M
Mountaineer
New member
I'll try to make this as brief & concise as possible, but, I thought some of you guys might benefit from what I learned. Since I'm starting to record 24 bit & more audio tracks, I decided an upgrade was in order, for my PC , a Dell PII 400.
For $300 I purchased and installed three items :
1 ) 128Mb of RAM, doubling my original 128Mb - Cost $112
2 ) New 20.5 Gb / 7200 RPM / 2Mb /Quantum hard drive - Cost $156
3 ) Ultra 66 PCI controller ( Promise )- Cost $31
I ran tests ( nothing fancy . . . just a stop watch ) before and after each phase to check
the improvemets. I began with the Memory. Adding the memory decreased boot time by about 15 seconds, increased print speed by about 25%. As far as playing audio,I didn't see much of a difference. My system would bog down with 16-18 tracks of 24bit digital audio and 12 Midi tracks . . . about the same as 16bit did before.
I then installed the promise card and new hard drive. I copied my old 5400 RPM drive contents to the new drive, then went to CMOS and set boot priority to SCSI, because
the motherboard sees the PCI EDIE controller as SCSI. Ok, it wasn't quite that simple, but that was the jest of it . . I could write two pages of details
- I'll spare you.
Boot time was cut by over 50% ( 1min45sec to about 50 sec ). Printing . . no big change, but Audio ! I played the same 16 audio - 12 midi project with no problem. I then copied and pasted until I had 26 audio tracks . . . still no hangups. I'm still running '98 now, but plan to switch to 2000 when I'm sure all the bugs are out and I can scarf a copy from my Brother-in-Law. I'll use my old 17 Gb / 5400RPM drive for archiving cakewalk.bun projects, photos, etc.
One thing worth mentioning about ultra ATA/66 on older motherboards that don't support the standard. While the new drives are backward compatible, this only means you get the 33% increase in data access speed with 7200 vs. 5400 RPM. Without the promise card and new cable, the drives will only function in ATA/33 mode. You miss 90% of the benefits of the new drive ! To get the burst data transfer rate offered with the ATA/66 standard on an older motherboard like mine, you have to get the Promise card with the grounded 80 wire 40 pin cable. The $30 is worth it ! The only down side is you lose a valuable PCI slot . . . it was my last one.
OK, so it wasn't so brief and concise
, but I hope it helps someone out.
Regards,
PAPicker
[This message has been edited by PAPicker (edited 04-04-2000).]
For $300 I purchased and installed three items :
1 ) 128Mb of RAM, doubling my original 128Mb - Cost $112
2 ) New 20.5 Gb / 7200 RPM / 2Mb /Quantum hard drive - Cost $156
3 ) Ultra 66 PCI controller ( Promise )- Cost $31
I ran tests ( nothing fancy . . . just a stop watch ) before and after each phase to check
the improvemets. I began with the Memory. Adding the memory decreased boot time by about 15 seconds, increased print speed by about 25%. As far as playing audio,I didn't see much of a difference. My system would bog down with 16-18 tracks of 24bit digital audio and 12 Midi tracks . . . about the same as 16bit did before.
I then installed the promise card and new hard drive. I copied my old 5400 RPM drive contents to the new drive, then went to CMOS and set boot priority to SCSI, because
the motherboard sees the PCI EDIE controller as SCSI. Ok, it wasn't quite that simple, but that was the jest of it . . I could write two pages of details
- I'll spare you. Boot time was cut by over 50% ( 1min45sec to about 50 sec ). Printing . . no big change, but Audio ! I played the same 16 audio - 12 midi project with no problem. I then copied and pasted until I had 26 audio tracks . . . still no hangups. I'm still running '98 now, but plan to switch to 2000 when I'm sure all the bugs are out and I can scarf a copy from my Brother-in-Law. I'll use my old 17 Gb / 5400RPM drive for archiving cakewalk.bun projects, photos, etc.
One thing worth mentioning about ultra ATA/66 on older motherboards that don't support the standard. While the new drives are backward compatible, this only means you get the 33% increase in data access speed with 7200 vs. 5400 RPM. Without the promise card and new cable, the drives will only function in ATA/33 mode. You miss 90% of the benefits of the new drive ! To get the burst data transfer rate offered with the ATA/66 standard on an older motherboard like mine, you have to get the Promise card with the grounded 80 wire 40 pin cable. The $30 is worth it ! The only down side is you lose a valuable PCI slot . . . it was my last one.
OK, so it wasn't so brief and concise
, but I hope it helps someone out.Regards,
PAPicker
[This message has been edited by PAPicker (edited 04-04-2000).]
