Connecting Hard drives

[seekermeister]

I have an internal controller card, which I have always used to connect optical drives, but from what I just read:

Today, the best way of providing support for up to eight IDE/ATA devices (four channels) is through the addition of one of these PCI-based cards. Doing so allows you the use of four channels, while taking only three IRQs (two by the original motherboard channels and one for the card). Support for the card is provided through a driver provided by the maker of the card. As an additional bonus, these cards usually support the latest Ultra DMA transfer modes, and support for large hard disks as well. If you have an older system, the best way to go is to put the hard disks on the add-in card to get support for high-speed transfers, and then use the motherboard's channels for slower ATAPI devices. And as if that weren't enough, these cards cost under $50!

IDE/ATA Channels and Resource Usage

I'm probably going to change that, and connect the hard drives to it instead...at least two of them, since my controller card only has two connectors. The reason that I'm posting this, is just that I want confirmation that this info is accurate and up to date?

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

I'm probably going to change that, and connect the hard drives to it instead...at least two of them, since my controller card only has two connectors. The reason that I'm posting this, is just that I want confirmation that this info is accurate and up to date?

The information on that page was last updated in 2004. I would not rely on it. Hard drives do not rely on IDE anymore but SATA which function much differently. You do not need to worry about whether you have enough IRQs available or worry about channels, master/slave, or anything like that.

Unless your PC is still running off of all IDE drives. And then it comes down to whether those cards are even made anymore.

 

[seekermeister]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but IDE/ATA includes both IDE and SATA...does it not? In any case, connecting the hard drive to the internal controller did not help. In fact, the performance dropped off a bit, and unlike when I moved the driver to the external case, the internal card connection did not restore SMART data. Those things may be due to the quality of the controller card...don't know.

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

ATA is a spec that crosses both IDE interfaces and SATA interfaces.

 

[essenbe]

I've done a little shopping for sata controllers. My experience shows that most of the ones that show IDE/sata are sata 1 connections. Normally, that will not provide the speed you want from a sata controller.

 

[seekermeister]

I came across some articles about HighPoint's new hybrid controller card, that is supposed to be able to combine a regular hard drive with and SSD:

HighPoint launches hybrid controller card for SSD and HDD - www.nordichardware.com

On the surface, it sounds good, but since it hasn't actually been released yet, despite that article's speculation about it being released in February, there are a number of questions that I would have before ordering one. For instance, Seagate's hybrid drives are designed in a fashion that causes the hard drive to stop when not needed. It would seem to me, that this would cause faster wear, because of the inertial forces at work, plus the heating/cooling cycles. I'm wondering if the hybrid controller card would do the same?

My interest is simply in terms of flexibility/options, such as either preparing for a future addition of an SSD, or using it to connect two regular hard drives.

 

[Layback Bear]

I have been looking at that Seagate Hybird but still have some questions I haven't been able to find the answers. How do you defrag a hybrid? What is the read/wright speed between the ssd part of the hybrid to hdd part? Are we gaining any thing when we still have to write to a hdd?

 

[Johnathan Lyman]

I have been looking at that Seagate Hybird but still have some questions I haven't been able to find the answers. How do you defrag a hybrid? What is the read/wright speed between the ssd part of the hybrid to hdd part? Are we gaining any thing when we still have to write to a hdd?

I personally think the SSD/HDD hybrids are more of a marketing gimmick than anything else.