, which is a lot faster and more reliable than the engine calculating all of those possibilities again. That would be wasted effort, because they have already been calculated - i.e. they constitute the Tablebase data. How many Tablebase accesses are involved per second? A lot! A lot more than 7,200 rpm IDE drives can handle. The experts say that 15,000 rpm SCSI drives can keep up with the access demand OK, but nothing else can. Now, the 6-piece chess endgames are in process of being solved completely too, so the chess endgame Tablebases are increasing towards the order of a terrabyte of data when that task is completed (probably within a year or two). That makes the little 7GB Tablebases look puny by comparison, and the problems involved in accessing them will be correspondingly enormous. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced itself right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got faster and more reliable. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.) -E "HH" wrote in message ... You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and cables, too. Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and calls them Raptors... Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only Specifications: Capacity: 74GB Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms Buffer: 8MB Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM Interface: Serial ATA Features: High Performance SATA Interface Packaging: OEM Drive Only Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate... -E "HH" wrote in message ... Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
Too much to swallow with just a sip of water, I presume... :)
-E "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... "HH" wrote in message ... Quick questions. What, if anything, is runing in the background when you try to run the database? Closing down my anti-virus and firewall have no effect on this problem, and there's nothing else significant running in the background. Note that my chess analysis engine software normally runs with 100% processor usage. That's the software which accesses the Tablebases, so it's necessary. If anything, have you disabled same before starting? N/A Do you have MS Office installed? No. If so is Findfast enabled? N/A Is indexing enabled for the drive/volume? No. The drive is NTFS, correct? Yes. Defrag regularly? Yes. Delete temp internet files regularly? Yes. They are deleted automatically when I exit IE. Have you thought about installing an IDE Raid controller card and setting up a 2-drive for performance? Duh...no...and have no idea what's involved. I have a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 PCI Adapter Card on my shelf, if that would do it? I used it in a former computer, but haven't had any reason to put it in this Compaq S4020WM. My only "Lone Ranger hunch" is that Compaq may have disabled the DDR feature of RAM on this S4020WM. It has DDR RAM installed, however the benchmarks (with Everest) show it as a speed typical of ordinary PC (non-DDR) RAM. So I guess the problem could be RAM speed, at least partly. At the same time Compaq hid all of those kinds of special settings in the BIOS setup utility, so there's apparently no way to tweak it back to DDR speed. -E "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... Well, I have a "home use" that my 7200rpm drive can't handle properly... It's a 7GB chess endgame database of 290 files ranging up in size to about 150kb. The drive can't keep up with the software as this database is accessed, so it slows down things greatly. So the hard drive light remains on constantly, while the processor is running at 100% capacity constantly - for many hours, constantly. As a little background... The game of chess has now been solved for all combinations of 5 pieces remaining on the chessboard. These perfect & complete solutions go into the 7GB database in a format known as Nalimov EGTB Tablebases. As the end of a game of chess approaches, chess analysis engines will begin to access these Tablebases, which is a lot faster and more reliable than the engine calculating all of those possibilities again. That would be wasted effort, because they have already been calculated - i.e. they constitute the Tablebase data. How many Tablebase accesses are involved per second? A lot! A lot more than 7,200 rpm IDE drives can handle. The experts say that 15,000 rpm SCSI drives can keep up with the access demand OK, but nothing else can. Now, the 6-piece chess endgames are in process of being solved completely too, so the chess endgame Tablebases are increasing towards the order of a terrabyte of data when that task is completed (probably within a year or two). That makes the little 7GB Tablebases look puny by comparison, and the problems involved in accessing them will be correspondingly enormous. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced itself right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got faster and more reliable. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.) -E "HH" wrote in message ... You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and cables, too. Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and calls them Raptors... Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only Specifications: Capacity: 74GB Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms Buffer: 8MB Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM Interface: Serial ATA Features: High Performance SATA Interface Packaging: OEM Drive Only Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate... -E "HH" wrote in message ... Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
Unfortunately, no. A regular IDE controller won't do it. A RAID controller
will. Promise is probably the largest manufacturer of the cards. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Too much to swallow with just a sip of water, I presume... :) -E "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... "HH" wrote in message ... Quick questions. What, if anything, is runing in the background when you try to run the database? Closing down my anti-virus and firewall have no effect on this problem, and there's nothing else significant running in the background. Note that my chess analysis engine software normally runs with 100% processor usage. That's the software which accesses the Tablebases, so it's necessary. If anything, have you disabled same before starting? N/A Do you have MS Office installed? No. If so is Findfast enabled? N/A Is indexing enabled for the drive/volume? No. The drive is NTFS, correct? Yes. Defrag regularly? Yes. Delete temp internet files regularly? Yes. They are deleted automatically when I exit IE. Have you thought about installing an IDE Raid controller card and setting up a 2-drive for performance? Duh...no...and have no idea what's involved. I have a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 PCI Adapter Card on my shelf, if that would do it? I used it in a former computer, but haven't had any reason to put it in this Compaq S4020WM. My only "Lone Ranger hunch" is that Compaq may have disabled the DDR feature of RAM on this S4020WM. It has DDR RAM installed, however the benchmarks (with Everest) show it as a speed typical of ordinary PC (non-DDR) RAM. So I guess the problem could be RAM speed, at least partly. At the same time Compaq hid all of those kinds of special settings in the BIOS setup utility, so there's apparently no way to tweak it back to DDR speed. -E "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... Well, I have a "home use" that my 7200rpm drive can't handle properly... It's a 7GB chess endgame database of 290 files ranging up in size to about 150kb. The drive can't keep up with the software as this database is accessed, so it slows down things greatly. So the hard drive light remains on constantly, while the processor is running at 100% capacity constantly - for many hours, constantly. As a little background... The game of chess has now been solved for all combinations of 5 pieces remaining on the chessboard. These perfect & complete solutions go into the 7GB database in a format known as Nalimov EGTB Tablebases. As the end of a game of chess approaches, chess analysis engines will begin to access these Tablebases, which is a lot faster and more reliable than the engine calculating all of those possibilities again. That would be wasted effort, because they have already been calculated - i.e. they constitute the Tablebase data. How many Tablebase accesses are involved per second? A lot! A lot more than 7,200 rpm IDE drives can handle. The experts say that 15,000 rpm SCSI drives can keep up with the access demand OK, but nothing else can. Now, the 6-piece chess endgames are in process of being solved completely too, so the chess endgame Tablebases are increasing towards the order of a terrabyte of data when that task is completed (probably within a year or two). That makes the little 7GB Tablebases look puny by comparison, and the problems involved in accessing them will be correspondingly enormous. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced itself right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got faster and more reliable. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.) -E "HH" wrote in message ... You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and cables, too. Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and calls them Raptors... Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only Specifications: Capacity: 74GB Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms Buffer: 8MB Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM Interface: Serial ATA Features: High Performance SATA Interface Packaging: OEM Drive Only Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate... -E "HH" wrote in message ... Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
If your CPU is maxed at 100%, then your problem is NOT disk access. It's
CPU. If your CPU was NOT pegged at 100% then it could be CPU access. Tom "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... Well, I have a "home use" that my 7200rpm drive can't handle properly... It's a 7GB chess endgame database of 290 files ranging up in size to about 150kb. The drive can't keep up with the software as this database is accessed, so it slows down things greatly. So the hard drive light remains on constantly, while the processor is running at 100% capacity constantly - for many hours, constantly. As a little background... The game of chess has now been solved for all combinations of 5 pieces remaining on the chessboard. These perfect & complete solutions go into the 7GB database in a format known as Nalimov EGTB Tablebases. As the end of a game of chess approaches, chess analysis engines will begin to access these Tablebases, which is a lot faster and more reliable than the engine calculating all of those possibilities again. That would be wasted effort, because they have already been calculated - i.e. they constitute the Tablebase data. How many Tablebase accesses are involved per second? A lot! A lot more than 7,200 rpm IDE drives can handle. The experts say that 15,000 rpm SCSI drives can keep up with the access demand OK, but nothing else can. Now, the 6-piece chess endgames are in process of being solved completely too, so the chess endgame Tablebases are increasing towards the order of a terrabyte of data when that task is completed (probably within a year or two). That makes the little 7GB Tablebases look puny by comparison, and the problems involved in accessing them will be correspondingly enormous. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced itself right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got faster and more reliable. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.) -E "HH" wrote in message ... You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and cables, too. Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and calls them Raptors... Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only Specifications: Capacity: 74GB Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms Buffer: 8MB Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM Interface: Serial ATA Features: High Performance SATA Interface Packaging: OEM Drive Only Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate... -E "HH" wrote in message ... Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
That's too simplistic. Maxing the CPU does not necessarily cause a problem,
especially not with this chess analysis software from chessbase.com. The CPU is always maxed at 100% with this software on any machine. That's the way it is designed, which maximizes its chess playing strength. My computer generally works OK for multitasking while it's running, albeit somewhat sluggish. If there are major op system response problems then the software's process priority can be lowered, but that's not usually necessary. However apparently most people don't have my problem of a serious slowdown when this software accesses the 7GB of tablebases on the hard drive - especially the university-professor types who designed and created the tablebases, and who run the software on their unix-related op systems with SCSI hard drives. Some people running windows with IDE drives apparently don't have the same serious slowdown problem associated with the tablebases that I'm experiencing, but some do. -E "Tom Scales" wrote in message ... If your CPU is maxed at 100%, then your problem is NOT disk access. It's CPU. If your CPU was NOT pegged at 100% then it could be CPU access. Tom "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... Well, I have a "home use" that my 7200rpm drive can't handle properly... It's a 7GB chess endgame database of 290 files ranging up in size to about 150kb. The drive can't keep up with the software as this database is accessed, so it slows down things greatly. So the hard drive light remains on constantly, while the processor is running at 100% capacity constantly - for many hours, constantly. As a little background... The game of chess has now been solved for all combinations of 5 pieces remaining on the chessboard. These perfect & complete solutions go into the 7GB database in a format known as Nalimov EGTB Tablebases. As the end of a game of chess approaches, chess analysis engines will begin to access these Tablebases, which is a lot faster and more reliable than the engine calculating all of those possibilities again. That would be wasted effort, because they have already been calculated - i.e. they constitute the Tablebase data. How many Tablebase accesses are involved per second? A lot! A lot more than 7,200 rpm IDE drives can handle. The experts say that 15,000 rpm SCSI drives can keep up with the access demand OK, but nothing else can. Now, the 6-piece chess endgames are in process of being solved completely too, so the chess endgame Tablebases are increasing towards the order of a terrabyte of data when that task is completed (probably within a year or two). That makes the little 7GB Tablebases look puny by comparison, and the problems involved in accessing them will be correspondingly enormous. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced itself right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got faster and more reliable. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.) -E "HH" wrote in message ... You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and cables, too. Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and calls them Raptors... Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only Specifications: Capacity: 74GB Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms Buffer: 8MB Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM Interface: Serial ATA Features: High Performance SATA Interface Packaging: OEM Drive Only Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate... -E "HH" wrote in message ... Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
OK, but there are several different kinds and I wouldn't know which one to
buy, that would work with my Compaq S4020WM. So I'm back to square one with technical problems beyond my capability preventing any progress!? For example: http://www.superwarehouse.com/Promis...s/b/333/c/2332 -E "HH" wrote in message ... Unfortunately, no. A regular IDE controller won't do it. A RAID controller will. Promise is probably the largest manufacturer of the cards. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Too much to swallow with just a sip of water, I presume... :) -E "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... "HH" wrote in message ... Quick questions. What, if anything, is runing in the background when you try to run the database? Closing down my anti-virus and firewall have no effect on this problem, and there's nothing else significant running in the background. Note that my chess analysis engine software normally runs with 100% processor usage. That's the software which accesses the Tablebases, so it's necessary. If anything, have you disabled same before starting? N/A Do you have MS Office installed? No. If so is Findfast enabled? N/A Is indexing enabled for the drive/volume? No. The drive is NTFS, correct? Yes. Defrag regularly? Yes. Delete temp internet files regularly? Yes. They are deleted automatically when I exit IE. Have you thought about installing an IDE Raid controller card and setting up a 2-drive for performance? Duh...no...and have no idea what's involved. I have a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 PCI Adapter Card on my shelf, if that would do it? I used it in a former computer, but haven't had any reason to put it in this Compaq S4020WM. My only "Lone Ranger hunch" is that Compaq may have disabled the DDR feature of RAM on this S4020WM. It has DDR RAM installed, however the benchmarks (with Everest) show it as a speed typical of ordinary PC (non-DDR) RAM. So I guess the problem could be RAM speed, at least partly. At the same time Compaq hid all of those kinds of special settings in the BIOS setup utility, so there's apparently no way to tweak it back to DDR speed. -E "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... Well, I have a "home use" that my 7200rpm drive can't handle properly... It's a 7GB chess endgame database of 290 files ranging up in size to about 150kb. The drive can't keep up with the software as this database is accessed, so it slows down things greatly. So the hard drive light remains on constantly, while the processor is running at 100% capacity constantly - for many hours, constantly. As a little background... The game of chess has now been solved for all combinations of 5 pieces remaining on the chessboard. These perfect & complete solutions go into the 7GB database in a format known as Nalimov EGTB Tablebases. As the end of a game of chess approaches, chess analysis engines will begin to access these Tablebases, which is a lot faster and more reliable than the engine calculating all of those possibilities again. That would be wasted effort, because they have already been calculated - i.e. they constitute the Tablebase data. How many Tablebase accesses are involved per second? A lot! A lot more than 7,200 rpm IDE drives can handle. The experts say that 15,000 rpm SCSI drives can keep up with the access demand OK, but nothing else can. Now, the 6-piece chess endgames are in process of being solved completely too, so the chess endgame Tablebases are increasing towards the order of a terrabyte of data when that task is completed (probably within a year or two). That makes the little 7GB Tablebases look puny by comparison, and the problems involved in accessing them will be correspondingly enormous. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced itself right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got faster and more reliable. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.) -E "HH" wrote in message ... You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and cables, too. Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and calls them Raptors... Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only Specifications: Capacity: 74GB Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms Buffer: 8MB Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM Interface: Serial ATA Features: High Performance SATA Interface Packaging: OEM Drive Only Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate... -E "HH" wrote in message ... Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
The TX2000 PCI ultra looks like it would do the job, set for RAID 0, or
striping. For best results the drives should be identical. HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... OK, but there are several different kinds and I wouldn't know which one to buy, that would work with my Compaq S4020WM. So I'm back to square one with technical problems beyond my capability preventing any progress!? For example: http://www.superwarehouse.com/Promis...s/b/333/c/2332 -E "HH" wrote in message ... Unfortunately, no. A regular IDE controller won't do it. A RAID controller will. Promise is probably the largest manufacturer of the cards. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Too much to swallow with just a sip of water, I presume... :) -E "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... "HH" wrote in message ... Quick questions. What, if anything, is runing in the background when you try to run the database? Closing down my anti-virus and firewall have no effect on this problem, and there's nothing else significant running in the background. Note that my chess analysis engine software normally runs with 100% processor usage. That's the software which accesses the Tablebases, so it's necessary. If anything, have you disabled same before starting? N/A Do you have MS Office installed? No. If so is Findfast enabled? N/A Is indexing enabled for the drive/volume? No. The drive is NTFS, correct? Yes. Defrag regularly? Yes. Delete temp internet files regularly? Yes. They are deleted automatically when I exit IE. Have you thought about installing an IDE Raid controller card and setting up a 2-drive for performance? Duh...no...and have no idea what's involved. I have a Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 PCI Adapter Card on my shelf, if that would do it? I used it in a former computer, but haven't had any reason to put it in this Compaq S4020WM. My only "Lone Ranger hunch" is that Compaq may have disabled the DDR feature of RAM on this S4020WM. It has DDR RAM installed, however the benchmarks (with Everest) show it as a speed typical of ordinary PC (non-DDR) RAM. So I guess the problem could be RAM speed, at least partly. At the same time Compaq hid all of those kinds of special settings in the BIOS setup utility, so there's apparently no way to tweak it back to DDR speed. -E "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... Well, I have a "home use" that my 7200rpm drive can't handle properly... It's a 7GB chess endgame database of 290 files ranging up in size to about 150kb. The drive can't keep up with the software as this database is accessed, so it slows down things greatly. So the hard drive light remains on constantly, while the processor is running at 100% capacity constantly - for many hours, constantly. As a little background... The game of chess has now been solved for all combinations of 5 pieces remaining on the chessboard. These perfect & complete solutions go into the 7GB database in a format known as Nalimov EGTB Tablebases. As the end of a game of chess approaches, chess analysis engines will begin to access these Tablebases, which is a lot faster and more reliable than the engine calculating all of those possibilities again. That would be wasted effort, because they have already been calculated - i.e. they constitute the Tablebase data. How many Tablebase accesses are involved per second? A lot! A lot more than 7,200 rpm IDE drives can handle. The experts say that 15,000 rpm SCSI drives can keep up with the access demand OK, but nothing else can. Now, the 6-piece chess endgames are in process of being solved completely too, so the chess endgame Tablebases are increasing towards the order of a terrabyte of data when that task is completed (probably within a year or two). That makes the little 7GB Tablebases look puny by comparison, and the problems involved in accessing them will be correspondingly enormous. -E "HH" wrote in message ... Hmmmm. I cannot think of any home use a good 7.2K ATA 100 drive cannot handle, especially one with an 8MB cache. You are right SCSI priced itself right out of the consumer market at the same time IDE drives got faster and more reliable. HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... I sorta figured that out after a little googling, but thanks for confirmation of my suspicions. If I decide to buy a special adapter card and cables, I might as well get a SCSI anyway...or so my mind works. After doing some reading, I'd really prefer a 15K rpm hd, which only comes in SCSI. Of course you'd have to be a university professor to afford one, I suppose. (I'm not.) -E "HH" wrote in message ... You would likely have to buy a PCI SATA controller card, since your Presario onboard controller is an IDE controller. The SATA cable is round and uses a much smaller connector. New Egg has the controller cards and cables, too. Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...124-101&depa=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message nk.net... Thanks. It looks like only Western Digital makes the 10K IDE drives, and calls them Raptors... Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD740GD, OEM Drive Only Specifications: Capacity: 74GB Average Seek Time: 4.5 ms Buffer: 8MB Rotational Speed: 10000 RPM Interface: Serial ATA Features: High Performance SATA Interface Packaging: OEM Drive Only Reading the reviews brings up several possible technical problems. For example a SATA cable is required. I have no idea what that means, nor how it will modify my computer. At present I have a cable which has a middle connector for the slave drive, and would want the same. They also talk about needing different drivers, and that the SATA drive won't work with some motherboards or will require a special BIOS. That creates another big research project, I suppose, which may put it beyond my capability or interest. I'd like to have the speed, but can't stomach too many technical uncertainties out of the gate... -E "HH" wrote in message ... Try he http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...roperty&DEPA=1 HH "Euclid" wrote in message ink.net... If you need real speed, get a 10,000 RPM IDE drive and put it on a separate controller Better yet, get a SATA controller and 10K drive. I've looked but can't find anyplace to order 10K IDE drives. I see them mentioned in reviews only, so they must be very new. Got any links to retail suppliers? -E |
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