Promise Ultra100 TX2 on P3B-F Test Results

Hello,

I have seen several people ask if a controller card is worth having. I just
thought I'd share my experiences with one.

I have a home built. It uses

Asus P3B-F
1 G PIII using Abit Slocket II
384 Meg RAM
ATI All in Wonder Pro 16 Mb
TechRAM Ultra2 DC-390U SCSI
9 Gig IBM connected to SCSI
Maxtor 120/8 Gig Master
Maxtor 30 Gig Slave

I bought the card because I was having streaming audio pause when I opened my
email program (Pegasus). It would start back up again but the pause was driving
me nuts. I was told on Google that upgrading to an ata 100 drive would stop this
problem. It hasn't. Yes, DMA is on. I was trying to decide whether to keep or
sell the card so I ran a few simple tests.

I did a test moving and copying a 4.27 Gig folder with 698 files and 170 folders
in it. Mostly avi and iso images.

First using the Ultra100

Copying from G (30G) to F (120G) 4:33
Moving from F (120G) to E (9G SCSI) +-10 min. 15 sec window for error.
Moving from G (30G) to F (120G) 4:21

WithOUT the Ultra100

Copying from F (120G) to G (30G) 6:37
Copying from G (30G) to F (120G) 6:26
Moving from F (120G) to E (9G SCSI) +-11:16
Moving from G (30G) to F (120G) 6:29

Times are in minutes:seconds.

I ran it to my SCSI to see what the PCI bus would do to the times. The SCSI card
is supposed to be fairly fast, 20 MB/s. The SCSI drive is an IBM 9.1G? 50-pin
narrow.

I don't really notice any real increases in speed in my daily usage. I haven't
played with virtual dub with the card enough to know if it makes a diff. I had
no problems capturing video without the card.

I googled and found a link to a BIOS update that allows my MB to support DMA
100.

http://tinyurl.com/lv8x

I may try that. Kind of scares me to put a third party BIOS into my system.

Anyway I hope this info will help someone out. I know my tests are not the best
and there are better. Heck, I was using my grandson's Hot Wheels stop watch so
they have to be close. LOL

Steve
My real email address is dealsgalore[A-T]earthlink.net

www.cheap-land.com

"Steve" wrote:
I have seen several people ask if a controller card
is worth having. I just thought I'd share my experiences
with one.

I have a home built. It uses

Asus P3B-F
1 G PIII using Abit Slocket II
384 Meg RAM
ATI All in Wonder Pro 16 Mb
TechRAM Ultra2 DC-390U SCSI
9 Gig IBM connected to SCSI
Maxtor 120/8 Gig Master
Maxtor 30 Gig Slave

I bought the card because I was having streaming audio
pause when I opened my email program (Pegasus). It
would start back up again but the pause was driving
me nuts. I was told on Google that upgrading to an
ata 100 drive would stop this problem. It hasn't. Yes,
DMA is on. I was trying to decide whether to keep or
sell the card so I ran a few simple tests.

I did a test moving and copying a 4.27 Gig folder with
698 files and 170 folders in it. Mostly avi and iso images.

First using the Ultra100

Copying from G (30G) to F (120G) 4:33
Moving from F (120G) to E (9G SCSI) +-10 min.
15 sec window for error.
Moving from G (30G) to F (120G) 4:21

WithOUT the Ultra100

Copying from F (120G) to G (30G) 6:37
Copying from G (30G) to F (120G) 6:26
Moving from F (120G) to E (9G SCSI) +-11:16
Moving from G (30G) to F (120G) 6:29

Times are in minutes:seconds.

I ran it to my SCSI to see what the PCI bus would
do to the times. The SCSI card is supposed to be
fairly fast, 20 MB/s. The SCSI drive is an
IBM 9.1G? 50-pin narrow.

I don't really notice any real increases in speed
in my daily usage. I haven't played with virtual dub
with the card enough to know if it makes a diff. I had
no problems capturing video without the card.

I googled and found a link to a BIOS update that
allows my MB to support DMA 100.

http://tinyurl.com/lv8x

I may try that. Kind of scares me to put a third party
BIOS into my system.

Anyway I hope this info will help someone out.
I know my tests are not the best and there are
better. Heck, I was using my grandson's Hot Wheels
stop watch so they have to be close. LOL


Were the hard drives on the same IDE channels
or on different channels when testing with and
without the Promise controller?


*TimDaniels*

On Mon, 1 Sep 2003 11:17:40 -0700, "Timothy Daniels"
wrote:

snip

Were the hard drives on the same IDE channels
or on different channels when testing with and
without the Promise controller?


*TimDaniels*

The same channel on both tests. I only have one ata cable. Maybe I should get
another one and play some more. ;-)

Sorry, I forgot to add that information.

Steve
My real email address is dealsgalore[A-T]earthlink.net

www.cheap-land.com

"Steve" wrote:
"Timothy Daniels" wrote:
Were the hard drives on the same IDE channels
or on different channels when testing with and
without the Promise controller?

The same channel on both tests. I only have one ata cable.
Maybe I should get another one and play some more. ;-)


It would be very interesting to see how same channel
versus different channels affects the file transfer time. If
you have the time and money, try seeing if the time is the
same for a "round" cable as for the same length ribbon
cable. Hey! And while you're at it.... :-)


*TimDaniels*