system drops-outs and wots the besy hard-drive

M

MASTON

New member
Ok,

Cakewalk 9
jetway mobo
AMD k6-2 400
64 MB (can't upgrade cos mobo will only cache up to 64 MB)
maxtor 6.2GB bog standard drive

My system keeps dropping out, when I get more than 4 tracks of 24-bit audio basically cos the disk meter keeps maxing out

My question is what would best remedy this.

1. A New Hard-Drive and what? Do I need 5400 rpm or a 7200? Gotta be reasonably priced. And wot about all that udma/ata stuff. what's all that about

2. New mobo and processor

I can only afford one option at the moment, so it's one or the other till funds increase

Seems obvious to me that new Hard-drive is the way to go but just checking

cheers
Maston
 
Sounds like a pretty old mobo. Don't think it'll support ATA/UDMA, at least not over ATA33.

Seems your best bet for now would be a new CPU/mobo, if not a full revamp.

New boards may not run with your current PSU if it's an AT supply (which it probably is).

I would actually change the hard disk as well, but when I upgraded it's the last thing I changed.

You should get a 7200 rpm drive, look for an ATA-133 drive if you can get one. When going for the CPU/mobo, check if they'll take ATA 133.

Sang
 
hmmm, Sangram, I think u could be right there.
Actually I'vejust realised that it's conking out when I've got some big soundfonts loaded which means it starts swapping which is why the disk maxes out i.e cos not enough RAM which I can't upgrade 'cos any more than 64megs on my board actually slows it down
so gotta get a new board.

thanks for the advice
cheers
MAston

PS what's this ATA thing all about???wot is it?? a specification, a speed rating ???
 
ATA is an Intel-derived spec on Transfer rate between Hard disk and the PCI bus. It's dependent on the hard drive itself, and the IDE controller on the mobo. And the whole thing runs at the slowest possible speed...

That is, if you have ATA 33 (33 MB/sec peak rate) HDD but ATA 100 mobo, whole thing will run and 33 MB/S only, and the reverse is true. If you get a ATA 100 disk and put it into your motherboard, you'll see no speed increase 'cause the mobo only goes to ATA 33.

Sang
 
OK, Got it,

will an ATA 133 drive still run on an ata-33 mobo (which I have), yeah I know it'll only go at 33 but will it still work??, and if I get a 7200 rpm drive then I'll see some speed increase regardless won't I (current drive's 5400 rpm)

Maston
 
Yes it will just run at ATA33.

The odd time (very odd) I've had to use a utility from the manufacture of the harddrive that will 'flash' the firmware on the drive and lock it in at ATA33. I've not had to do this for some time, so I'd guess they got it together with backwards compatability.

You will notice a difference in speed between a 5400rpm drive and a 7200rpm drive. Not night and day or anything, but every litlle bit counts.
 
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